David Bowie’s childhood home to open to public – see archive photos and more
9 January 2026, 12:56
Heritage of London Trust has acquired David Bowie’s South London childhood home, where he lived from ages eight to 20.
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David Bowie’s childhood home is to be restored to how it was in the ‘Starman’ singer’s formative years and opened as a museum and creative workshop.
The South London property where a young David Robert Jones lived from ages eight to 20 has been acquired by the Heritage of London Trust for restoration to its 1960s appearance.
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News of the restoration project was revealed on what would have been David Bowie’s 79’s birthday (January 8), and just ahead of the tenth anniversary of the iconic star’s tragic death (January 10).
Located at 4 Plaistow Grove in Bromley, the 'two up, two down' railway workers’ cottage was lived in by a young Bowie, his charity worker father and waitress mother.
The restoration’s main attraction is set to be its recreation of David Bowie’s childhood bedroom, a 9ft x 10ft room described as the specific site where his "trailblazing spirit" was forged.
As curator Geoffrey Marsh said in a statement released Thursday (January 8): “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.”
Indeed, Geoffrey added, Bowie himself once 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.”
In collaboration with the Trust’s Proud Places and Proud Prospects programmes, the project will also act as a living continuation of Bowie’s creative spirit through hosting creative skills workshops for young people in the house.
Restoration of Bowie’s childhood home has been made possible thanks to a £500,000 grant from the Jones Day Foundation.
A public fundraising project will also be launched this month to raise more funds for the restoration, which is expected to be completed in late 2027.
“We are thrilled to have already secured a major grant of £500,000 from the Jones Day Foundation towards the project, and hope that people everywhere will want to be involved,” Heritage of London Trust’s director Dr Nicola Stacey shared.
“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.”
