As we remember David Bowie a decade after his passing on January 10, 2016, the news of the restoration of his childhood home evokes further nostalgia.
Heritage of London Trust has announced the landmark acquisition of Bowie’s childhood home in south London, which served as the music legend’s creative sanctuary from ages 8 to 20 between 1955 and 1967.
Located at Plaistow Grove in Bromley, the property where Bowie’s musical journey began.
The heritage project, which is due to be completed – and open to the public – in late 2027, will restore the railway workers’ cottage to its original early 1960s appearance, based on never-before-seen archives.
Curator Geoffrey Marsh -co-curator of the Victoria and Albert museum’s David Bowie Is exhibition- who will working on the project, 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.”
More than just a bricks and mortar restoration, the project is shaped as a living continuation of Bowie’s legacy. Inspired by his 1969 Beckenham Arts Lab, which offered opportunities “for everybody,” the site will host creative and skills workshops for young people.
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 support the restoration, with a public fundraising campaign launching this month.
Fundraising for the project will begin in January 2026 and the project is planned to open at the end of 2027. https://bowieshouse.org/
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