David Bowie Centre: The Creative Legacy of a Phenomenon
The David Bowie Centre has opened its doors in London, unveiling Bowie’s vast archive—comprising more than 90,000 items—as a public, living experience space for the very first time.
David Bowie’s creativity never existed within a single discipline or form. Constantly in motion, his work flowed between music, performance, fashion, cinema, and writing. That restless, multifaceted production now comes together in its full scope in a public setting for the first time anywhere in the world. Located within the V&A East Storehouse in London, the David Bowie Centre presents Bowie’s personal archive on an unprecedented scale, offering visitors direct access to the processes behind one of the most influential creative figures of the modern era.
This is not a museum in the conventional sense, nor is it a retrospective that simply looks back on Bowie’s past. The David Bowie Centre functions as a living archive—a space that continues to unfold, to be explored, and to pose new questions. Rather than fixing Bowie’s legacy in place, it keeps it active and open-ended.
How Does an Archive Become an Experience?
The centre houses over 90,000 objects belonging to Bowie: costumes, musical instruments, stage designs, handwritten lyrics, notebooks, sketches, digital works, and personal documents. Yet this immense collection is not merely preserved behind glass. Instead, it is made actively accessible to visitors, encouraging engagement rather than passive observation.
One of the most distinctive features of the David Bowie Centre is the “Order an Object” system. Through this programme, visitors can book appointments to spend time one-on-one with selected objects from Bowie’s archive. A costume, an instrument, or a personal document ceases to be a distant artefact and becomes a tactile point of discovery—an object that can be examined directly, closely, and personally.
The response to this system has been remarkable. So far, more than 500 objects have been requested for individual appointments. Among the most in-demand items is the iconic tailcoat Bowie designed in collaboration with Alexander McQueen for his 50th birthday concert in 1997, a piece that encapsulates his fusion of music, fashion, and performance.
Nine Exhibitions, One Creative Thread
The centre’s nine thematic mini-exhibitions trace Bowie’s creative journey through approximately 200 carefully selected objects, each presented under a distinct conceptual heading. From Ziggy Stardust to the Berlin period, from his experimental engagement with electronic music to his dialogue with the Jungle and Drum & Bass scenes of the 1990s, the exhibitions resist a straightforward chronological narrative. Instead, Bowie’s career is mapped as a constellation of ideas—fragmented, overlapping, and constantly evolving.
What emerges is not only a record of what Bowie produced, but a portrait of how he thought. Mistakes, abandoned concepts, and unfinished projects are given prominence, revealing creativity as a process marked by experimentation and risk rather than polished outcomes alone.
First-Time Viewings
A significant number of objects on display at the David Bowie Centre have never previously been shown to the public. Among them are an unseen guitar from the Ziggy Stardust era, the first saxophone Bowie’s father bought him during his childhood, as well as handwritten notes and detailed stage sketches.
These materials demonstrate that Bowie’s radicalism extended far beyond his onstage persona. At his desk and in his notebooks, he was just as daring, probing ideas through drawing, writing, and constant revision.
Bowie’s stage identities are explored not only musically, but also through the lenses of fashion and design history. Collaborations with figures such as Freddie Burretti, Kansai Yamamoto, and Alexander McQueen reveal how Bowie treated his own body as a medium for artistic expression. Iconic costumes suspended from the ceiling create a striking visual dialogue between the theatricality of the stage and the intimacy of the archive.
“The Spectator”
One of the most compelling sections of the centre is The Spectator, a musical project Bowie was developing until his death but never completed. Set in 18th-century London, the project is represented through Bowie’s notes, notebooks filled with post-it annotations, and character sketches—all of which are being shown publicly for the first time.
This section powerfully illustrates that Bowie remained creatively active until the very end of his life, never viewing his work as finished or his artistic journey as complete.
Bowie’s Cultural Impact
The interactive area titled Library of Connections offers a wide-ranging view of Bowie’s influence on popular culture. Tracing lines of inspiration from the television series Friends to the fashion of Issey Miyake, and from artists like Lady Gaga to Kendrick Lamar, this network of references underscores Bowie’s enduring relevance and interdisciplinary reach.
The centre also highlights Bowie’s early insights into the future of the internet, his engagement with digital art, and his sustained interest in technology—further evidence of his forward-looking creative vision.
Not a Tribute, but an Invitation
The David Bowie Centre is not conceived as a nostalgic memorial. Its purpose is not to sanctify Bowie, but to invite visitors to think as he did: to experiment, to disrupt established forms, and to continually rebuild creative practices.
Bowie’s legacy is not fixed within these walls; it is deliberately kept in motion. For this reason, the David Bowie Centre stands out not simply as an archive, but as a gateway into creative thinking itself.
The David Bowie Centre is permanently open to visitors at the V&A East Storehouse. Admission is free but ticketed, with tickets released at scheduled intervals. The V&A East Storehouse is open seven days a week from 10:00 to 18:00, with extended opening hours on Thursdays and Saturdays.
