Brian May.Photo: Dave J Hogan/Getty
“After a nice day at The Royal Holloway College, we came back to horror in our house,” the legendary Queen guitaristposted on InstagramTuesday after London received a month’s worth of rain in one day.
The sudden deluge forced some residents to leave their homes and others to abandon their submerged cars in the street. Sadly for May, it also overloaded the sewage system around his home in the upmarket Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, forcing all manner of nastiness into his basement.
“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,” the rocker added. “It’s disgusting, and actually quite heartbreaking. It feels like we have been invaded, desecrated.”
To make matters even worse May, 73, and his wife, actress Anita Dobson, 72, had stored many of their most prized possessions on the lower floor of the home.
“Anita had a lifetime of memorabilia on the floor of our basement -— and most of it is sodden and ruined,” May added.
“I had rescued all my most treasured childhood photo albums and scrapbooks from my studio house because it was threatened with a forest fire some months ago. Where did I put it all for safety? In the basement here in Kensington. Irony.
May blames his local government officials at Kensington & Chelsea for the huge damage — not least because he says the exclusive area of west London hasn’t flooded “for 150 years.”
It is, he believes, a direct result of their willingness to allow numerous multi-million-dollar basement extensions to be completed in the area’s numerous luxury homes, which lies just three miles from the center of London and includesAdele,Prince WilliamandKate Middletonamong its residents.
“I hold them responsible for all the misery that is going on in my neighbourhood tonight,” May added on Instagram. “It’s time they were held to account. Bri”
The flash flood is the latest in a long line of unfortunate events to befall the music legend. In May 2020, theWe Will Rock Youguitarist had to be hospitalized after hetore his buttocks “to shreds"while gardening. This then led to him developing severe sciatica and what he later described as a “small heart attack” from the medication — for which he later thanked his fans for sending a “torrent of love and support.”
“It’s not something that did me any harm. It was about 40 minutes of pain in the chest and tightness and that feeling in the arms and sweating,” he explained. “… Long story short, my wonderful doctor drove me to the hospital himself.”
Brian May in hospital.Brian May/Instagram
Unfortunately, May then suffered a bad reaction to hisheart attackmedication andnearly diedas a result.
“You have to be so careful with the medication that they give you,” he toldGood Morning Britainin October 2020. “It’s great for the heart, it’s not very good for the rest of your body and you can really go down. It’s a tightrope you walk.”
He continued, “The worst thing that happened was astomach hemorrhageand I lost an awful lot of blood. I was wiped out, couldn’t get across the floor.”
In May 2021, Mayunderwent cataract eye surgery— although this was thankfully far less dramatic. The guitarist shared a hospital gown selfie shortly afterward alongside the caption “One Vision! All prepped and waiting … for a little bit of eye surgery.”
“All in a day’s work,” the musician added. “It should really improve my focus - AND my stereoscopic vision. It’s a Piece o' Cake … eeek !”
source: people.com
