Garden Lodge, in the capital’s posh Kensington, was Mercury’s much-loved home from 1980 until his death in 1991
3 min
The eclectic London home that Freddie Mercury designed to fit his eccentric lifestyle has hit the market for offers over £30 million (US$38 million).
Garden Lodge, in the capital’s posh Kensington, was Mercury’s much-loved home from 1980—when on a first viewing he decided to buy the property on the spot—until his death in 1991, at which point the Queen frontman’s residence and everything in it was bequeathed to his one-time fianceé and close friend, Mary Austin.
In the 30 years since, Austin has taken “meticulous” care of the home, according to Knight Frank, which listed the walled and private property on Monday.
“This house has been the most glorious memory box, because it has such love and warmth in every room,” Austin, 72, 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.”
“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,” she said.
Mercury designed the house to be a memorable, inviting place that reflected his personality, case in point, the dining room, which he painted bright yellow—his favourite colour.
It also served as a place to showcase his collection of beautiful objects and art from around the world— much of which was sold at auction last year .
The home’s most “spectacular” space is the double-height drawing room, complete with a wraparound gallery that serves as a library and bar overlooking the room and Mercury’s grand piano, below.
There’s also the Japanese room, a sitting room that leads out to the home’s Japanese-style garden, which Mercury helped to create, complete with magnolia trees, topiary and water features.
The primary bedroom suite, meanwhile, is lined with floor-to-ceiling mirrored doors, behind which Mercury stored his clothes and stage costumes.
“The sale of Garden Lodge presents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a significant property combined with a piece of cultural history, the beloved home of an icon,” said Paddy Dring, Knight Frank’s global head of prime sales and joint head of its private office.
“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,” he said. “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.”
Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara, formed Queen, one of the best-selling bands of all time, in 1970. Diagnosed with AIDS in 1987, Mercury died from complications from the disease at the age of 45, the day after publicly announcing his diagnosis.
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Kit Braden, an executive at French beauty empire L’Occitane, has spent every winter for the past 13 years at the stone vacation home.
2 min
A historic Barbados estate with a 300-year-old villa and 11 acres overlooking the Caribbean Sea is now for sale with a guide price of $22.5 million.
The seller is Kit Braden, chairman of the U.K. branch of French beauty empire L’Occitane Group, whose family has spent every winter for the last 13 years at the island property, known as Fustic Estate.
“It’s very much a family house,” Braden said. “We love having a lot of people there. It’s a collection point to keep everyone together.”
The main villa dates to 1712, though it’s been reimagined and expanded substantially over the years.
It spans 13,000 square feet and features seven en suite bedrooms across three wings, as well as expansive verandas, stone courtyards and rows of louvered doors in gay Caribbean pastels.
In the 1970s, when the home was owned by Charles Graves—brother of British poet Robert Graves—it was reimagined by stage designer Oliver Messel, one of the foremost theater designers of the last century. Messel expanded the home, added a lagoon pool with a natural waterfall and other theatrical features, according to Braden.
“The whole place is a little bit magical,” he said.
The home sits about 350 feet above the water, and surrounded by lush gardens that slope towards the water.
“We look down through our garden—which is about 12 acres of tropical gardens and palm trees and wonderful old mahogany trees—onto the Caribbean,” Braden said.
He and his wife first saw the property on New Year’s Eve 2013, during a quick trip from where they were staying in Grenada.
The couple spent an hour walking the perimeter, some of it still untouched jungle, in the pouring rain.
“By the time we got back, I had fallen in love with it,” Braden said.
His wife, however, wasn’t so sure. But in Braden’s telling, a second visit in sunnier weather with two of their children brought her around.
“She had to be talked into that it was a jolly good idea; now she absolutely loves it,” he said.
When they bought the property, the edge that runs along the waterfront was a jungle, so they cleared the ridge and transformed it into gardens.
They also bought an additional sea-level parcel with two beach cottages, giving the property direct access to the water and the town below via a five-minute walk.
The property also has a 15-person staff, a reflecting pond, an outdoor pavilion suitable for yoga and a commercial grade kitchen that can serve more than 100 guests, according to a brochure from Knight Frank, which posted the listing in March. They did not provide further comment.
For Braden, the property is special because of its natural beauty, its proximity to the town of Saint Lucy and its history—which dates way way back to when the island of Barbados was first formed via tectonic activity.
“It was basically tectonic plates that collided about a million years ago so the seabed is the top of the hill,” Braden said. “We’re on coral rock.”
As a result, Fustic Estate includes an extensive network of caves that were likely used by the Arawaks, a Venezuelan fishing tribe that followed the fish to these islands about a thousand years ago.
“If the fish were good they’d camp here,” Braden said. “There’s evidence that they stayed there in those caves, they lived there in good winters.”
Now it’s someone else’s turn to live on the land shared by Arawaks, the plantation owners of 1712, Charles Graves and the Braden brood.
