David Bowie bandstand in Beckenham gets given Grade II listed status

16 August 2019, 16:34 | Updated: 16 January 2024, 11:34

A bandstand where David Bowie once performed after the release of his first single 'Space Oddity' has now been protected with a Grade II listing.

Bowie performed at the stand to a small audience in Croydon Road Recreation Ground back on August 16, 1969.

He is also thought to have written the lyrics to 'Life On Mars?' from the same venue in London.

The 1905 bandstand is located in Beckenham, where Bowie lived with Mary Finnigan, his landlady and later lover.

Bowie and his pals also organised the Growth Summer Festival. The bandstand was the main attraction of the one-day festival, which David Bowie organised, compered and performed at 50 years ago.

The event raised money for a permanent base for his Beckenham Arts Lab project, which started as a folk club house at the back of the Three Tuns pub.

Historic England's chief executive Duncan Wilson said: "It is a rare survival from an historic iron foundry in its own right.

"But its significance as a site that inspired David Bowie shows us how powerful our historic places can be and how important it is that we protect them so they will continue to inspire people for years to come."