The site of the Greyhound in Croydon High Street had a history that could be traced back to the 17th century before its demolition in 1963. An inn of the same name was referred to as early as 1493. Looking at some of the activities that happened at the Greyhound gives some of idea of the social and business life of Croydon over the centuries.

In the 18th and 19th centuries The Greyhound was Croydon’s foremost coaching inn. Before the railways transport around the country was provided by stage coaches. As well as the mail coaches taking the post from one area to another, the stage coaches gradually started to carry passengers between towns. At the height of transport by coaches, Croydon, being on the main London to Brighton route saw 50 coaches or more stop at one of the coaching inns in Croydon every day. When the coaches stopped not only would they drop off or pick up the post and passengers, they would often change horses. It was necessary for a large coaching inn like The Greyhound to have stabling for horses provided. Coaches stopping at the Greyhound would pass through an archway from the High Street into a large yard containing stabling for horses. The Greyhound’s yard was so large that it stretched the full distance between the High Street frontage and Park Lane.

It was not just the horses who got rest and refreshment, passengers and drivers were able to have a break, maybe get something to eat or even stay the night in the hotel accommodation provided. The census returns from the 1850s onwards show a great snapshot of the variety of people working and staying at the Greyhound over the years.

Not only did the large coaching hotels provide a service to people travelling through, they were also very central to the life of the towns where they were located. These large inns often became social and meeting places for the local people. In Croydon, The Greyhound’s proprietor was not only the proprietor of the hotel, according to census records and the local street directories, he was also the postmaster for the town. After the coming of the railways, coach travel was far less popular, but the Greyhound moved with the times and became the local Inland Revenue. It also became the Corn Returns office serving the local Corn Exchange in the High Street town hall and later the purpose built Corn Exchange in the Town Hall complex in Katherine Street.

To provide a venue for assemblies and large gatherings of people, the Greyhound had a ballroom where large monthly dances were held after every full moon. In the 1920s the owner of The Greyhound also experimented with putting on theatrical productions on the stage in the ballroom during the summer period which was a very quiet time of year for ball rooms.

Towards the middle of the 20th century Croydon’s character changed with the coming of the Croydon Corporation Act and the old Greyhound started to fall into disrepair, eventually St George’s Walk replaced the Greyhound. Fortunately the developers of St George’s Walk were persuaded to provide a new Greyhound at the Park Lane end of St George’s Walk.

The new Greyhound carried on some of the social and cultural functions of the original building with the Croydon Greyhound becoming a major music venue throughout the 70s hosting some very big names before they became big names. The most famous line up was David Bowie supported by Roxy Music. Other acts included Supertramp, Elton John, Status Quo (who appeared regularly), Curved Air, Edgar Broughton, MC5, Stray and many, many others.  The Greyhound gradually became a popular New Wave music venue until it closed in the 1980s to become the Blue Orchid nightclub.

After the closure of the new Greyhound, the Greyhound name has disappeared from Central Croydon. There is talk at the moment of JD Wetherspoons moving out of the Bar Milan in the Grants cinema complex opposite the original site of the Greyhound. The CRO thinks it would be great if any new landlord could be persuaded to take on this establishment and rename it The Greyhound?

Let us know what you think and complete our poll below.