Located in the luxurious neighborhood of Kensington stands one of the most visited houses on the planet: the mansion where Freddie Mercury, leader of the band Queen, lived. A house, Garden Lodge, of which many only know its exterior wall, more than eight feet high, designed to protect the star from prying eyes.
The artist bought it in 1980 after falling in love with the property at first sight, and it was there where he made his home. Also there where he died in 1991 due to his illness, related to HIV. Garden Lodge has never been open to the public, but after the artist’s death, Mary Austin, one of his close friends, inherited it and made it her home for more than three decades. Now, she is putting it up for sale for a price on par with its value in musical history: 30 million pounds sterling (about 35 million euros, at the exchange rate).
At 72 years old, Mercury’s close friend puts the immense property up for sale, continuing the success of the last auction related to the artist, in which more than 50 million euros were raised by selling his belongings. Part of the profits were donated to the Mercury Phoenix Trust and the Elton John HIV Foundation.
According to journalist Sarah Rappaport for Bloomberg News, Austin was with the former Queen leader when he acquired the property. The artist fell in love with the “silence and peace” that existed throughout the house and decided to buy the house that same day. The singer was looking for a refuge in London, a place where he could create and work in peace without having to deal with media harassment.
Eight bedrooms, two impressive living rooms, a dining room where the artist organized his massive dinners; everything was decorated and planned to the millimeter by the artist, who “couldn’t get the decorator to agree with the ideas he had in his head,” Austin recalls, “he had to do it himself.” Including the wall wallpaper. Kitchen, two full bathrooms only in the suite where Mercury slept, a main room, her study and two more rooms for entertainment.
The house also has a huge Japanese-inspired garden that Mercury wanted to emulate the famous Kyoto gardens, with a wooden pergola, and a pond with carp native to the Japanese country. A dream retreat, which isolates those who live from what happens on the other side of the wall, and it is located just ten minutes from the center of the British capital.
“The press was relentlessly hounding him to come out. He didn’t… Why should he?” Austin asks. “This house gave him the wonderful feeling that he could create, live and have privacy at the same time.”
After the artist’s death, Austin inherited the property, which he has kept almost intact during the more than 30 years he has lived there. “She had worked in the house with him and for him. She will always be his. She was his dream. She was his vision,” she says. Now, empty without Mercury’s belongings after the auction, it is prepared for sale. Austin is ready to start a new life somewhere else.
“The last thing I want is for someone to say they’re buying it, exploiting it or demolishing it,” Austin laments. “This is unique, it has its beauty. I know it has a purpose for someone. It had a purpose for Freddie.”
