Elizabeth Bay - Bowie's Old Neighborhood
David Bowie lived in an apartment at Elizabeth Bay, Sydney for approximately
10 years up until 1992.
His Sydney
apartment was used as a base for month-long adventures to the outback
and far north Queensland rainforests throughout the 1980s. During the
early 80s, his son Zowie (who later became Joey) also went to boarding
school in Australia.
A view of Elizabeth Bay district from the historic Elizabeth
Bay House.
"I would come over for a month or so at a time. It was really, really
fabulous. I loved being there. It was just a great place to be."
In 1989, Bowie's apartment served as a useful base while recording the album Tin Machine II at Studio 301 in Sydney. An article in the Boston Globe from around that time has this description:
The water
of Elizabeth Bay was serene, its azure surface rippling with mirror-ball
flashes of sunlight. Reeves Gabrels leaned on the railing of an elegant
condominium's balcony, daydreaming as he gazed at the yachts and sailboats
below. "I was thinking, if only my father, who died when I was 15,
could see this," he says now. "Here I am in Sydney, Australia,
in this amazing place, in a condo owned by David Bowie, and we're about
to do our second album together."
He turned toward Bowie to speak. "You know ... " he began.
"I know
exactly what you're thinking," the rock star replied in a heartbeat.
"I think the same thing. Probably less frequently than you, after
all this time, but you don't even have to say it. I should be a shipping
clerk in Brixton. I'm still amazed."
A view of the front gates, gatehouse and apartment building
behind. The address of the building is 93 Elizabeth Bay Road, Elizabeth
Bay, Sydney.
View of the historic sandstone gate house (originally the
stables) at the front of the premises.
In 1992, Bowie married Iman. Around this time he sold his Sydney apartment
citing that it had became superflous to his current needs. "Mainly
the reason being that I just wasn't getting there enough and it seems
a waste of a really nice apartment".
"I hear young Russell Crowe has a place there now. I bloody sold mine, unfortunately, because Iman and I were getting married, so I thought, 'Oh yeah, we're definitely gonna be running backwards and forwards to Sydney'. It was a great place and I used to love being there. I was there a lot more than you'd imagine."
Aerial View of Elizabeth Bay.
Panorama of Elizabeth Bay looking back to the harbour bridge.
Bowie's local store for some time during the 80s. The apartment
is about 5 minutes walk down this road.
