BROMLEY, United Kingdom – With its grey front door and battered picket fence, the house at 4 Plaistow Grove in the anonymous London suburb of Bromley is unremarkable in every way except for one.

The modest terraced house – originally built as a railway workers’ cottage in the late 19th century – is the childhood home of pop phenomenon David Bowie.

An inscription on a small blue plaque to the right of the front door is the only clue to the property’s extraordinary past.

“David Bowie Singer and Talented Musician 1955-1968,” it reads, a reference to the 13 years that he spent living there.

Bowie, one of the most influential artists of the 20th century who died aged 69 in 2016, spent some of his most formative years here.

Now, the house has been acquired by a leading London heritage body which plans to turn it into a Bowie immersive experience.

Under the curatorship of Bowie expert Geoff Marsh, it would be returned to the way it would have been when he was 16 in 1963 and opened to the public hopefully by the end of 2027.

The singer, real name David Jones, and his family moved into the property on the south-eastern outskirts of the capital in 1955 when he was eight years old.

“It all started in this building,” Marsh told AFP news agency. “It was here that he changed from being an ordinary schoolboy to being determined to be a superstar.”

Bowie lived in the house with his parents, Mr ...