{"id":683011,"date":"2026-01-08T20:52:23","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:52:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683011\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T20:52:23","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T20:52:23","slug":"david-bowies-suburban-launchpad-to-be-restored-and-opened-to-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683011\/","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie\u2019s suburban launchpad to be restored and opened to public"},"content":{"rendered":"

For a young David Bowie \u2014 or David Jones, as he was then known \u2014 his bedroom was his \u201centire world\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had books up there, my music up there, my record player,\u201d he recalled. Now fans of arguably Britain\u2019s greatest rock star will be able to see that bedroom for themselves as his childhood home near Bromley, southeast London, is to be restored and opened to the public. <\/p>\n

The Heritage of London Trust has purchased the unassuming terraced house at 4 Plaistow Grove in which a young and increasingly creative Jones spent 12 years, from the ages of eight to 20. <\/p>\n

\"Exterior<\/p>\n

Bowie\u2019s childhood home, centre, is marked by a blue plaque, below<\/p>\n

\"Blue<\/p>\n

In that room he first encountered the American-imported records that inspired his formative songs on his way to becoming a global star. His decades-long career ended with the release of the album Blackstar two days before his death in 2016. <\/p>\n

The two-up, two-down railway worker\u2019s cottage will be restored by the trust to its early 1960s appearance. Geoffrey Marsh, who co\u2013curated the expansive Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition David Bowie Is<\/a> in 2013, will lead the work using a never-before-seen archive as well as first-hand information from Bowie\u2019s childhood friends.<\/p>\n

George Underwood, an artist and musician who grew up with Bowie and helped design some of Bowie\u2019s early album covers, said: \u201cWe spent so much time [in the house] together, listening to and playing music.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard a lot of people say David\u2019s music saved them or changed their life. It\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Young<\/p>\n

Bowie was born in Brixton, south London, before his father, who worked in PR for Barnardo\u2019s, moved the family to Bromley. <\/p>\n

\u2022 The real David Bowie \u2014 by eight insiders who knew him best<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The purchase and restoration has been part-funded by a \u00a3500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by lawyers and staff of the Jones Day law firm, with a public fundraising campaign also launching this month. <\/p>\n

When completed in late 2027, the site will host creative and skills workshops for young people. <\/p>\n

Dr Nicola Stacey, director of the Heritage of London Trust, said: \u201cDavid 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\u2019s wonderful to have this opportunity to tell his story and inspire a new generation of young people, and it\u2019s really important for the heritage of London to preserve this site.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Watercolor<\/p>\n

An architect\u2019s drawing showing how the house will look when restored<\/p>\n

JULIAN HARRAP ARCHITECTS<\/p>\n

The Times columnist and author Caitlin Moran<\/a> said: \u201cThe most exciting place for any fan to visit is their hero\u2019s teenage bedroom \u2014 because that\u2019s the cocoon where they built themselves. All the world-changing started there. The chance for us all to walk through a newly opened door, and see the suburban launchpad from which David Bowie almost literally took off into space, is beyond thrilling.\u201d <\/p>\n

The shapeshifting rocker\u2019s relationship with the suburbs was not always easy. His childhood was marked by a desire to escape and journeys into central London and Denmark Street signalled where his life would go. <\/p>\n

But despite his at best agnostic relationship with Bromley, Bowie\u2019s particular disgust was reserved for Croydon \u2014 Bromley\u2019s suburban rival to the west. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt represented everything I didn\u2019t want in my life, everything I wanted to get away from,\u201d he said in 1999. \u201cI think it\u2019s the most derogatory thing I can say about somebody or something: \u2018God, it\u2019s so f***ing Croydon!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"For a young David Bowie \u2014 or David Jones, as he was then known \u2014 his bedroom was…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683012,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3940],"tags":[4080,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-683011","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-celebrities","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115861464610973485","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683011","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=683011"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683011\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683012"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683011"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683011"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683011"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}