62. Heritage Croydon

Croydon was an Anglo Saxon settlement. It was a popular stop off for the Archbishop of Canterbury and is also mentioned in the Doomsday book. It is placed on the Roman road between London and Brighton.

Croydon became a focus for post-war development in the 1960s. The masterplan was designed to be commercially ambitious where the Croydon Cooperation Act 1955 promoted building infrastructure and office development. This complimented a government policy that aimed to decentralise office development onto the periphery of the city.

Infrastructure was developed for Croydon to be on a commuter route into the city. It was one of three places in London where tall buildings were acceptable, the others being Canary Wharf and the City of London. The NLA Tower by architect Richard Seifert is an example of this development – a series of interlocking octagons, it sits on a podium roundabout and is clad in micro mosaics.

Victorian Croydon: the borough set up a board of health in 1889 to sort out drainage, clear out slums and improve sanitisation.

On our walk we saw; Wellsey Road a street of Victorian villas; the town hall built in 1883 when the cooperation of Croydon was set up; we walked along the grand Victorian high street until we reached the Whitgift almshouses which were gifted by an archbishop. Surrey Street medieval market street has the longest operational street markets in London (Church street).