Neighbours are fighting plans to restore David Bowie's childhood home in London and turn it into a tourist attraction. People living near the Ziggy Stardust singer's house in Bromley - where the British music icon lived from age 8 to 20 - say their quiet area will be "invaded" by hordes of his fans.
The Heritage of London Trust (HOLT) has submitted a planning application to Bromley Council to restore the two-storey terraced house to what it looked like during the 1960s and build a visitor centre in the garden - attracting an expected 20,000 visitors a year.
Concerns about parking, an entrance currently taken up by a pub's bins, 45-people late night events and a three-metre tall visitor centre in a small suburban garden have all been raised by neighbours as they battle the plans.
Neighbour says right to home 'taken away'
The immediate neighbour to the former Bowie address, 4 Plaistow Grove, said she had felt "sick" since the announcement of the Bowie House project earlier this year. Ruth Dickie stated: "I am having my right to my home taken away from me."
HOLT said the Bowie House would provide fans with an "immersive experience" exploring his childhood home. The small 14sqm visitor centre would contain a shop and a screening room.
The restoration process would use "surviving photographs, analysis of original decoration, recollections of visitors from the past and original items from the house" to bring it back to how it would have looked when Bowie lived there.
A HOLT spokesperson said: "Celebrating the role Bromley and South London played in the early life of David Bowie, one of the UK's most successful musical artists, is at the heart of our proposals for 4 Plaistow Grove.
"We are incredibly excited about the opportunity to bring his house to life again and create an inspirational visitor experience which will bring value to the area and which local people can be proud of. We have had a brilliant response to the project and look forward to continuing to work with local residents as we develop the project."
The current plans for the Bowie House would see it open six days a week in the summer and five in the winter, opening at 10am and closing at 6pm in summer and 5pm in winter.
'The safeguarding of our street is threatened'
Although the proposal has been welcomed by Bowie fans across London and much of the world, those living closer to the rock star's former home fear this new attraction will ruin their quiet residential street.
Chair of Plaistow Grove Residents Association, Julie Davies, said: "The safeguarding of this Grove is threatened completely by the number of people who are strangers to this place who are going to come and invade it."
Ruth Dickie lives at 6 Plaistow Grove, directly next door to the Bowie House. She said she had felt "sick" since the announcement of the project. The 3.06m-tall visitor centre would be located right next to her garden fence. She fears the peaceful nature of her domestic life will be compromised once 20,000 people visit the house she shares a wall with every year.
Ruth's husband Jim passed away nearly two years ago. She never intended to leave Plaistow Grove as she cherishes the home they spent their last years together in. The announcement of the Bowie House project has made her reconsider.
Ruth said: "This is the house that my husband and I spent his last years. He had Parkinson's and dementia so this was a safe place for him. The garden here was our solace. I pottered while he sat.
"I love this house. We both loved it. I love it all the more because it's the last place we shared after 56 years of marriage. I had no intention of ever wanting to leave it. Now, I'm not sure anymore.
"I don't want to leave it, but I'm not sure that this will be the place for me to stay. All it makes me now think is that I am having my right to my home taken away from me."
HOLT said the 3.06m-tall visitor centre would be in line with other nearby garden buildings, even though it would stretch nearly a metre above Ruth's garden fence. The trust said the centre was designed "explicitly to reduce our impact on nearby properties".
It added: "By ensuring that visitors are kept on site, briefed within an enclosed building, and spend a limited amount of time within the garden, we will all act to reduce both visual and auditory impact for our neighbours while reducing unnecessary complexity."
Plan in its current form 'not viable'
Many of Ruth's neighbours said they were "shocked" when they first heard news of the project. None of them had been informed before it was announced to the world on January 8 – what would have been the music icon's 79th birthday.
Julie said: "I had a phone call from Australia from a friend who came to see me last year. She rang and said: 'Your street is on the news in Australia'. I had no idea. We had no idea that this was all going on before the rest of the globe did."
Following the announcement, Plaistow Grove residents were invited to meetings but many felt these were more like exhibitions than consultations. Many felt as if their suggestions, such as establishing the visitor centre in somewhere less residential such as Bromley High Street, have been ignored.
Plaistow Grove resident Ollie Pain felt that the impact the house would have on neighbours was not being given enough consideration by project leaders. He said: "There was that initial arrogance and assumption in the way that they've gone about it that's persisted throughout.
"We're not saying it's a terrible idea and it can never happen, but rather the people who are running the outfit are dismissive and arrogant and the plan in its current form is not viable."
Despite what residents of Plaistow Grove have said, HOLT said it had been in "regular contact" with local residents regarding its plans. The trust carried out four events, the first being on January 20 after the public announcement, where they presented their plans and gave people the chance to provide feedback.
The trust also said that as the proposals had evolved it had "wherever possible, sought to take on board feedback from all those who participated, including No. 4 Plaistow Grove's immediate neighbours".
Katie and Andrew Turner live opposite the Bowie house at 9 Plaistow Grove. Their 12-year-old son is a huge Bowie fan, so much so that the family dog is named Ziggy.
Katie has years of experience working in the museums and heritage industry, including stints at the National Trust, V&A and the Science Museum. She initially was excited by the Bowie House project, but now believes HOLT's proposal is "naïve and sloppy".
She said: "What they are hoping to do is just far too extensive and extravagant for the site. They just want to operate something that isn't what that site is."
Plaistow Grove residents believe HOLT is packing too much into the footprint of a small terraced two-storey house, especially the plans for the visitor centre in its garden.
Pub landlady calls plans 'horrendous'
Specific problems they have identified with the Bowie House plans include its proposed entrance, a rear alley, which is currently taken up by four industrial sized bins used by The Crown pub and is used by residents to access their back gardens.
The Crown's landlady called the proposal "horrendous" and said HOLT had not contacted her until this month, after she let them know she intended to object to the planning application. The landlady, who wished to remain anonymous, said the rear alley was used several times a day for deliveries and there was nowhere else she could put the pub's large bins.
Evidence of the bins are nowhere to be found in the Bowie House planning documents despite the proposed entrance using this rear alley. HOLT were asked about what they proposed to do with the bins and provided no response.
Parking is also a concern, although HOLT said visitors will be directed to park in the nearby Sundridge Park Village Car Park just three minutes' walk away. However, as Plaistow Grove's permits only offers daily one-hour restrictions to deter commuters, residents fear those arriving outside that time will choose to park on their road instead.
Sundridge Park Village Car Park has also been identified by Bromley Council as a potential site for future development of council housing. HOLT said it was unable to comment on these housing plans as the car park wasn't within its site.
The trust said it was in "detailed conversation" with Bromley Council regarding travel to the site and it "remained confident" in bus and rail options available for future visitors. Sundridge Park Railway Station is two minutes' walk from the Bowie House.
HOLT said it expected most visitors to come from outside of South East England "with a high proportion visiting a number of London sites as tourists" who would be using public transport to visit the Bowie House. It also said it would direct visitors to the site via bus and rail rather than by car.
Evening events 'could be cocktail parties'
Within the Bowie House proposal there are plans to host up to 10 evening events a year that "may include activity like public curator tours, private tours or special programmed events".
Within planning documents, HOLT said "operating some premium evening events" would be needed to ensure the attraction was financially sustainable after opening hours were reduced to six days a week following the concerns of Plaistow Grove residents.
Neighbours are now even more concerned about these evening events, speculating they could be cocktail parties or late-night celebrations.
Planning documents state that these 10 annual events would attract around 45 people, and Plaistow Grove residents feel that 45 visitors packed into the small terraced house would likely create a noise nuisance, especially for Ruth next door.
HOLT said these events would operate with restricted numbers, just as daytime visits to the site, and they would be "either a higher ticket cost for an exclusive viewing or by invitation to special guests".
Since the planning application to transform 4 Plaistow Grove was submitted to Bromley Council two months ago, it has received 58 objections and seven letters of support. The council is scheduled to make a decision on the scheme in late September.
The full planning application can be viewed on Bromley Council's planning portal at reference 26/02597/FPA.
