A much-hyped David Bowie shop has opened in central London, and it is undeniably “a shop”.
Bowie 75 is in Heddon Street, a short hidden pedestrianised road off Regents Street which is notable amongst Bowie fans as it’s where the cover was photographed for his 1972 album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders From Mars.
In fact, the temporary shop is directly opposite where the cover was photographed — and there’s a small plaque on the wall next to the spot.
The shop itself, well, it’s the sort of shop you would expect at a music concert, with piles upon piles of t-shirts, and backpacks, and CDs, and vinyls to pay hefty prices for.
More interesting is a phone box inside the store you can go inside and dial a number to hear the man himself talking about his work. Or likely based on what I saw on my visit, to pose in it for a photo. Downstairs is a very small dark room playing songs that have been remastered in 3D stereo, albeit rather thinly for the song playing on my visit.
If you’re a Bowie fan, it’s going to be somewhere you want to visit because it’s atmospheric, even if you don’t buy anything. The shop closes next January, on the anniversary of David Bowie’s 75th birthday.
What you will want to do though is go to the corner opposite the shop and wander down the alley to a phone box. In fact, the phone box. The one that appeared on the back cover of the Ziggy album, and is today covered in Bowie graffiti.
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