thumb|Marc Bolan's Rock Shrine showing the 1997 memorial, and the 2002 bust at the top of the steps

thumb|Facial detail of the bust

Marc Bolan's Rock Shrine is a memorial to glam-rock musician Marc Bolan, from the band T. Rex. It is located on the site where he died in a car crash in Barnes, London, on 16 September 1977. Bolan was a passenger in a car that hit a part-metal-and-wood fence and then a sycamore tree on Queen's Ride (part of the B306, close to Gipsy Lane), and he was pronounced dead at the scene on the arrival of paramedics at the woods. A memorial stone was unveiled at the site in 1997, and a bust of Bolan was added in 2002.

Origins

thumb|The Bolan Tree in June 1978

Marc Bolan died, aged 29, after being found unconscious as a passenger in the wreckage of his purple Mini driven by his girlfriend Gloria Jones. He was not wearing a seat belt at the time of the crash. Jones lost control of the car, which then struck a steel-reinforced chain link fence post and came to rest against a sycamore tree, after failing to navigate a small humpback bridge, near Gipsy Lane on Queens Ride, Barnes in south-west London. Bolan was a passenger in the car and was pronounced dead at the scene upon the arrival of paramedics. Jones was wearing a seat belt and was conscious after the crash, but was critically injured and spent some time in hospital. From the day of the accident, the site became a place of pilgrimage to Bolan’s fans and this was reported in various newspapers from 1978 onwards. Coincidentally, the registration number of the car was FOX 661L and within the lyrics of his single "Solid Gold Easy Action" are the lines "Easy as picking foxes from a tree" and "Woman from the east with her headlights shining". In London, 29 sites are listed, but many are "general sites" such as Abbey Road and Wembley Stadium which are not "person-specific". Only Marc Bolan, Jimi Hendrix and Freddie Mercury are listed in the guide in their own right.

See also

  • List of public art in Richmond upon Thames

References

  • TAG's Marc Bolan & T-Rex website – Legal Guardians of Marc Bolan's Rock Shrine