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The Greyhound of Croydon
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.
The Greyhound viewed from High Street in the late 19th Century. See archway leading through to the stable yards. 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.
The Greyhound Hotel in 1897 (marked ‘hotel’) showing the large yards stretching from the High Street to Park Lane 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.
The ballroom at The Greyhound 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.
In the 1970s, looking a bit tatty, but very rock and roll 
Some major names here!! 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.
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Whitgift Estate under threat – Shawcross to lobby Council over plans update
Croydon Council is in the middle of the process of updating the Croydon Plan, the blueprint for what development the Council want to see in Croydon until 2039. Tomorrow see the close of the consultation process and residents, businesses and community organisations have until tomorrow to give their views of the changes to the blueprint.
The CRO understands that a number of residents groups from all over Croydon have been submitting their views on the proposed update and there have been a lot of concerns expressed by residents groups about the proposed new areas of moderate residential intensification. These areas are earmarked by the Council as being areas where the Council hopes to relax current controls on what can and cannot be built, which will allow larger buildings on plots, small to medium blocks of flats and even whole new closes to be built. (see 3 in figure below).
Residents in the Whitgift Estate in Addiscombe are desperately concerned about the Council’s proposal to designate half of their estate as an area of moderate intensification. They feel that the character of their area will be severely compromised by the addition of new buildings, especially small blocks of flats and the splitting of plots on the Estate.
Whitgift Estate residents invited Labour mayoral candidate Valerie Shawcross to come and see their corner of Croydon so that she could appreciate for herself their fears about the potential for a complete change of character in their local streets.
She said ‘Coming to the Whitgift Estate to meet with local residents and have a look round the area has been invaluable. I am extremely concerned about this proposed policy for the updated Croydon Plan and I share residents’ concerns that this change to the Plan could mean that areas like the Whitgift Estate will lose a great deal of the character that makes these areas such great places to live’.
She continued ‘Croydon has always been a town where there has been a fantastic variety of places to live. It’s a great mixture of the urban and the suburban and I do not think that we do ourselves any favours by vandalising these suburban areas’.
Ms Shawcross expressed her concerns that the Whitgift Estate residents are not alone in their concerns about this new planning regime. She says ‘I am very aware of the concerns from many residents in south of the borough. The Council have to take notice of these residents’ very real worries about the future of their communities’.
Consultation for the update to the plan is closing tomorrow and council officers will be working on a submission to be sent to the central government by the early summer. Ms Shawcross added that ‘I am worried that the new administration, which I hope to be heading, will have its hands tied for nearly two decades. I will be making strong representations to the Council over the next few days to make sure that residents’ voices are heard’.
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Gotta Love Croydon – List the NLA
It’s Valentine’s Day and most people are turning to thoughts of love, so how about giving this town of ours some love?
Those of us that live and work in Croydon know that Croydon is pretty special. We are the largest borough in London and some of us think that city status is long overdue.
Croydon is an unashamedly modern place and has always been forward-looking from the Roman times onwards.
The NLA Tower (now known as One Croydon) was opened in 1968. Designed by prominent modernist architects Seifert and Co. it was originally meant to be a larger development. The architects designed the building to rise out a podium, which was a popular pattern in the 1960s. Unfortunately for the architects, a Croydon curmudgeon who owned an office at the front of the site refused to move out, so the tower we know today is only part of the original plan. Nevertheless it still attracts a great deal of attention from fans of modernist architecture and artists alike.
London architects vs. Croydon curmudgeons The curmudgeon has long moved on and Croydon has grown to love this building. If a Croydon child is asked to name one building in Croydon there is a good chance that it would be this one.
The Tower despite being such a high quality example of buildings of its age and kind has never received much in the way of recognition. The Council recognise its importance in their plans, but the Tower has never become a listed building despite efforts from the 20th Century Society in 2012.
We think that the Tower’s listing as a building of architectural and historic interest is long overdue. The building has no statutory protection from unsympathetic development and needs to have its setting preserved to protect its unique and memorable look.
The CRO thinks that the NLA Tower should be listed as soon as possible and thinks that this idea would gain a lot of local support. Have a look at what architectural author John Grindrod had to say about the Tower in his piece for the 20th Century Society.
Let’s show this Croydon icon a bit of love.
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Fairfield firmly back on track
Fairfield Halls is coming back to life after a pandemic-enforced break so the CRO had a look at some of the new season’s events.
The Fairfield has lined up some great bookings for March 2022. For fans of standup comedy, Romesh Ranganathan comes to Croydon on his Cynic’s Mixtape nationwide tour.
Ranganthan is putting showbiz aside for now so he can deliver a carefully curated selection of all the things he has found unacceptable since the last tour.
Unsurprisingly this 2 night booking is already sold out at the Fairfield show has already sold out so Romesh Ranganathan fans will just have to hope that he will be back in town before long.
Romesh Ranganathan – cynical? moi? Alan Carr is back on the road in his first UK tour in four years. From the high of his fabulous wedding day to the low of lockdown stuck on a farm, a lot has changed since Alan’s last tour four years ago, including Alan. Nowadays, it’s all about finding happiness and joy in the small things – why be a national treasure when you can be a Regional Trinket? in this brand new show Carr brings his unique brand of wit and observation to daily life.
The good news for comedy fans is that at the time of writing there are still tickets available for this show from the Fairfield box office.
Everybody’s favourite Regional Trinket Tony Hadley is still rockin’ after all these years and is taking the show on the road to let everyone know about it. Hadley will be playing the Fairfield on the 2nd March 2022 and it promises to be a great night out.
From his early days at the forefront of the New Romantic movement with his band Spandau Ballet, Hadley has (quite rightly) been acclaimed as one of pop’s greatest vocalists. Spandau Ballet’s hits, True, Gold and Through The Barricades are a part of the musical lexicon of a whole generation.
Tony will be performing with his new band The Fabulous TH Band marking a remarkable 40 years in music.
There are still limited tickets available from the Fairfield Box Office at the time of writing.
Tony Hadley – still rockin’ after all these years Bookmark The CRO for updates on Fairfield events.
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Croydon Council key elections in May
Every four years Croydon Council holds elections for all 70 of its seats. At the last council elections in 2018, 267 candidates stood for office and 104,956 votes were cast and counted in one night. It’s a huge exercise in local democracy involving council officers from all level and experienced casual workers who supervise the polling stations in the day and yet more who come in to check and count the ballots on election night. Results come in throughout the night and normally by about 3am the political make-up of the new council will be becoming clear.
This year however, things are going to be very different. After last October’s governance referendum Croydon Council is changing the way that things are run. Croydon will now have a directly elected executive Mayor whose daily decisions and policymaking will be scrutinised by the ward councillors who make up the full council. This vote will be done by single transferable vote, which is the method used in the London and other metropolitan mayoral contests in the UK. (more details here)
Who’s going to be sitting in these seats after May?
Click on the image for a countdown to Polling Day
The two largest parties have already selected their candidates with the Conservatives fielding Councillor Jason Perry, who is a long serving Croydon councillor and the leader of the minority group on the Council at the moment. Labour have nominated Valerie Shawcross CBE, herself a former leader of Croydon Council and Deputy Mayor of London. The Greens have also selected their candidate Peter Underwood, who is a veteran of many Council elections in Croydon. So far there is no word on the Liberal Democrat candidate.
L to R – Peter Underwood (Green Party), Val Shawcross (Labour) and Jason Perry (Conservative) There are some persistent rumours on the Croydon twitter-sphere about independent candidates preparing to run as executive mayor. It is not clear at the moment if there are going to be any non-aligned candidates and if there are how many of them?
The CRO will be keeping an eye on who is standing and what they actually stand for.
The nominations close on 5th April and things will become clearer then. The CRO will be watching the countdown to nomination day.
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Mayor visits Rotary Club of Croydon
Mayor of Croydon Sherwan Chowdhury and Rotary Club of Croydon President Oumesh Sauba On Tuesday 25th January 2022, the Rotary Club of Croydon received a visit from the Mayor of Croydon, Sherwan Chowdhury at their lunchtime meeting in West Croydon.
Mayor Sherwan was delighted to meet with Rotary members and said ‘I am here today to thank you all personally for the work you have done throughout the pandemic to help the citizens of Croydon who need it’. In particular he wanted to thank them for their charitable work throughout with Crisis Skylight project which gives invaluable help to street homeless people in Croydon all year round. He continued, ‘You can tell the nature of a place by the way it reacts to emergencies. Voluntary organisations like the Rotary add so much to local life’.
President Oumesh says that the visit from the Mayor was a great start to Croydon Rotary’s centenary year and he hopes that 2022 will be less of a challenging year, so that Rotarians can get back to what they do best, supporting local and international communities.
Croydon Rotary welcomes applications for membership – if you are interested in joining the Rotary Club, please follow this link https://www.rotary-ribi.org/clubs/homepage.php?ClubID=869 or write to us here at the CRO on thecroydoncro@gmail.com and we will pass on your query.
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As the CRO flies. Out and about in Croydon – Fabulous steel pannist makes that pan SING
Fabulous sounds in Croydon High Street, click on photo to see the film This steel pannist set up in Croydon High Street last Sunday and the CRO was lucky enough to be passing through so were there to hear him play. As he riffed his way over Ed Sheeran’s ‘Shape of You’ a good crowd gathered round to listen and forget about the cold January morning. Some were filming, others gently moving to the rhythm and a lady next to the CRO was brimming with happiness as she was reminded of old times in Jamaica.
As the CRO moved on, the pannist was just swinging into some Bob Marley at the request of the lady who had been standing next to us.
Magic, pure magic.
If you would like to book this great artist for your event he can be reached by email at jkasteelmusic@gmail.com.
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As the CRO flies. Out and about in Croydon – Station Road keeps a link with the past
Locally listed facade retained on Station Road If you happen to be around West Croydon station you cannot fail to see that a pretty comprehensive redevelopment of some ramshackle old shops is taking place. Station Road in particular is going to look very different.
The new London Square development which is scheduled to be complete in 2024 is going to provide 240 new apartments in two brick fronted, high rise blocks with 55% of these being given over to affordable shared-ownership apartments. As well as this the new apartments will be served by shops, cafes and most importantly a new public space.
Artist’s impression of the new public space opening up Station Road through to St Michael’s Church in Poplar Walk, Saffron Square and the Whitgift Centre An historic building
The new development will also be conserving a part of Croydon’s history. In the parade of ornate, late-Victorian shops at the junction of Station Road and North End is the building where Croydon’s first cinema was located. The Station Picture House (below) was opened in 1908. The cinema did not stay long at this location and closed in 1917 due to the fall off in visitors as a result of World War One.
Station Picture Hall – Croydon’s first cinema The preservation of an historic facade is something that Croydon has seen before. In the 1990s the frontage of the Grant’s building in High Street was ordered to be retained by the Council. The Grant’s building as well as being of a similar vintage to the Station Picture House is also home to the Central Croydon Vue Cinema as well as a number of shops, bars and restaurants.
The Grant’s building, listed in 1994, now home to an entertainment complex -
Shadow Chancellor visits Croydon
Shadow Chancellor Rachel Reeves visited Croydon on Saturday 29th January to see local Labour mayoral candidate Val Shawcross and also meet with local residents and businesses to hear their concerns about the rising cost of living. After spending some time speaking to campaign volunteers, including Alice Bonello aged 8 (above), the Shadow Chancellor moved on to hear local residents’ and businesses’ concerns about the rising cost of living.
The Shadow Chancellor headed to the local shops on the Lower Addiscombe Road and stopped to speak with Addiscombe’s local greengrocer James Monckton at Addiscombe Fruit and Veg. Mr Monckton spoke to the Shadow Chancellor about some of the difficulties small businesses are facing. Ms Reeves then moved on to Addiscombe’s landmark cafe, Daisy’s.
A quick break, Rachel Reeves at Daisy’s in Addiscombe The CRO got a chance to speak to James Monckton from Addiscombe Fruit and Veg shortly after Ms Reeves left. Mr Monckton said he had been delighted to meet with the Shadow Chancellor. ‘I see Sarah Jones all the time, she often pops in when she is working at her office which is just up the road. You can always get a straight answer out of Sarah and I appreciate that’. He went on to add ‘Rachel Reeves seems good, understands a lot about the pressure of being in business’.
James Monckton with Rachel Reeves MP, Sarah Jones MP and Cllr Maddie Henson He rolled his eyes as he told me ‘the last well known politician to visit here was Boris Johnson when he was Mayor of London a few years back. All he did was wander around telling everyone that he had bought a pound of mince in Gibson’s Butchers, which he hadn’t!’. He then confirmed that Rachel Reeves had bought a few things before she left, but would not be drawn on Ms Reeves’s taste in fruit and vegetables.
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