I want to break free: Brian May to leave ‘brutal’ London after flood damage to Kensington mansion

Queen guitarist Brian May has revealed he is leaving the capital calling London a “brutal” place to live after his Kensington home was damaged by floods.

May, 74, said he came home from a day out in July to “horror in our house” with water damage to childhood photo albums and memorabilia.

“The funny thing is we actually hated living where we are for a long time,” May said recently.

“We put a lot of love and care into building the house but the surroundings have been horrible for such a long time.”

He added that he had felt under pressure to leave the capital after conditions became unbearable at his £7million Kensington home where he has lived for the best part of two decades.

He told the Mirror: “They have been building basements now for about eight years all around and there is constant noise, traffic and dust and pollution and rudeness. London now is brutal.

“What this flood has done is be the catalyst. We are going to get out. We just have to leave.

“I got an honorary doctorate that day and we drove back to the house and the floor was floating with black sewage.

“It’s really unpleasant and we are never going to feel the same about that house again. We are not going to get it back what it was.

“For us it is time to quit and I am OK about that now.”`

Brian May and wife Anita Dobson
Jeff Spicer/Getty Images for Twentieth Century Fox

In a post on Instagram, at the time, he said the property had been flooded by heavy rainfall that struck on July 12.

He wrote: “The whole bottom floor had been inundated with a sewage overflow - which has covered our carpets, rugs and all kinds of precious (to us) things in a stinking sludge.

“It’s disgusting, and actually quite heartbreaking. It feels like we were have been invaded, desecrated.”

He said his wife Anita Dobson had “a lifetime of memorabilia on the floor of our basement - and most of it is sodden and ruined”.

May shared a number of videos showing damage to his carpets, rugs, and childhood photo albums, with many of Anita’s keepsakes ruined by the floods.

He blamed the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council for the flooding, saying they are “responsible for all the misery that is going on in my neighbourhood tonight”.

In response the Council said at the time “our priority is to make sure residents who have been affected by last night’s flooding have the help they need”.

May has threatened to leave the capital before because the “scourge” of basement developments in his well-heeled neighbourhood had made living there “a living hell”.

Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea council has been approached for further comment.

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