David Bowie’s journey from ordinary schoolboy to cultural icon began in a quiet London street, and that formative home is now being restored for future generations.
After being acquired by the Heritage of London Trust, the childhood home will be restored and opened to the public late in 2027. The announcement was made on January 8, 2026, which would have been Bowie’s 79th birthday. He died in 2016 after a battle with cancer.
Located at 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, the property served as Bowie’s creative sanctuary from ages 8 to 20, playing a pivotal role in how, and where, his musical journey began. It was there that he wrote his formative songs, and a play he regularly returned to in the years that followed, including when he wrote his breakthrough “Space Oddity” (1969).
The heritage project, due for completion in late 2027, will restore the “two up, two down” railway workers’ cottage to its original early 1960s appearance. This experience will centre on Bowie’s 9 ft by 10 ft bedroom – the specific site where his “trailblazing spirit” was forged.
Working alongside curator Geoffrey Marsh (co-curator of the Victoria and Albert museum’s ‘David Bowie Is’ exhibition) and utilising a never-before-seen archive, the restoration will recreate the interior layout exactly as it was when Bowie’s father commuted to work at charity Dr Barnado’s and his mother worked as a waitress.
Marsh said: “It 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 – 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 onto the street, I had to pass through this no-man’s-land of the living room.’”
Through the Trust’s ‘Proud Places and Proud Prospects’ programmes, the house will act as a “solid foundation for the next generation”, teaching confidence and communication skills in the arts. A major £500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation, a charitable foundation funded by attorneys and staff of the Jones Day law firm, has already been secured to anchor the restoration, with a public fundraising campaign launching this month.
Love Music?
Get your daily dose of everything happening in Australian/New Zealand music and globally.
The house is near the Edwardian ‘Bowie bandstand’ – where the young musician performed in 1969 – which was restored by Bromley Council and Heritage of London Trust in 2024. Also nearby was Haddon Hall, the sprawling Victorian mansion in Beckenham that Bowie rented from 1969-73 and wrote some of his most legendary work, which was demolished in the 1980s.
George Underwood, artist, musician and David 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.”
