{"id":683308,"date":"2026-01-08T23:56:14","date_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:56:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683308\/"},"modified":"2026-01-08T23:56:14","modified_gmt":"2026-01-08T23:56:14","slug":"david-bowies-childhood-home-to-be-restored-and-opened-to-the-public","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/683308\/","title":{"rendered":"David Bowie’s Childhood Home to Be Restored and Opened to the Public"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tDavid Bowie<\/a>\u2019s childhood home south of London will be restored and opened to the public late in 2027, Heritage of London Trust announced on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe property, located at 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, Kent, was the young David Jones\u2019 <\/a>artist\u2019s home from ages 8 to 20 (1955\u20131967), which includes the early years of his musical career. After releasing several singles under his born name, the singer began performing as David Bowie in 1966 to avoid confusing with Monkees singer Davy Jones.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy David Bowie Estate<\/p>\n

\n\tThe heritage project, due for completion in late 2027, will restore the \u201ctwo up, two down\u201d railway workers\u2019 cottage to its original early 1960s appearance, according to the announcement. In collaboration with curator Geoffrey Marsh (co-curator of the Victoria and Albert museum\u2019s popular \u201cDavid Bowie Is\u201d exhibition) and utilizing archival research, \u201cthe restoration will recreate the interior layout exactly as it was when Bowie\u2019s father commuted to work at charity Dr. Barnado\u2019s and his mother worked as a waitress,\u201d the announcement states, adding \u201cThis experience will center on Bowie\u2019s 9 ft x 10 ft bedroom.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe announcement was made on January 8, 2026, which would have been Bowie\u2019s 79th birthday. He died in 2016 after a battle with cancer.<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy David Bowie Estate<\/p>\n

\n\tInspired by Bowie\u2019s collaborative Beckenham Arts Lab in 1969, which offered opportunities \u201cfor everybody,\u201d the site will host creative and skills workshops for young people. Through the Trust\u2019s Proud Places and Proud Prospects programs, the house will act as a \u201csolid foundation for the next generation,\u201d teaching confidence and communication skills in the arts, the announcement states. A major \u00a3500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by attorneys and staff of the Jones Day law firm, has been secured to anchor the restoration, with a public fundraising campaign launching this month.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe house is near the Edwardian \u201cBowie bandstand,\u201d where the young musician performed in 1969, which was restored by Bromley Council and Heritage of London Trust in 2024.<\/p>\n

\n\tUnfortunately, Haddon Hall, the sprawling Victorian mansion<\/a> in nearby Beckenham that Bowie rented from 1969-73 and wrote some of his most legendary work, was demolished in the 1980s. <\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy David Bowie Estate<\/p>\n

\n\tMarsh says, \u201cIt was in this small house, particularly in his tiny bedroom, that Bowie evolved from an ordinary suburban schoolboy to the beginnings of an extraordinary international stardom \u2013 as he said \u2018I 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 onto the street, I had to pass through this no-man\u2019s-land of the living room.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tDr. Nicola Stacey, Director of 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. We are thrilled to have already secured a major grant of \u00a3500,000 from the Jones Day Foundation towards the project, and hope that people everywhere will want to be involved.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tGeorge Underwood, artist, musician and David Bowie\u2019s lifelong friend (and the person responsible for Bowie\u2019s famous dilated pupil, the result of a fistfight over a girl), said: \u201cWe spent so much time together, listening to and playing music. I\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

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy David Bowie Estate<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"David Bowie\u2019s childhood home south of London will be restored and opened to the public late in 2027,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":683309,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3936],"tags":[4157,77,269,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-683308","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-david-bowie","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-music","11":"tag-uk","12":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115862188020381540","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683308","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=683308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/683308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/683309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=683308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=683308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=683308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}