Freddie Mercury has been honoured with a blue plaque on his first London home
By Will Stroude
An English Heritage Blue Plaque has been unveiled today (September 1) at the home Freddie Mercury lived in when he first moved to England, to celebrate what would have been his 70th birthday next Monday (September 5)
Mercury, who fronted Queen until his death from an AIDS-related illness in 1991, moved from Zanzibar to the UK in 1964, when he was 17.
He lived in a semi-detached house in Feltham, West London, where the plaque has been placed.
Mercury’s sister, Kashmira Cook, said he “secretly would have been very proud and very pleased” to receive the commemoration.
According to Cook, the house “had no central heating”. Because the family had lived in Zanzibar, they were “not familiar with coal fired and had to be shown how to light” one.
She added that Freddie spent his time in the house “sketching for his college art work” and “listening to music, particularly Jimi Hendrix”.
The plaque was unveiled by bandmate Brian May, who said: “It is a pleasant duty to help install this little reminder on Freddie’s parents’ house in Feltham. It was here that I first visited Freddie soon after we had met through a mutual friend.
“We spent most of the day appreciating and analysing in intimate detail the way that Jimi Hendrix had put his recordings together in the studio – listening to Hendrix on vinyl played on Freddie’s Dansette record player – which had stereo speakers on opposite sides of the box! Feltham was the childhood neighbourhood for both of us but we never knew it until we met in the cause of music.”
Watch the making of the commemorative plaque below:
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