‘I have the keys to David Bowie’s childhood home – it’s extraordinary standing inside’

The origins of David Bowie’s rise to global superstar will be told at his childhood home in Bromley when it opens to the public in 2027 (Picture: Getty)

It was where a young boy honed his craft to become one of the greatest musical icons the world has ever known.

4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley is an unassuming semi that could line any suburban street.

But it’s here is where David Bowie called home from the age of eight to 20 and wrote his formative songs in a 9ft x 10ft bedroom.

He described the room as his ‘entire world’, a place where he was surrounded by books, his music and a record player, giving him the inspiration he needed to go on and pen his breakthrough hit Space Oddity.

Now the family home of David Robert Jones – Bowie’s real name – will be open to the public late next year after it was acquired by the Heritage of London Trust. It will be transformed into its original early 1960s appearance, giving fans a glimpse home he shared with parents John and Peggy from 1955 to 1967.

The project is spearheaded by Dr Nicola Stacey, director of the Heritage of London Trust, and curated by Geoffrey Marsh, co-curator of the David Bowie Is exhibition. which also

Bowie’s lifelong friend George Underwood is also involved in supporting it.

Dr Stacey told Metro: ‘It was incredibly exciting when I got the keys for the first time.

Curator Geoffrey Marsh, David Bowie’s lifelong friend George Underwood, and Dr Nicola Stacey, from the Heritage of London Trust, outside Bowie’s home in Plaistow Grove, Bromley (Picture: Heritage of London Trust)

‘There is something absolutely extraordinary about standing in the house. Even through a lot of it structurally hasn’t changed a huge amount, there is something very powerful about opening his bedroom door, just standing there looking out of the window where he spent so much of his time.

‘That is where he formed the David Bowie that was let loose on the world. It wasn’t the easiest house to live in for him. His family dynamics were a little bit complex and it wasn’t a house that was bursting with creativity and warmth, except in this space. 

David Robert Jones as a young boy living at 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley

‘What we want is for people to get a sense of 1960s domestic life, then go into his bedroom where there is a burst of vision and excitement, and, even on this tiny scale, a sense of creative genius really starting in this space.’

The project is scheduled for completion in late 2027 and will host creative and skills workshops for young people as part of a living continuation of Bowie’s legacy of ‘free creative experimentation’.

‘We’ve been working with local schools looking at what aspects of David’s life really inspire them and how we can tell them through the house’, Dr Stacey added.

‘We’re giving people the opportunity to see a house in Bromley exactly how it was in the 1960s. It wasn’t a grand house by any stretch. There was a lavatory outside, the bath was a tin bath – all those things children now gasp with astonishment at when you tell them.

‘But that’s the place where he came from. His music is so varied and captures generation after generation constantly.’

Outside 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, which will be opened to the public in 2027 (Picture: Heritage of London Trust)

Bowie’s roots were firmly spread across south London.

The Ziggy Stardust singer, who died in 2016, was born in Brixton in 1947 and lived at 40 Stansfield Road before the Joneses relocated to Bromley. He then moved to nearby Beckenham where he co-founded the Beckenham Arts Lab at the Three Tuns pub on the high street.

His iconic thunderbolt which featured on his face for the cover of Aladdin Sane is etched into the pavement outside the former Three Tuns, which is now a Zizzi’s restaurant. 

How Plaistow Grove looked in the 1950s David Jones as a young boy strokes a cat on the window ledge outside 4 Plaistow Grove

He married his first wife Angie at Bromley Registry Office in Beckenham Lane in March 1970 and a year later worked on The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars at Underhill Studios in Greenwich.

Dr Stacey said: ‘It’s a brilliant south London story. He’s of such huge global significance and the idea of being able to bring people to south east London, and show them what this is where it all came from, is inspiring for everyone.

David sports a fashionable quiff entering into his teenage years David ponders his future stardom while sitting on a bench

‘We’ve had an amazing amount of people contact us to stay they knocked on his door when they were teenagers and got his autograph. People are so proud of living near the house and excited about what this will do for Bromley.

‘We’ve had contact from people who saw him crossing the street in incredibly outrageous clothes in the 60s. He was always just different and some longed to look like him, to just be as cool as him.

‘It’s great the house is coming to come back to life. It’s been sitting there quietly waiting for this opportunity.’

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