Bowie: A Biography - JFK247

imagination and, eventually, by stepping onto a train
at that railway station. This spot may very well be
where the confluence of David Bowie’s need for
intellectual stimulation and unmoored searching
might have been formed in the young David Jones’s
personality. Walk across the elevated concrete
bridge and stare down at the tracks, and it’s hard not
to wonder how strange it must have been for the
adult David to return there from the city after a night
performing at the Marquee Club in Soho. He lived
here, after all, well into his career as a professional
musician. I imagine that he could hear Peggy and
John snore in their bedroom. On a Bowie-ist side
note—and this probably means little to anyone living
in Bromley—directly across from the Crown pub and
facing the back fence of David’s house and the
window of his room is a black storefront with a giant
glass window full of mannequins attired in
Renaissance costume or Victorian formal-wear. Its
name: Larger Than Life Stagewear: Theatrical
Costumes for Hire. While the store is obviously one
of the newer developments on this slowly
modernizing block, its wares are symbolic, as
theatrical costume would essentially provide David
with his H. G. Wells–ian ticket out of Bromley for
good.
In keeping with their new stature, the Joneses took
pains to make sure that their child was exceedingly
presentable. The class photo from his primary
school, Burnt Ash in Bromley, dated 1958, shows
David with a starched shirt and neatly parted hair,