Bowie's Beckenham bandstand becomes Grade II listed

The historic bandstand in south London where David Bowie performed at the Growth Summer Festival 50 years ago today (16th August) has been listed at Grade II by the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport on the advice of Historic England. David Bowie was one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century, with a career spanning nearly 50 years. Although born in Brixton, at eight years old Bowie moved to Bromley with his family and as an adult he lodged on Foxgrove Road in nearby Beckenham with Mary Finnigan, his landlady and later his lover. Soon after his first hit single Space Oddity, Bowie and friends organised the iconic Growth Summer Festival in August 1969. The hope was to raise money for a permanent base for his and Finnigan’s Beckenham Arts Lab project, which began life as a folk club in the backroom of the nearby Three Tuns pub. The one day festival was free, emulating Woodstock’s style and feel with its emphasis on freedom of expression for artists and musicians. The bandstand was the centrepiece of the day and the stage from which the young Bowie performed to an audience of a few hundred people. Thought to be the first of its kind in the UK, the festival inspired Bowie to write Memory of a Free Festival, a seven minute song for his second album released later that same year, in homage to the day. Interviews with musician Keith Christmas and Sebastian Fry, Historic England.