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Associated Press

When David Bowie died in 2016, he left a vast musical legacy – and a trove of unrealised projects.
Tantalising details of those abandoned and unfinished ideas are revealed in Bowie’s archive, which opens to the public this week.
The 90,000 items acquired from Bowie’s estate by London’s Victoria and Albert Museum include handwritten notes for a film in which Major Tom – the fictional astronaut “sitting in a tin can far above the world” in Bowie’s song “Space Oddity,” and who returned in “Ashes to Ashes” – is sent to “a disgruntled America”.
Curator Madeleine Haddon said the unmade film – titled Young Americans, like Bowie’s 1975 album of the same name – is “reflective on what it’s like to be a Brit in the US, and thinking about international politics and their place in the world”.
Other might-have-beens include The Spectator, a stage musical about an 18th-century London outlaw that Bowie was working on shortly before his death from cancer in January 2016 at the age of 69.
It is about “the relationship between art and politics in London at the cusp of modernity”, Haddon said at a preview of V&A’s David Bowie Centre. “I would love to see where he was going with that.”

The centre is a treasure chest for Bowie fans and researchers, with everything from stage outfits and musical instruments – a Japanese stringed instrument called a koto, Ziggy Stardust’s acoustic guitar – to letters, lyrics, photos, to-do lists and idea-filled sticky notes.
The archive chronicles five decades of restless creativity by the shape-shifting musician, who was born David Jones in the London suburbs in 1947.
Harriet Reed, a theatre and performance curator at the V&A, said Bowie was “an active archivist” of his life and work.
“The notes he made, the to-do list, things where he’s making a record of the exhibitions he wants to see, the films he wants to see, books he wants to read – that kind of devouring of culture is really fascinating,” she said.

Bowie donned and shed personas as he moved through musical styles, from glam rock to soul, electronica and collaborations with musicians and producers, including A Guy Called Gerald and Goldie. He acted in films, appeared on Broadway, collaborated on stage shows, painted, and embraced technology, setting up a 1990s internet service provider called BowieNet.
“He was such a world-builder,” Haddon said.
The archive occupies part of the V&A East Storehouse, a hybrid warehouse-museum that opened in June in East London’s Olympic Park. Visitors can book appointments to see any of the items for free – and in many cases handle them, under supervision.
“We want visitors to be inspired by Bowie, to pursue their own creativity, discover new stories and make unexpected connections between Bowie, contemporary discussions and themselves,” Haddon said.

Since the bookings site opened this month, the most requested item is a distressed frock coat that Bowie created with British fashion designer Alexander McQueen for his 50th birthday concert at Madison Square Garden in 1997.
Bowie’s impact on fashion is attested to by the 400 costumes in the archive, including Japanese designer Kansai Yamamoto’s knitted jumpsuit for Bowie’s androgynous alien rock star persona, Ziggy Stardust, and the white suit Bowie wore on his 1983 Serious Moonlight Tour.
“The Alexander McQueen costumes and some of the Ziggy costumes are proving particularly popular,” said V&A archivist Sabrina Offord.
About 200 items are displayed in cabinets in the archive’s main room, a selection made in consultation with local 18- to 25-year-olds as part of a project to provide opportunities for local young people.
“Many didn’t know who he was or they had a lot of questions about why the V&A wanted to build an entire centre dedicated to him,” Haddon said. “By the end, they were convinced.”

Some of the items are iconic, others delightfully mundane. There is the key to the Berlin flat Bowie shared with Iggy Pop in the 1970s, and his Rarotonga driving licence from a period filming the 1983 movie Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence on the South Pacific island.
Bowie also kept many items sent to him by fans, including drawings, paintings and a handmade music box.
Almost a decade after his death, Bowie is a musical icon whose influence on popular culture endures. But it wasn’t always that way.
The archive includes a letter written by Bowie’s father, Haywood Stenton Jones, trying to get teenage David, then a struggling musician, a job with a London company. His son was a hard worker and “a real trooper”, Jones stressed.

Next to it is displayed a brief rejection letter Bowie received from The Beatles’ record label in 1968.
“Apple Records is not interested in signing David Bowie,” it reads. “The reason is we don’t feel he’s what we’re looking for at the moment.”


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David Bowie’s unrealised projects among items at new dedicated centre at London’s V&A

Visitors take photos at the David Bowie Centre, a new archive at the V&A East Storehouse in London on September 10, 2025, ahead of its public opening on Saturday. Photo: AP

A PVC tuxedo outfit, designed by David Bowie and Mark Ravitz and worn by Bowie for a 1979 TV appearance, at the David Bowie Centre. Photo: Reuters

A pair of platform sandals worn by David Bowie in 1972 during the Ziggy Stardust era is seen at the David Bowie Centre. Photo: AP 

A sketch by Bowie and his artist’s palette at the David Bowie Centre. Photo: Reuters

The V&A was given 90,000 items from the Bowie estate, and selected items are on display. Photo: AP 

The Harptone 12-string acoustic guitar used by David Bowie in the 1970s is displayed at the centre. Photo: AP

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Items from David Bowie’s long career, including handwritten notes, scripts, costumes and instruments, are on show at the permanent display


Items from David Bowie’s long career, including handwritten notes, scripts, costumes and instruments, are on show at the permanent display.


Fame and celebrity

David Bowie

Victoria and Albert Museum

David Bowie’s unrealised projects among items at new dedicated centre at London’s V&A

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Items from David Bowie’s long career, including handwritten notes, scripts, costumes and instruments, are on show at the permanent display

Items from David Bowie’s long career, including handwritten notes, scripts, costumes and instruments, are on show at the permanent display