Garden Lodge, the sprawling estate in Kensington, west London, that late Queen frontman Freddie Mercury called home for the last 11 years of his life, has now been listed for sale with an asking price of $38 million. Mercury purchased the property in 1980 and went on to make it his own with substantial renovations before he died in 1991.
Mercury did this with the help of noted interior designer and architect Robin Moore Ede, whose work made Garden Lodge into the gem it is today. The home was inherited by longtime friend and ex-fiancée Mary Austin, who has made an effort as its owner for the last 30+ years to preserve it largely as it was during Mercury's life. Now, she’s ready to usher it to its next owner, and in a press release announcing the sale, she’s quoted on what it’s meant to her over the years:
“Ever since Freddie and I stepped through the fabled green door, it has been a place of peace, a true artist's house, and now is the time to entrust that sense of peace to the next person.”
Some of the home’s more unique features include a huge 11-foot drawing room, a Japanese-style sitting room, a combination bar/library, and, naturally, a music room, which at one time housed the grand piano where Mercury wrote "Bohemian Rhapsody," according to Queen lore. Unfortunately, the piano is no longer a part of the property, but much of Mercury's spirit still remains. There’s also the master bedroom's dressing room, where Mercury used to store many of his iconic stage costumes, adorned with multiple floor-to-ceiling mirrors.
Outside, you’ll find an extensive garden with magnolia trees and water features said in the press release to be "Oriental-inspired."
You can see the property officially known as Garden Lodge but more popularly as Freddie Mercury's house in the video below from the Queen Band Footage YouTube channel:
