London street named for Freddie Mercury
A suburban London street has been renamed in honor of late musician Freddie Mercury.
The street, now called Freddie Mercury Close, is located in Feltham, west London, which is where Mercury’s family settled after moving from Zanzibar.
However, Mercury, born Farrokh Bulsara, did not grow up on that street. The Bulsara family lived nearby at 22 Gladstone Avenue, which is marked with one of the round blue plaques that the UK uses to commemorate places that have historical connections.
The neighborhood, which is close to Heathrow Airport, is also home to a community of Zoroastrians — the faith that Mercury’s family practiced.
Before forming the rock band Queen in 1970, Farrokh Bulsara worked as a baggage handler at the airport.
Among the guests who gathered on a rainy British morning to watch the street sign unveiling was Kashmira Cooke, the late Queen frontman’s sister.
Although Mercury died in 1991, his musical legacy has endured over the years.
In 2019, actor Rami Malek won an Academy Award for portraying the singer in the biopic “Bohemian Rhapsody,” which included scenes of Mercury’s early years in Feltham.
After touching down at Heathrow and popping over to Feltham to visit Freddie Mercury Close, Queen fans can head into central London to the newly opened Hard Rock Hotel to see the Kirkwood piano on which the teenage Bulsara practiced in the family home.
Mercury’s last home was Garden Lodge, a high-walled mansion in the well-heeled London neighborhood of Kensington. It’s now a private home owned by his ex-girlfriend Mary Austin, after he left her the property in his will.
