Elton John — Hercules, his Windsor Home

Elton John purchased Hercules — a mansion on the Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water, Surrey — in the early 1970s as his fame exploded, and it became his primary English home for decades. The house, which he named after a beloved pet, became famous as the setting for the extraordinary excess of his mid-1970s peak: the costume collections, the art acquisitions, the parties, the flowers. Elton's spending was as flamboyant as his stage persona — at one point he was reportedly spending £40,000 a month on flowers alone.

Hercules was where Elton lived during the period in which he was arguably the biggest pop star in the world — the years of Honky Château, Don't Shoot Me I'm Only the Piano Player, Goodbye Yellow Brick Road, Caribou, and Captain Fantastic. It was also where the personal contradictions of his life played out behind closed doors: the suppressed homosexuality, the eating disorders, the drug use that would eventually lead to his breakdown and recovery in the early 1990s. His memoir Me (2019) is frank about what those years were like.

The Wentworth Estate in Virginia Water is one of England's most exclusive private residential areas, surrounding the famous Wentworth Golf Club. Hercules is not open to the public and is a private residence. Virginia Water is in Surrey, accessible by train from London Waterloo. Elton John now lives primarily in Windsor and Atlanta, and maintains Woodside, his Windsor home, as his main English base.