Mary Austin puts Freddie Mercury’s Garden Lodge up for sale
One of the most closely watched celebrity property transactions in London is unfolding in Kensington. Garden Lodge, the former home of Freddie Mercury, has been listed for more than £30m and is preparing to change hands. For Mary Austin, to whom the singer left the house upon his death in 1991, the sale marks not simply a transaction, but the end of a 34-year chapter. Afisha.London reports on what has led to the decision — and what the new owner will inherit.
This article is also available in Russian here
The auction: Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own
In September 2023, Sotheby’s staged an unprecedented series of sales titled Freddie Mercury: A World of His Own, opening the late Queen frontman’s private world to the public for the first time. The exhibition at Sotheby’s on New Bond Street transformed the auction house into an improvised museum, displaying costumes, manuscripts, jewellery, artworks and furniture from Garden Lodge.
More than 140,000 visitors attended the exhibition before bidding began, with queues stretching around the block. Fans travelled from across the globe to see a panoramic installation of objects that had remained inside the musician’s home for decades.
Six auctions, beginning with an evening sale on 6 September and concluding a week later, comprised 1,406 lots. A total of 41,800 bids were placed. Every lot sold — a rare outcome in the market — and nearly 99% exceeded the high estimate. The final total reached £40m ($50.4m), against a pre-sale estimate of £7.6m–£11.3m.
Inside Garden Lodge
The Edwardian house was built in 1907 by architect Ernest Marshall for the artists Cecil Rea and Constance Halford. Mercury purchased it in 1980, reportedly making an offer during his first visit. In a quiet corner of Kensington, he created what friends described as his “country estate in central London” — a refuge from touring and fame.
Following the singer’s death in 1991, the property passed to Mary Austin. Garden Lodge is more than prime real estate; it was carefully staged as the setting of an artist’s life. Mercury designed the interiors with the help of Robin Moore Ede, transforming the classical structure into an eclectic, theatrical space. A former double-height studio became a living room with a gallery library and bar. It housed a Yamaha grand piano on which Bohemian Rhapsody was composed — later sold at auction for £1.7m.
Photo: Barney Hindle (C) 2026 Sotheby’s
Elements of Mercury’s childhood in Zanzibar were woven into the interiors: lemon-yellow walls in the hall and dining room, decorative mouldings painted in green, pink and gold according to his own sketches. From the main reception room, doors lead to a Japanese sitting room and then to an enclosed Japanese-style garden, tended with flowers by Jim Hutton. Upstairs are eight bedrooms, including a principal suite with an octagonal dressing room featuring mirrored ceiling and floor.
“There’s been so much love and warmth in this house,” Austin has said. For any future owner, Garden Lodge represents not only a rare residence in central London, but the custodianship of a fragment of cultural history.
Photo: Barney Hindle (C) 2026 Sotheby’s
Who will buy Garden Lodge?
Mary Austin placed the house on the market in February 2024. Its fate remains unresolved. According to British press reports, the absence of a sale may suit Mercury’s sister, Kashmira Bulsara, who is said to have purchased items from her brother’s collection at auction for around £3m in order to keep them within the family.
“It was never my house. It was his. And it always will be,” Mary Austin has said.
Sources suggest that for Austin, financial assurances are not the only consideration; the intentions of the buyer matter. The lemon-yellow dining room, the Japanese garden created with Mercury’s involvement, the double-height living room where Queen’s songs were born — these are not merely decorative details, but part of a shared cultural memory.
Cover photo: Barney Hindle (C) 2026 Sotheby’s
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