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Where Marc Bolan grew up in east London
25 Stoke Newington Common, Hackney
London, United Kingdom
51.5621° N · -0.0674° W
Get DirectionsMarc Bolan — born Mark Feld on 30 September 1947 at Hackney Hospital — grew up here at 25 Stoke Newington Common with his elder brother Harry. His father Sid was a cosmetics salesman and former lorry driver; his mother Phyllis ran a stall at Berwick Street Market in Soho.
He went to Northwold Primary School in Upper Clapton, where he got his first guitar at nine and started a skiffle band. While still at school he played guitar in "Susie and the Hula Hoops", a trio whose vocalist was a 12-year-old Helen Shapiro. At 15 he was expelled from William Wordsworth Secondary School — reportedly for headbutting the deputy headmaster who tried to cane him.
Before music took over he had a brief modelling career, appearing in catalogues as a "John Temple Boy" and in a 1962 Town magazine photo spread — under the name Mark Feld — as an early example of the mod movement.
Private residence on the edge of Stoke Newington Common.
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