Some sketches in Croydon
Croydon is a part of South London. Many people may be impressed by its high crime rate and safety issues, or its history of bankruptcy, but Croydon is also a place with good schools and has a lot of history to tell.
Within a few years, I have accumulated more and more sketches in this borough. In this article I am going to tell some stories starting from some of my sketches.
Croydon Airport
Do you know Croydon used to have a domestic airport? Before joining Greater London in 1965, the airport was quite near Croydon Town Centre, say around 30-minute bus journey so it was so convenient to fly to other cities. However it only lasted between 1928 and 1959, so it couldn’t become one of the airports in London.
The terminal building has been preserved with a cafe and a restaurant, which serve customers during daytime in weekdays. The terminal itself is usually open to the public on the first Sunday of every month.
Outside the above hours, you can still access just outside the entrance, with an old aircraft hanging in front of the architecture, showing the airport working before the ages of Boeing and Airbus.
Wendy’s and London tram
There is a Wendy in between East Croydon and West Croydon stations, in which the upstairs of the restaurant has a view overlooking the town with skyscrapers. It’s also a great place to sketch.
You can see the trams here, which started from 2000 after the double-decker tram had disappeared for a few decades.
The modern tram consists of an entirely new network partly covering the previous rail network, which connects east to Bromley (Beckenham Junction and Elmers End), south (uphills) to New Addington, and west to Morden, Mitcham Junction and Wimbledon. It shares the same single fares and daily/weekly caps as bus so in order to max out the cap when visiting Croydon, take these two transport altogether!
Whitgift Centre
There are some shopping centres in Croydon, and the largest one in the town centre is Whitgift Shopping Centre, which used to be the biggest before the opening of Westfield White City in 2008. Since 2023 Westfield has had the full ownership of Whitgift and Centrale so we’re expecting to see a new Westfield being developed in the coming few years.
East Croydon station
There are two main stations besides some small stations: East Croydon and West Croydon. While West Croydon is the terminal of London Overground, East Croydon is the biggest transportation hub connecting Central London, two airports (Gatwick and Luton) coastal England like Brighton, and as north as Bedford and Cambridge; not to mention the interchange of bus (as far as Heathrow Airport) and tram.
The site faces an important landmark like The One, and some new apartments and commercial facilities are nearby. East Croydon used to be called New Croydon because it was newly developed compared to West Croydon in which both traditional and modern shopping centres have been already there for long.
South Norwood Library
If you don’t know what Brutalist architecture is, you can refer to Barbican. In London we do have a Brutalist library, but it is always overlooked and was once almost demolished.
The facility has been survived thanks to the community’s opposition to the council’s plan of replacement. The reading environment is already nice because of the high ceiling with big windows allowing sunlight to come in.
