Croydon Documentary. Part 1 - The High-rise and Fall
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- Опубликовано: 7 июл 2016
- Love it or loathe it, Croydon is a remarkable place. The result of radical architectural and urban experiments in the 1960s, it is a strange, challenging and unique piece of city.
In the first of a two-part documentary from the Architecture Foundation, Phineas Harper investigates Croydon's history, piecing together a story of big visions with a whiff of corruption.
This documentary is made possible thanks to the generous support of Hawkins\Brown, an architecture firm actively engaged in improving the future of Croydon.
ABOUT THE ARCHITECTURE FOUNDATION
For over 20 years, the Architecture Foundation has brought together professionals from across the built environment to discuss and act on issues related to design and the built environment. With a renewed focus on the city and the critical intersection of architecture and politics, the Architecture Foundation works to effect meaningful change on policy and practice.
www.architecturefoundation.org.uk
Lived in Croydon for 7 years liked it. It’s the people who have no respect that ruin it
100%
Exactly the reason I'm looking to leave now. Great location, but terrible people
All the born and bred English moved out of London to Essex multiculturalism and integration is a problem in the UK all over .
@@johnclark7065 i lived in forntun eef for many years, now oot.
Could not agree more
This documentary needs revisiting especially with the recent declared bankruptcy
💯
Wow 66million just disappeared.....
just imagine waking up on a Saturday morning in Croydon
Born and bred in Croydon, New Addington. Nobody in the history of earth has ever called it little siberia 😂😂😂😂😂
Lol the media creates bs names.
New Addington was called little Siberia
That’s exactly what I was thinking 😂😂😂
@@davewyatt5794 oh ok I take it back, maybe it wasn't in my time.
We lived in new Addington in the 70s on the new fieldway estate winters could be very harsh hence the nickname
Lived over at Roundshaw late 80’s to mid 90’s .. went back to Croydon a while ago and was shocked at the decline especially Surrey st market.
Growing up in Croydon and now living in Los Angeles, no place like Croydon
Funny to read your comment. Live 40 mins south of SF, brought up South Croydon, no place like Croydon, quite the memories watching this!
What are you smoking??
Edward Curuvija Penrose south london wet
@@anthony68 exactly what I thought..He's Asian though there's plenty in croydon probably why he likes it so much.
Im from there I think it's a dump now.
@@anthony68 bold question to ask anyone from Croydon 😂
I've been living in Croydon for just over 6 months now, the main reason I moved is due to the amazing transport links as well as getting more for less flat wise in what feels like London. The thing they really need to sort out is the town centre, the shops are so depressing. Although they have most things there are two massive shopping centres that are at about 30% capacity and could really be revamped.
The Westfield development has been approved... If you stay in Croydon it'll change completely in about 5 years
East/ West croydon is an eyesore. Its nice that its getting some development but it just seems to be more high rises. Westfield wouldve been a welcome investment too. Feels like every glimmer of hope croydon gets is shortly ousted.
Grew up near Croydon, was always interested as to why it looked so bad. This comprehensively explained it. Cool archive footage too!
😂😂😂😭😭
Could you point out where in London looks good. I've been searching for days.
@@uncoiledfish2561 you must be blind
I born in Morocco I come to Croydon in 2011 to 2018 I spent my lovely days in this town now I back to Morocco and missed Croydon so much Croydon kept lot of memories i was live in Leslie Grove CR0
I love 60’s and 70’s functional, concrete, blocky architecture. Especially the ramps and the stairs. So, Croydon to me is beautiful..
You can live there then mate. Fill your boots.
@@wendywolfman oh god no, not to live. Just to look at from the motorway.
My home town. Although I miss it those days are gone, and I wouldn't go near the place now...
Born in Croydon in 1952 i witnessed the huge change over the years. I worked for Croydon Council for forty years on the maintainance side as a carpenter. People have certainly changed there, it was a great community once especially in the 1960s.
I lived in Croydon in the early 70's. In New Addington. Back then it was a lovely quiet suburb. I have fond memories of the area.
wow. New addington is a dump now
@@NaadiraSsali I've heard. Sad, back then it was place where kids played outside with no problems whatsoever. Even back then it wasn't a rich area. But people still treated it with respect.
I was there then and remember New Addington being so quiet to the point of it feeling deserted.
@FFM0594 I went to a primary school in New Addington. I can't remember the name. One of the earliest memories I have of the area as a child was the quietness of the area.
I ve been to Croydon twice while living in London for eight years. I visited 44 countries around the world and many more cities. This is one of the biggest dumps I’ve seen .
It is by far the dirtiest Borough
Lived there for 7 years. It’s an absolute fxcking shithole 😂 smack heads outside East Croydon station trying to get money off of you and spiceheads out cold on the bench at 2pm on a Tuesday afternoon 💀
From the mid 70s to late 80s Croydon was a bustling town which served the surrounding communities well but sadly for a long time now, it has a very uninviting feel and look about it, those of us who know just how much this town has lost, know there is nothing good coming Croydon's way in the future, no matter how high they build the next building in the town it will not help drag Croydon from the sewer it has occupied for the last 25 years.
The 90s Croydon still had that, but around the turn of the Millenium it started going round the U-Bend.
If we're honest, Croydon had serious problems back then. You need only look at the huge levels of crime in Croydon and the surrounding areas in that time. It was a magnet for poverty and rampant corruption - having the National Front offices in Croydon wasn't exactly what you'd call a bonus either. Worst of all though, it was a serious paedophile hotspot back then. You need only look at the local news for some of the cases of people arrested for abusing kids in the 80s. The Sidney Cooke paedophile gang had a base there, and you've had other cases like the local teacher Brian Johncock who groomed teenage boys at the school where he worked. Nigel Clayton groomed and abused a number of boys from the 1970s throughout the 80s - targetting the large number of kids in Croydon from broken homes. David Hughes was a football coach in the Croydon area who groomed and abused boys throughout the 1980s. Croydon wasn't as nice in the 80s as you remember.
@@th8257 Sadly your reply could quite easily be a snapshot of society throughout the UK (not just Croydon) over any number of previous decades. What's more alarming is the fact that in 2022 we don't ever seem to be any further away from the nonsense of the past. Nothing new, just the same old nonsense cycling its way through society for the next generation to scratch their heads at, wondering, what is going on.
Yeah, well your Council turned into complete anti-car nazis dishing out parking tickets at 11.00pm at night and scared all those nice middle class people away from the place.....You basically turned the place into a grotty violent dump!!
I see many parallels between 60s Croydon, and 60s Birmingham.......good to hear from John Grindrod - Concretopia is a superb account of post WW2 town planning and urban design.
I love croydon, it’s my home. But in recent years the decline has been rapid. It needs reinventing and repurposing.
I was surprised before Christmas to discover that St Georges Walk is totally gone and all the area from the few remaining bars out to the Nestle building is flattened for yet more "luxury apartments" that no one can afford.
@@rych7852 St. George's Walk is so vacant now, the only reason my mates and I go there is to skate when it rains. The most annoying thing is having to go through and clean all the garbage people leave there. It has so much potential but all we can see it as is a dry place to skate now.
@@rych7852 💯
@@rych7852 Luxury apartments with the great views of Croydon College and the Croydon Flyover 😂
Interesting documentary - liked the commentary that focused on the positive.
I grew up here in the 80s and 90s,I loved my hometime (but "escaped" to Sussex in 2000s upon becoming disillusioned by the dream) and you've just hit the nail on the head, it all makes sense now.
Genuinely interesting and enjoyably informative. Thank you 👍
This is really excellent work. Well researched, opinionated, with a dash of tenderness...when can we see part two...?
Awesome work.
Enjoyed this video thanks
Wonderful archive footage.
It's a shame to see it's decline.
My family come from Poole which is a nice place now but in the 60's the town was basically a huge gasworks and slums and my mother used to always comment about going to Croydon to see family, she thought it was the most marvelous place on earth. Clean, loads to do, transport was brilliant etc she loved it.
Very interesting thank you
CR0❤ it's not that bad, I love where I'm from 💯
Good for u. Believe it or not there are a still a few good things about it . Yes there are alot of characters here but there are also alot of nice people. Its a shame and a crime about the bankruptcy 'cos it'll just be even worse now such as even more rubbish piling up everywhere. Areas like W Croydon Surrey Street market/Church Street are looking really shabby and it will not get any better now with no money. That Jo Negrini aka 'Negreedi' has a lot to answer for.🤬
Great documentary! Funny that you use a David Bowie song in the credits since he was so vocal about how much he hated Croydon.
Who cares what someone from Beckenham thinks 🤣
@@rych7852 yeah that lot are right up themselves.
Grew up less than a few miles from Croydon and now it's like downtown Beirut too many people getting stabbed and killed by gangs fighting over postcodes. Never was perfect and never will be
this didn’t age well
@@daroldcarold3443 neither did Croydon!
Taelin Lambert neither did Bromley
It’s amazing these people from Croydon council show their faces in interviews, I wouldn’t given their disastrous leadership
Great documentary! And now in 2021 Croydon is living through another reborn - so many buildings are being erected right now! Hopefully they will sort out the Whitgift centre
I went to infant and junior school with John Grindrod, it's great to see him again after all these years!
It's weird isn't it... Those of us from Croydon slag it off but get protective of it whenever strangers criticise it....
As with alot of people I moved out to Surrey to give my children a better life and get away from the crime.
That’s exactly the way I feel as well funny enough
The david Bowie music is so fitting
Yes only fond out davud bowie croydon. Person. I know royals likr croydon so.ust be great charlies tyrought surrey st Market was Walford eastenders set lol bless him
Grew up in the Monk's hill estate and lived in Thornton Heath and now Crystal Palace.
And to think Croydon’s changed so much in the past 5 years since this was filmed
I'm assuming you mean it's got worse obviously??
@@delanodegenie6970 loool I meant structurally
@@kianac5021 😂😂 I get ya now!!
It’s the corrupt council who has let the place down. For one they seems to have a hatred for the motor vehicle, with their draconian parking restrictions. If anyone knows parsons mead and handcroft road each road leads into each other, parsons mead leads into derby road. Now this corrupt council is fining motorists for entering each road, they’ve put up a small little sign that none can see. This council has to be the worse in the uk! The government needs to clear out the corrupt counsellors from the town hall and bring in new people who actually care about the area.
Good documentary
An upbringing in Croydon was a mixed bag. On the outside it seems a pretty drab place and it can be rough. There is a charm to the place. I had a good childhood there.
Me too, and certainly toughened me up to the point of being streetwise far beyond my years. Apart from some areas of Dublin, nothing I've seen is as rough and unforgiving as Croydon was.
i agree about the fact it will need a new redevelopment, lot of areas in the centre have so much potential. they are now taking them down and build blocks of flat. i think croydon has a lot of potential, especially due to the tram (that makes it quicker to navigate) and the fact they have frequent and fast trains to central london. I work in the city and it takes me 20 minutes to reach there. lot of colleagues living in zone 2-3 take the same time.
In the 80s and 90s the Whitgift centre and the high street was bustling and full of life. The last recession hit Croydon hard and it never recovered.
Did laugh that the advert for "heyCar" with the guy singing in his car in a car park was actually the Whitgift NCP.
Very nice.
I’ve grown up in Croydon. From when I was born to the age of 5, I lived near Thornton Heath high street, then I moved to Raymead Avenue, near Croydon University Hospital, and I lived there until I was 10. Now I live in Fieldway, New Addington
GachaLife Minimi nice I live on hayesford park estate in Hayes Bromley
new Addington is a dump now.
@@NaadiraSsali if u think that's bad
west Croydon is shocking
Born there, now I live in a Thai village.A hell of a change.
How do you survive there?
6:45 don't go into that tunnel, it's where Mark Corrigan got mugged
Who's that?
The 60's development ruined the centre of Croydon, it's becoming a much nicer place now a lot of the horrid buildings are being torn down and people don't need to rely on the awful pedestrian underpasses. The town is very much in a transition period today, but I really do see it as being in a better place than it was 10-20 years ago when I was growing up. this will be, and has been, hindered by poor national and local government desicions over the last few years, lack of money and speculation in the property markets from the council, but I do not feel as worried crossing roads in the town centre as I did as a teenager. I'm not one for rose tinted nostalgia, the town centre has never really been great, but there is a real optimism today. Although, it does seem Croydon still hasn't got over the idea that taller is better. Lack of proper housing in favour of shiny tall structures is still at the heart of planning.
I have been to Croydon three times, I only have good memories of my weeks spent there.
Wow! A brutalist wonderland...I shall pack up my camera and head for Croydon straight away.
Yeah, it's cool for that kind of stuff.
Cool video
If it's good enough for Christopher Nolan to shoot the Dark Knight Rises in the former BT building. Its good enough for me
Hear, hear.
It would be good if this was followed with an update as things have changed alot.
However seeing that greedy Negrini made me so mad😡 I couldnt take in anything she said
It used to be really nice it changed during the 90s and has become more crime ridden lived in Sth Croydon which was nice til 4 years ago
It's definitely bad now, but it really wasn't what you'd call hunky dory back in the 80s either. Croydon has always had a really dark side to it. . It was a magnet for poverty, crime and rampant corruption back then - having the National Front offices in Croydon wasn't exactly what you'd call a bonus either. Worst of all though, it was a serious paedophile hotspot back then. You need only look at the local news for some of the cases of people arrested for abusing kids in the 80s. The Shirley Oaks children's home was a magnet for paedophiles. The Sidney Cooke paedophile gang had a base in Croydon, and you've had other cases like the local teacher Brian Johncock who groomed teenage boys at the school where he worked. Nigel Clayton groomed and abused a number of boys from the 1970s throughout the 80s - targetting the large number of kids in Croydon from broken homes. David Hughes was a football coach in the Croydon area who groomed and abused boys throughout the 1980s. Like I say - a really dark side to Croydon that's always been there.
I was a kid in Croydon in the 60's Early 70's. Apart from the Fairfield Hall, almost none of the places shown were places I would frequent, the Whitgift Centre being the one exception. The side of Croydon leaning on East Croydon railway station had less appeal than a bomb site.
My husband and I are moving to Croydon at the end of this month. Looking really forward to it.
Careful there
@@Goldenxbih ok we will
Welcome to croydon
Rey Pangan I think they’re dead
Woops
Born in Sanderstead,moved to Australia and now I live in a Thai village.Love the peace here.
Hi. Really interesting, my friend.
What made you leave England and what made you decide on Australia, please ?
Where in Sanderstead?
Lived in Croydon for over a decade... never going back
You should have see Croydon in the 70s it was lovely.
And the 80s
We all know why it's not anymore ay
Let me guess, before the immigrants
Croydon was always a shothole. You'd have to go back to the 40's to find anything close to 'lovely'. The last person executed for a crime in England was from the Croydon area in the 50's. He was a young thief and gang member who shot a police officer. Sounds pretty much the same as modern Croydon to me.
@@dantheman4838 let him have it!!!
My nan & grandad lived & worked in Croydon for many years...but I am going back to the early 1980s.
I remember it being a decent area with some really nice shops.....one being a lovely chocolate shop which my family & i would often go to.
However I know it has a bad reputation now sadly.
People that I used to know that lived there told me they didn't feel safe & had been victims of crime.
I wouldn't blame the architecture though, those buildings have been standing since I was a little girl.
It's mostly the people that bring down an area.
Thatcher hoped that it would become the second London but then there seemed to be a slowdown, with even one plan to turn parts of one high rise block in Wellesley Road into a facility for homeless people. It is a shame that they couldn't have at least preserved one of the last daylight film studios from the silent film era in Limes Road and as with Ealing studios, have a facility for young talent in new film technologies.
Lived and worked in Croydon for nigh on 20 years until the year 2000 (back up north now)found it OK plenty of work lively ok a bit brutalist architectural wise good transport links liked Surrey St Market Fairfield Hall and various hostelries only thing that bugged me was driving home down Lower Addiscombe Road on an evening but I bet I wasn't the only one !
My memories of Croydon in the 70s were of a buzzing commercial playground. If we wanted green space, there were plenty of parks around. But we have never had a coherent plan. As soon we had an idea - Westfield - the idea dies as a result of poor management and economic changes.
Lloyds Park? I loved it.
I drove past Croydon on 15th April 1989.
😂😂damn
good choice not stopping
What time?
Love Croydon ❤️
I was dragged here by my wife 5 years ago. Lived in Croydon for over 3 years, now in Mitcham.
Move closer to the Surrey boarders a few stops down the line from East Croydon and you will meet people saying hello good morning and believe or not people still say please and thank you.
How many times do you have to upload the same video
As a visitor to Croydon, this was very fascinating
1984 i was east croydon.....west wickham .. Fabian joshep . ....abdulah al hajiri? Miss them...from seoul
Grew up in Purley ended up in Spain
Don't blame you
Where in Spain though? Spain's pretty big.
I grew up in Purley too. Lovely area, one of the most beautifully picturesque areas I've ever seen. Do you remember woodcote valley road in the snow? Looks like heaven
Want it to have life again?
Rebuild everything with a classic british architecture. There done. It'll last for ever.
What classic british architecture? You're gonna have to be a wee more specific
@@abibas3050 Any classic english architecture from 1945 to 1200's.
It could be tudor, victorian, georgian, regency.... whichever suits your fancy. It's much better than what we have today and it's last a long long time.
@@abibas3050 why? We all know what he means
Always lived in the borough, a lot of which is really nice. But the centre now...?
Jo Negrini. Where is she now?
I love Croydon many happy memories of Fairfield halls with my grandparents, also Terry and june filmed in Wallington my uncle went to the Whitgift school and my dad went to Purley grammer., tiger tiger night club my mum went there in the 1960s when it was grants department store
I worked at Grants in the late fifties.
Negrini what a mess you made and promptly left
I didn't get why the council is building even now when so much office space is empty. I mean the area around the new council building opposite Fairfield halls was entirely redeveloped. They could simply have occupied an existing one.🤔
Never mind James Marshall, what about Ernest Marples , car oriented and running a construction company
Croydon is exactly like Sao Paulo in Brasil without Brasilian, I didn't like at all but it's what it's
Loved CROYDON.
💋😎👄.
Just back from it was working in the hospital and couldnt believe some of the buildings there proper sky scrappers we dont have anything like that in Belfast 😂
Interesting many of the buildings are empty the tall multicouloured. Tower is one of the most recent..to be built ..
I live in that tower!
@@daroldcarold3443 🙏
@@daroldcarold3443 You live in those flats that cost £1 million plus?
Can we just get this straight- Coulsdon and Purley don't want to be part of Croydon. Please let us go back to our own borough ;-;
Hilarious
We have been very impressed by Mr Perry, the new mayor of Croydon, and his pledges to restore Croydon.
We pray that he will be successful in putting into action his plans.
I grew up in Croydon. My Nan and family members worked in some of those office towers. The Whitgift Centre and Allders was an excellent place to meet people or shop. I grew up in Croydon in the 70's , 80's and some part of the 90's. It was then a great place to live. I found this Documentary negative.
Allders was a great shop.
All these problems are because u let all the decision boil down to one powerful man
Born in South Croydon
Interesting documentary but why do people refer to Croydon as a city? It has never been a city and will always be a town in London's suburbs.
No middle class there now, lack of class actually. I was born and bred there, but the city was ruined by the late 90s so moved away, it's now a dangerous run down place with the usual unit shifting consumer chain stores. sad really as I still feel nostalgic when someone says the word Croydon
I could write a Book about South London from Kennington then up The London Road thru' Brixton/Streatham/Norbury/Thornton Heath/West Croydon etc based on my experience since my Grammar School days from 1966 skaterbun ! I used to love going opposite The Fairfield Halls to a 3,000 all-standing Music Pub in the 1970;'s where I saw so many top groups of the day. When I went to Sussex last weekend it was full of EX-Croydon people taking " White Flight" which I have seen all my life...
Depends if u go to south Croydon there’s a lot of affluence kenley sanderstead etc
@@jneal21 That don't count as Croydon lol, I mean it does but up to sanderstead is the Surrey of Croydon
JoshuaM Yh I know but it’s still Croydon borough
Interesting man
It doesn't look much different to any built up area. This film concentrates on central croydon,the shopping and office district,there are some very nice green areas of Croydon.
Croydon as a Borough is okay, but not the town.
Is now a good time to tell you im at croydon on wednesday? Sweet dreams 😘😩😘
What happened to the Dinosaur that was sticking out the back of the Drummond Centre is the real subject that needs a documentary.
Wasn’t it more like a Lewisham facelift rather than Croydon one?
Rubish everywhere!
God I’m so glad I’ve left Croydon, sorry but it lacks a sense of real life - cold and rough!
Ditto! 2 years was more than enough for me! What a place!
It is actually very similar to other satellite towns,,Geneva and the Hague have similar places but Croydon is uncared for just like Crawley, Cwmbran etc. not well,designed but now run down, dirty and relatively poor.
Love Addington
I live in pollards hill, close to croydon
Croydon👊
👍
Croydon is uk compton lool
Lived in Croydon in the mid 80s. Glad to leave it, in all honesty. Had no soul. Why the hell did George Brown forbid high towers in London? Now I know why central London in the 1970s was skycraper-free, apart from the then called Nat West Tower.
Is industrial or manual labour is unpaid? They participate in consumption too and for example in Germany those jobs are really well paid. Better paid then many office jobs.