David Bowie Childhood Home Project Approved as Estate Faces Streaming Questions

The Heritage of London Trust will open David Bowie’s childhood home in Bromley with family approval and initial funding, but organisers say more sponsor and public contributions are needed to meet a planned opening at the end of 2027.The announcement follows debate over the estate’s conservative curation, which prioritises museum projects such as the V&A East Storehouse David Bowie Centre with 80,000 items — a project Tristram Hunt called a "new sourcebook for the Bowies of tomorrow" — while the estate has refused some film licences and backed selective documentaries.Critics say that emphasis on box sets, premium merchandise and selective licensing has left Bowie with roughly 22 million monthly listeners on Spotify, only "Under Pressure" above two billion streams, and a financial profile that briefly listed about $9.5–$10.5 million in 2016–17 before re-emerging at No. 3 in 2022 after selling publishing rights to Warner Chappell, with masters from 1968 onwards licensed to Warner Music Group; Paul Morley argues "even for his death he invented a masterpiece" amid questions about reaching younger audiences.