On The Map is where we highlight famous, and not as well-known, musical sites that you can visit. This month we check into the newly opened David Bowie Centre in London. Let’s explore!

THE SITE

On September 13, 2025, the Victoria & Albert Museum in London held the grand opening of the David Bowie Centre at the V&E East Storehouse on Parkes Street in Hackney Wick, a neighborhood in East London. With a collection of over 80,000 personal items from Bowie himself, the museum displays about 200 items at a time, with a rotation life of six months to a year. And how did this historical museum come to house all these costumes, handwritten lyrics and musical instruments that once belonged to the Thin White Duke?

THE FIRST EXHIBIT

In 2013, an exhibit called David Bowie Is kicked off a world tour, traveling to twelve museums around the world – in London, Toronto, Brazil, Berlin, Chicago, Paris, Melbourne, the Netherlands, Bologna, Tokyo and Barcelona before ending in New York City in 2018. Reports say that over two million fans walked through museum doors to view over 500 pieces of Bowie memorabilia. It was an unimaginable success. Thus began Bowie’s relationship with the Victoria & Albert Museum.

THE MAN WHO CHANGED THE WORLD

Born David Robert Jones on January 8, 1947, in a suburb of London, England, Bowie would transform and merge the worlds of music and art. “He was wonderfully shameless in his work,” Mick Jagger posted upon learning of his longtime friend’s passing in 2016. Dave Davies of The Kinks also shared his thoughts on Bowie: “A genius, and an artist and innovator who has influenced so many people deeply and profoundly on many levels. Emotionally, creatively, Spiritually. His work will resonate long into the future and the planet is a much richer and fertile place because of his presence here.”

After stints in several bands in his youth, Bowie released his eponymous solo album in 1967, looking very much the hip London lad on the cover. Then came “Space Oddity” and “The Man Who Sold The World” and “Changes” and “Young Americans” and “Let’s Dance” and “Rebel Rebel” and the remarkable Ziggy Stardust. His continual belief in changing himself influenced hundreds of musicians and artists and followers of fashion.

“I saw such confidence, you know, from this pale white guy that we could kind of relate to, being a pale white guy,” Def Leppard’s Phil Collen once told me during a 2016 interview for Songfacts. “And the fact that it was so extreme, it was so confident, and even fashion-wise, he had a different thing and you couldn’t tell if he was a girl or not. He had all these different kinds of angles to it but it all worked so well and it was so, as a 14 year old, you’re like a sponge and all of this stuff is very influential. Plus, the songs were killer. The lyrics were amazing, the melodies were great. They were just killer songs and he put it all together.”

Bowie was an influence to artists in every field of music, not just those attracted to the glam in their rock & roll. Take Shooter Jennings, the son of legendary Outlaw country singer Waylon Jennings, who was drawn to Bowie’s songwriting: “When I started getting into David Bowie, I really related to a lot of the things that he said. I really dug the storytelling of Ziggy Stardust cause it had this whole story to it.” “I’m actually a massive David Bowie fan,” Girlschool’s Kim McAuliffe revealed to me in a 2015 Glide interview. “I didn’t actually meet him but I was lucky enough to be backstage at the first Live Aid gig … and then David Bowie was literally about to go on stage, about twenty feet away from me and my knees went.”

Even in his final years, as his health declined, Bowie put together several albums of breathtaking truth and exploration, a breath of fresh air to the music scene that had long admired him. “I’m grateful we had David Bowie to give us some kind of guide or text on how to live an exemplary life and death,” remarked The Cult’s Ian Astbury in an interview with me in 2017 for Glide.

Bowie also brought his transformative abilities to movie screens, ala Labyrinth, Basquiat where he portrayed Andy Warhol, The Hunger, The Man Who Fell To Earth and The Last Temptation of Christ.

Another one of his instinctive abilities was bringing in musicians of supreme talent to help bring his artistic creations to vibrant life, among them Mick Ronson, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Earl Slick, Adrian Belew, Aynsley Dunbar, Nile Rodgers, Steve Nieve; not to mention John Lennon and Peter Frampton, among others.

“I did not work FOR David Bowie. I worked WITH him, which is a big difference,” drummer Hunt Sales recalled in 2019 about the band Tin Machine he played in with Bowie during the late 1980’s and early 1990’s. “So the good thing about Tin Machine was we were four people, and we were all really honest with each other, which was good, because people who become big celebrities and stars, they got everyone telling them and bullshitting them and this and that.”

BOWIE’S IMPACT

David Bowie would pass away at the age of sixty-nine in New York City from cancer, and the music world mourned alongside fans. A few of the posts his peers made upon learning of his death:

Iggy Pop: “David’s friendship was the light of my life. I never met such a brilliant person. He was the best there is.”

Pete Townshend: “For those who were his fans, he was a charismatic and exotic creature and still gloriously beautiful even as he approached 70. But face to face, he was funny, clever, well-read, excited by the arts, and really good company.”

Jimmy Page: “David Bowie was an innovator, a unique artist with a vision that changed the face of popular music.”

Tony Visconti: “He always did what he wanted to do. And he wanted to do it his way, and he wanted to do it the best way.”

Peter Gabriel: “He was a one-off, a brilliant outlier, always exploring, challenging, and inspiring anyone who wanted to push the boundaries of music, art, fashion, and society. There are so few artists who can touch a generation as he did; we will miss him badly. Long Live Lazarus.”

Eric Clapton: “Sweet dreams old sock”

VISITING THE CENTRE

There are several exciting things about the Centre apart from the actual items you get to see. First, it’s free to visit but you need to book a ticket online to ensure you can get in on the day you want to visit as the museum continues to see sold out timeslots several months after opening it’s doors.

Second, you can actually spend time with a particular item but again, you need to book it in advance.

The parking is iffy so public transportation is highly recommended.

Currently there are some amazing items on display at the Centre: suits worn by Bowie on tour and in videos, guitars, awards, fan-made ephemera, albums, photos, documents, drawings, setlists, artwork and some very unique shoes and boots. A peek at the website and photos from the opening can give you goosebumps as certain items have become such a part of his legendary landscape. But behold his paintbrush and palette, doodles on a setlist, his writing desk. As fans, we can only gawk at the things that he kept and be thankful he had the forethought to hang on to stuff so we could one day get this peep inside his oeuvre.

Nile Rodgers is the first guest curator and he personally chose items that showed his and Bowie’s musical collaborations and personal friendship, such as letters, photos and a custom suit Bowie wore on tour. There will be other guest curators in 2026.

You are allowed to take non-flash photographs but check the rules before you go, just to make sure of any changes.

You’ll spend several hours perusing and taking in everything Bowie. Afterwards, you can lay down a few pounds for some specialized merch in the gift shop.

WHILE IN LONDON

It would take hours to mention all the music sites just in London alone. But here are a few that definitely deserve your attention.

The Royal Albert Hall – opened in 1871, it has become the premier music venue in London.

Abbey Road – cross the street just like a Beatle, then tour the studios

Ziggy Stardust Plaque – if you’re still in a Bowie state of mind, head over to 23 Heddon Street, where he posed for the album cover of The Rise & Fall of Ziggy Stardust & the Spiders from Mars. A commemorative plaque was put up in 2012.

Hyde Park – 350 acres of green grass, a lake, and the spot where the Stones gave a historic concert to honor their recently departed bandmate Brian Jones in 1969. Many other bands have played here, including The Who, Blind Faith, Pink Floyd, Elton John, Guns N Roses, Bruce Springsteen and Traffic.

The Handel Hendrix House – located in two separate buildings on Brook Street, you can tour Jimi’s flat as well as the floors where composer Handel lived in the 1700’s. A general admission ticket allows access to both homes.

Walking Tours – there are numerous walking tours you can hook up with to see musical sites (some now long gone), former homes, and hangouts in the London area.

RECOMMENDED READING

Although Bowie never officially released his autobiography, there are bookshelves devoted to his legacy of music, art and fashion; as well as memoirs by those who knew him and/or played music with him. Visually, take a look at David Bowie: Icon: The Definitive Photographic Collection.

WEBSITE

https://www.vam.ac.uk/exhibitions/david-bowie-centre

WHAT YOU CAN DO FOR US

If you have been to the David Bowie Centre, go to Glide’s social media pages & in the comments to this article’s link, post a photo of yourself at the venue. Be sure to tag Glide and the Centre. We want to see you! Also, if you’d like to suggest a place for us to profile, give a shout out in the comments to this article.