The Queen frontman left the eight-bedroom villa and all his possessions to his close friend and ex-girlfriend, Mary Austin.
ADVERTISEMENTFreddie Mercury's sanctuary in London, where he lived the last decade of his life, is on sale for the first time in nearly half a century.
Garden Lodge, a neo-Georgian brick home in the posh neighbourhood of Kensington, is for sale by agent Knight Frank for offers exceeding €35 million. It is not publicly listed.
Mercury, the frontman for the rock band Queen, bought the house in 1980.
According to "Mercury: An Intimate Biography of Freddie Mercury", he paid cash for the property, which was then listed for more than €585,000.
“I saw the house, fell in love with it, and within a half an hour it was mine,” Mercury boasted, according to the book.
Mercury had extensive renovations done to the house and loaded it with precious artwork, including pieces by Picasso, Dalí, and Matisse.
“I like to be surrounded by splendid things,” Mercury said. “I want to lead the Victorian life, surrounded by exquisite clutter.”
The home was put up for sale late last month.
He left the eight-bedroom villa and all his possessions to his close friend and ex-girlfriend, Mary Austin, who lived there.
Over the past year, she has made millions of pounds selling his collection of stage costumes, fine art and handwritten song lyrics.
The home was put up for sale late last month.
“This house has been the most glorious memory box, because it has such love and warmth in every room,” Austin said in a statement.
“It has been a joy to live in and I have many wonderful memories here. Now that it is empty, I’m transported back to the first time we viewed it," she explained.
"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.”
The famous gate to the garden, which was inscribed with graffiti and love notes from fans, was one of 59 items from Mercury’s estate that sold for €14.2 million pounds in September 2023.
Mercury died in the house in 1991 of AIDS-related pneumonia at the age of 45.
