Rod Stewart Childhood Home — Highgate, London

Rod Stewart was born on January 10, 1945, and grew up in the Highgate area of north London, the youngest of five children of a Scottish father who ran a newsagent's shop on Archway Road. Stewart's Scottish heritage — his parents had moved south from Edinburgh — runs through his music in ways that are easy to miss beneath the leopard print and the raspy voice: his love of Celtic soul, his connection to the folk tradition, and a working-class directness in his best writing all have Scottish roots. He began as a busker and blues harmonica player before finding his voice.

Stewart's early career took him through the British R&B scene — the Steampacket with Long John Baldry, the Jeff Beck Group — before the Faces became one of the greatest live rock bands of the early 1970s. His simultaneous solo career produced Every Picture Tells a Story (1971) and Never a Dull Moment (1972), which contain 'Maggie May,' 'You Wear It Well,' and 'Mandolin Wind' — songs that established him as one of Britain's finest rock singers and a genuinely original writer when he chose to be.

Highgate in north London is the area Stewart grew up in, with Archway Road running along its western edge. The neighbourhood — adjacent to Hampstead Heath and Highgate Cemetery — is now wealthy and desirable. There is no formal Stewart landmark in the area. He has lived in England, Los Angeles, and Essex over the decades, and his Epping Forest home has been his English base for many years.