Freddie Mercury House - Zanzibar - Tanzania

Freddie Mercury, former lead singer and front man for the rock band Queen, was born on Zanzibar on 5 September 1946. His name then was Farouk Bulsara, and his father was an accountant working for the British government in the House of Wonders. His family had immigrated to Zanzibar from India but were originally of Persian extraction. When he was nine, Farouk was sent to boarding school in India, and never returned to Zanzibar. He later went to a college in London, and in the 1970s formed Queen with three other former students.

The current inhabitants of various houses around Zanzibar Town will tell visitors ‘Freddie lived here’; his father moved house several times so the claims could all be genuine. Local historians confirm that the Bulsara family lived in the house now occupied by Camlur’s Restaurant, and in at least one other house near the post office, either on Kenyatta Road or the small square just behind the post office.

Zanzibar Travel Guide