Marc Bolan’s shrine

A tender tribute in Barnes to a pioneer of ‘Glam Rock’.

Marc Bolan’s shrine. The road at the top of the steps is Queen’s Ride, where he met his death in a car accident

Photograph credited to Amy Bonaduce and reproduced with her permission

Marc Bolan’s Life

Marc Bolan was born in 1947 in Hackey, East London. An English guitarist, singer-songwriter and poet, he was one of the pioneers of the glam rock movement of the early seventies.

In the late sixties, and after a shaky start to his career, Bolan founded the group Tyrannosaurus Rex, with whom he released four albums. He moved from acoustic to electric music, renamed the band T. Rex and their first single, ‘Ride A White Swan’, went to number two in the UK singles chart. To many, Bolan's 1971 appearance on ‘Top of the Pops’, wearing glitter on his face, represents the launch of the glam-rock movement.

T. Rex’s popularity was at its height from 1970 to 1973, with a run of eleven top-ten singles, four of which reached number one. Bolan tried various other styles of music before the T. Rex line-up eventually fragmented. By this time, Bolan’s marriage had collapsed, and he was living with Gloria Jones, his then partner and the mother of his child.

On 16 September 1977, Bolan was a passenger in a Mini driven by Gloria as they headed home from a restaurant in London’s Berkeley Square. As they crossed a small humpback bridge on Queens Ride in Barnes, the car struck a fence post and then a tree. Jones was badly injured, Bolan died at the scene.

A memorial stone was subsequently erected at the crash site, just below the raised section of road and accessed via Gypsy Lane. Despite the difficulty in finding it, the sad shrine has since become a place of pilgrimage to Bolan’s fans.

A further tribute was erected to mark the 25th anniversary of Marc Bolan’s passing.