Freddie Mercury’s house in Kensington where he lived until his death in 1991 has come on the market for the first time since the singer bought it on the spot in the Eighties.
Garden Lodge is on the market for offers in excess of £30 million with estate agents Knight Frank, and only serious prospective buyers who can prove they have the funds will be allowed to view the property.
Knight Frank is not listing the house or its floorplans online, and only two photographs of the interiors have been released to press.
The Queen front man bought the home more than 40 years ago in 1980 on his first viewing, and worked closely with interior architect and designer Robin Moore Ede to refurbish it according to his opulent vision.
They transformed a former artists’ studio in the house into a double-height drawing room, where Mercury kept the Yamaha Baby Grand Piano on which he wrote Queen’s famous anthem Bohemian Rhapsody.
Mercury was famously private about his life, and the interiors of the home have only been seen by close friends — and the attendees of the glamourous parties full of artists that he threw when he was in town.
Knight Frank describes the interiors as filled “with only the finest marble” and other material finishes, in demonstration of “Freddie’s exacting eye for detail and design”.
His bedroom is entered via a dressing room covered with mirrors, with the cupboards where he kept his costumes for performing on stage.
The walls of the dining room are still the bright lemon yellow — Mercury’s favourite colour — with contrasting jewel-toned cornicing the singer hand-painted himself.
A bar and music centre occupies a gallery overlooking the drawing room, while a sitting room decorated in a Japanese style opens onto the garden through French doors. Mercury also oversaw the garden design, which includes a Magnolia tree various water features.
The house has remained unaltered since Mercury died of Aids-related bronchial pneumonia at the age of just 45.
Mercury left his home and all its contents to his beloved friend Mary Austin, who lived there and cared for his collection for three decades.
Last year Austin auctioned off the star’s collection with Sotheby, up to and including Garden Lodge’s garden gate, and this year she’s putting the home up for sale.
“Now that it is empty, I’m transported back to the first time we viewed it,” said Austin.
“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.”
Garden Lodge was built in 1907 in the Neo-Georgian style by architect Ernest Marshall for the artists Cecil Ra and Constance Halfords. Previous owners include the late Peter Wilson, former intelligence officer and chairman of Sotheby’s auction house.
Having been carefully preserved with love and respect over the last three decades, we expect that the exceptional provenance of the property will be incredibly alluring to buyers across the world,” said Paddy Dring, global head of Prime sales at Knight Frank.
“Notwithstanding the legacy of the house, it is very rare that unmodernised homes of this scale, set in such beautiful mature gardens come to market, so it is certainly an exciting prospect for any future purchaser.”
