Heritage of London Trust
The house will aim to tell the story of the young David Bowie – then named David Robert Jones
David Bowie’s childhood home in south-east London where he wrote one of his best-known songs, Space Oddity, is to open to the public as an “immersive experience”.
The house at 4 Plaistow Grove, Bromley, where Bowie lived from the age of eight to 20, has been acquired by Heritage of London Trust.
The home will be returned to its early 1960s appearance and a never-before-seen archive will help to recreate the interior layout as it was when Bowie lived there.
Geoffrey Marsh, co-curator of the V&A Museum’s David Bowie Is exhibition, said the small house was where he went from an “ordinary suburban schoolboy” to the heights of “international stardom”.
“As he said, ‘I spent so much time in my bedroom, it really was my entire world, I had books up there, my music up there, my record player, going from my world upstairs out on to the street, I had to pass through this no-man’s-land of the living room’,” Marsh explained.
David Bowie Estate
David Bowie lived in Bromley from the age eight until he was 20
The work will be backed by a £500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation, a non-profit group funded by lawyers and staff with the Jones Day law firm, along with a public fundraising campaign launching this month.
Nicola Stacey, director of Heritage of London Trust, said: “David Bowie was a proud Londoner. Even though his career took him all over the world, he always remembered where he came from and the community that supported him as he grew up.
“It’s wonderful to have this opportunity to tell his story and inspire a new generation of young people and it’s really important for the heritage of London to preserve this site.”
David Bowie Estate
The house will chart the musician’s early beginnings before he hit international stardom
The announcement of the acquisition comes on what would have been Bowie’s birthday on 8 January, two days before the 10-year anniversary of his death on 10 January.
It also comes on the 10th anniversary of the release of Bowie’s final album Blackstar, which has been lauded as one of the singer’s best works, incorporating jazz and hip-hop influences in songs which reference his impending death from liver cancer aged 69.
No date has been given detailing when the house will be opened to the public.
George Underwood, musician and Bowie’s lifelong friend, said: “We spent so much time together, listening to and playing music. I’ve heard a lot of people say David’s music saved them or changed their life.
“It’s amazing that he could do that and even more amazing that it all started here, from such small beginnings, in this house. We were dreamers, and look what he became.”
Heritage of London Trust
A blue plaque commemorates Bowie’s years at 4 Plaistow Grove
The Heritage of London Trust said it wanted the house to be a continuation of Bowie’s legacy of “free creative experimentation”.
Workshops will be provided through the trust’s Proud Places and Proud Prospects initiatives.
The house is near the Edwardian “Bowie bandstand”, where the late musician performed in 1969, which was restored by Bromley Council and Heritage of London Trust in 2024.
Widely considered as one of the greatest musical artists of all time, Bowie had five UK number-one singles and 11 UK number-one albums during his lifetime, and is best known for songs such as Starman, Ashes to Ashes and Sound and Vision.
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This week marks 10 years since David Bowie died from liver cancer
Bowie, who was born in Brixton in south London in 1947, was known for his drastic changes in sound and appearance during his career, beginning as a pop singer in the 1960s, before rising to major fame in the 1970s with glam rock albums The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars (1972) and Aladdin Sane (1973).
He embraced soul on the albums Young Americans (1975) and Station to Station (1976), and was among the first white artists to appear on US TV show Soul Train, before plunging into krautrock influences on Low (1977), Heroes (1977) and Lodger (1979).