David Bowie album cover site gets a £1.5m revamp

The back-alley street made famous by a David Bowie album cover has undergone a £1.5 million revamp.

Heddon Street, which featured on the cover of Bowie's landmark 1972 album The Rise And Fall Of Ziggy Stardust And The Spiders From Mars, is barely recognisable after a multi-million-pound revamp to improve the Regent Street area.

Developers say the pavement, previously lined with parked cars, now has alfresco dining space for up to 6,000 diners at a time in its nine restaurants. The album photograph shows Bowie as "Ziggy", an alien rock star who came to earth to tell human beings they had only five years left to live.

The road has been tiled and the area dotted with olive trees as part of a £750 million scheme for the area. Robert Davis, deputy leader of Westminster council, said: "The West End is changing for the better."

When Bowie revisited Heddon Street in 1993 he was shocked by how much the area had changed. "Everything's gone," he told Rolling Stone magazine.