Croydon - nightlife, accommodation, things to do and general chat
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Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
Yeah, I live in that constituency, too, and it is frustrating how close they got to winning.
I repeat - bastard Tories.
Miss-Shelf
I'll meet you further on up the road
and yet people who live round there are hardly tory central when you walk those streets round cherry orchard road!!! ???
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
The ward where I live is staunchly Labour, and has been for a long time. I am not sure exactly where the Bastard Tories are. Perhaps towards the South of the constituency, where it gets close to the Bastard Tory consituency?
Don't forget how close the vote was. Sarah Jones, the losing Labour candidate, got more votes than lots of MPs in other parts of the country who were elected!
I suppose, looking for the silver lining, it is good to know that there are more than 22,000 people in Croydon Central who wanted her as MP. However, there are also more than 22,000 who are Bastard Tories.
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
thornton heath was great today. My daughter had football practice at the leisure centre, then on to the watch repair shop who fixed my watch for free, then onto the YBR bakery for the best cakes in croydon, then had a ice slush of the geezer who wheels around a slab of ice and carves it up to make a slush puppy type drink. shops all busy.
You're in the Guardian today! apparently you're ready to love yourself 
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...on-is-londons-punchline-having-the-last-laugh
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...on-is-londons-punchline-having-the-last-laugh
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
You're in the Guardian today! apparently you're ready to love yourself
http://www.theguardian.com/cities/2...on-is-londons-punchline-having-the-last-laugh
ska invita
back on the other side
"Culturally, Croydon has plenty to shout about. " < so do prisons
5bn redevelopment money? anyone know what thats being spent on?
5bn redevelopment money? anyone know what thats being spent on?
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
It tells you later in the paragraph.
ska invita
back on the other side
ah thanks - doh!
". Around 30 blocks are being built or converted, as the council attempts to transform redundant offices into high-value residential properties and attract new firms: 170 start-ups are set to occupy one tower called Tech City. And there’s a new shopping centre from Westfield and Hammerson to replace the ageing Whitgift Centre. “It’s a real indicator of the market,” says Negrini. “People are saying if Westfield will invest, there must be something going on.”"
I think I was expecting more than just a new shopping centre where theres already a shopping centre and tarting up existing blocks.
Big cycle event in Central Croydon today
http://www.tourseries.co.uk/home.php
http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/sp...s_cycling_in_Croydon__Your_at_a_glance_guide/
Unfortunately I am working away or we'd head up after work with the toddler to cheer on the riders, couple of decent UK names riding including Wiggins new team.
If it's anything like the Tour of Britain we saw in Reigate park it should be fun. Although weather is shite where I am today, so no idea what it's like in The Don.
http://www.tourseries.co.uk/home.php
http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/sp...s_cycling_in_Croydon__Your_at_a_glance_guide/
Unfortunately I am working away or we'd head up after work with the toddler to cheer on the riders, couple of decent UK names riding including Wiggins new team.
If it's anything like the Tour of Britain we saw in Reigate park it should be fun. Although weather is shite where I am today, so no idea what it's like in The Don.
Guineveretoo
Mostly bewildered
Thanks for this. A friend of mine who works in the industry and who lives out in the sticks somewhere, is going to be there, and I have arranged to meet him, thanks to this post!
The weather is horrendous at the moment, so I am only going if it clears up!
Callie
Pivoting
One more Croydon post from me.
Guy I know Matt runs this street cocktails thing http://www.streetcocktails.co.uk/
They are doing a cocktail thing on Friday night at matthews yard
Guy I know Matt runs this street cocktails thing http://www.streetcocktails.co.uk/
They are doing a cocktail thing on Friday night at matthews yard
hash tag
Books, not bombs
a fucking tesco?another pub going and another bloody supermarket arriving. this makes me very sad. there are no pubs near me really but there used to be. now just empty husks or flats in their place.
why cant it just be a pub. or a bakers, id take a proper bakers too!
Please be careful what you wish for, depending on how you define "proper bakers". Part of the gentrification of where I live is the opening up of loads of "artisan bakers". They make and sell about 20 loaves a day charging a few quid a time for them!
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
There was a serious motorbike crash in the area where I work yesterday. http://www.croydonguardian.co.uk/ne...o_flames__in_New_Addington_crash/?ref=mr&lp=3
I saw the aftermath and it was amazing he survived.
I saw the aftermath and it was amazing he survived.
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boohoo
No.
Croydon Heritage Festival starts next week:
http://www.croydonheritagefestival.co.uk/
Anyone want to do a Croydon meetup/drinks?
http://www.croydonheritagefestival.co.uk/
Anyone want to do a Croydon meetup/drinks?
Maggot
The Cake of Liberty
I wish they still held that music festival in Lloyd ParkCroydon Heritage Festival starts next week:
http://www.croydonheritagefestival.co.uk/
Anyone want to do a Croydon meetup/drinks?
Callie
Pivoting
Does anyone read the Croydon Citizen free paper?
A link to an article just popped up on my news feed, I read it and maybe I am misreading but:
"Students are a huge boost to a city’s economy. Loans are there to be spen t, and millions of pounds are poured into cafés, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and shops in university cities every year. Many of these businesses are also staffed by students, with the majority being under 21 and willing to work long shifts for the lower level of minimum wage."
What the actual fuck is this moron on about? http://thecroydoncitizen.com/economics-business/halls-residence-can-done-save-west-croydon-part-2/
I bet he lives in South Croydon
A link to an article just popped up on my news feed, I read it and maybe I am misreading but:
"Students are a huge boost to a city’s economy. Loans are there to be spen t, and millions of pounds are poured into cafés, restaurants, bars, pubs, clubs and shops in university cities every year. Many of these businesses are also staffed by students, with the majority being under 21 and willing to work long shifts for the lower level of minimum wage."
What the actual fuck is this moron on about? http://thecroydoncitizen.com/economics-business/halls-residence-can-done-save-west-croydon-part-2/
I bet he lives in South Croydon
BigMoaner
What A Load of Old Bollocks
written by some blogger. liked it. very close to reality.
London Neighbourhoods 1: Thornton Heath
Posted on December 27, 2014
This following is adapted from a piece I penned purely for my own amusement in early 2009. A recent return visit to the place in question suggests that it is still a reasonable reflection and I hope it will be the first in a sporadic series of odes to the less celebrated corners of London.
Thornton Heath, on the northern fringes of the London Borough of Croydon is a land that seems little touched by recent decades. Out of the station you step onto a busy road that on first glance is devoid of charm. There are no nice restaurants or shops in sight, the architecture is forgettable and the street-life is seedy without the mitigating vibrancy of Brixton, Peckham or Dalston. Across the road is an infinitely drab Wetherspoons, the Flora Sandes, named after the only British woman who officially served as a solider in World War I. Peer inside and the likelihood is a row will be breaking out between a couple of Caribbean men, ignored by the old Indian crosspatches who drink in silence, enervated by the demands of South London life. In the mornings, belligerent English alcoholics sit joylessly with their pints outside so they can smoke.
But resist the urge to turn back into the station: give the place a chance. With years of intimate acquaintance you might even come to love it. The classic South London hallmarks are all here – tiny jerk chicken emporia presided over by affable mommas; insalubrious kebab joints whose Turkish and Afghan staff produce minor miracles out of all proportion to their bargain prices; halal butchers which have Pakistani names and play Indian music; greasy spoons such as the Brigstock Café where a charming family of Copts serve (arguably) the best bacon in London. And everywhere you will find outlets for the beautification of Afro-Caribbean womanhood – nail parlours, wig shops, make-up salons, the works.
This is a corner of London untroubled by Starbucks, although it boasts a large Tesco, and Subway made it in in mid-2007. I can’t imagine anybody campaigned against either of these in a bid to keep Thornton Heath local. The poshest joint in town is generic Mediterranean and serves meze at passable prices. Perhaps the most famous local amenity, other than the charming 1900 clock-tower, is the Leisure Centure, whose much-loved swimming pool appears to act as a focal point for the community. All are welcome here, from doggy-paddling Punjabi matriarchs to voluminous Jamaicans who bob and sway in the name of exercise to some anodyne derivative of reggae, their efforts magnified in waves across the pool.
Any timelessness you sense is probably an illusion. The leisure centre, for example, only dates from 2004, and required the demolition of an earlier public bathhouse built in the suburb’s Victorian heyday. Indeed, in the late 19th century Thornton Heath was quite something, jolted out of rural anonymity by the arrival of the railway. There was a cinema, plenty of pubs and a bustling parade of shops serving the area’s respectably middle-class residents. But a combination of time and urban development has not been kind. The cinema has long since gone, the pubs are down-at-heel and today’s shops are of a kind that, as a friend once described it “could only survive in South London.” The once-famous Thornton Heath Pond was drained in the 1950’s to make way for a roundabout.
The respectable middle-classes, meanwhile, have by and large upped sticks and made way for a motley snapshot of London’s human tapestry: impeccably upright Caribbean grandmothers and their hooded adolescent grandsons; rambunctious Nigerian taxi drivers; shy Tamils hurrying to the “Ghanapati Temple”; Pakistanis and Kashmiris selling meat, fish and veg; East African Indians such as sweet-natured Surinder from the sandwich shop who calls himself “David”; and, judging by their garb, even the odd Wahhabi hanging about outside the Islamic Centre.
On deeper acquaintance you discover gems, of course. There is a peaceful wooded park on top of a hill, while the Jam Rock café serves an excellent goat curry and the beer garden of the Railway Pub is a fine enough spot for a summer evening. Even the godawful Wetherspoons which, being on the ground floor of the block that used to house my office, claimed more than its fair share of my Friday evenings, turned out in retrospect to be a rich den of humanity compared to the dismal blandness of the successor we appointed when we relocated to East Croydon. A recent reunion there with ex-colleagues reacquainted us with the advantages of good, cheap beer and a spacious saloon bar.
In all, though, not much seems to happen here. Granted you see the occasional police drug search and on some days an Evangelist comes to harangue her fellow sinners while the legless man effs and blinds in his wheelchair over a can of Old Speckled Hen, but mostly you have the sense of a neglected, but oddly content little community lost between London and Croydon. There is no real sign of gentrification – it’s not going the way of Brixton any time soon, let alone Shoreditch – too much effort, and who’d come anyway? For now, I like it like it is.
London Neighbourhoods 1: Thornton Heath
Posted on December 27, 2014
This following is adapted from a piece I penned purely for my own amusement in early 2009. A recent return visit to the place in question suggests that it is still a reasonable reflection and I hope it will be the first in a sporadic series of odes to the less celebrated corners of London.
Thornton Heath, on the northern fringes of the London Borough of Croydon is a land that seems little touched by recent decades. Out of the station you step onto a busy road that on first glance is devoid of charm. There are no nice restaurants or shops in sight, the architecture is forgettable and the street-life is seedy without the mitigating vibrancy of Brixton, Peckham or Dalston. Across the road is an infinitely drab Wetherspoons, the Flora Sandes, named after the only British woman who officially served as a solider in World War I. Peer inside and the likelihood is a row will be breaking out between a couple of Caribbean men, ignored by the old Indian crosspatches who drink in silence, enervated by the demands of South London life. In the mornings, belligerent English alcoholics sit joylessly with their pints outside so they can smoke.
But resist the urge to turn back into the station: give the place a chance. With years of intimate acquaintance you might even come to love it. The classic South London hallmarks are all here – tiny jerk chicken emporia presided over by affable mommas; insalubrious kebab joints whose Turkish and Afghan staff produce minor miracles out of all proportion to their bargain prices; halal butchers which have Pakistani names and play Indian music; greasy spoons such as the Brigstock Café where a charming family of Copts serve (arguably) the best bacon in London. And everywhere you will find outlets for the beautification of Afro-Caribbean womanhood – nail parlours, wig shops, make-up salons, the works.
This is a corner of London untroubled by Starbucks, although it boasts a large Tesco, and Subway made it in in mid-2007. I can’t imagine anybody campaigned against either of these in a bid to keep Thornton Heath local. The poshest joint in town is generic Mediterranean and serves meze at passable prices. Perhaps the most famous local amenity, other than the charming 1900 clock-tower, is the Leisure Centure, whose much-loved swimming pool appears to act as a focal point for the community. All are welcome here, from doggy-paddling Punjabi matriarchs to voluminous Jamaicans who bob and sway in the name of exercise to some anodyne derivative of reggae, their efforts magnified in waves across the pool.
Any timelessness you sense is probably an illusion. The leisure centre, for example, only dates from 2004, and required the demolition of an earlier public bathhouse built in the suburb’s Victorian heyday. Indeed, in the late 19th century Thornton Heath was quite something, jolted out of rural anonymity by the arrival of the railway. There was a cinema, plenty of pubs and a bustling parade of shops serving the area’s respectably middle-class residents. But a combination of time and urban development has not been kind. The cinema has long since gone, the pubs are down-at-heel and today’s shops are of a kind that, as a friend once described it “could only survive in South London.” The once-famous Thornton Heath Pond was drained in the 1950’s to make way for a roundabout.
The respectable middle-classes, meanwhile, have by and large upped sticks and made way for a motley snapshot of London’s human tapestry: impeccably upright Caribbean grandmothers and their hooded adolescent grandsons; rambunctious Nigerian taxi drivers; shy Tamils hurrying to the “Ghanapati Temple”; Pakistanis and Kashmiris selling meat, fish and veg; East African Indians such as sweet-natured Surinder from the sandwich shop who calls himself “David”; and, judging by their garb, even the odd Wahhabi hanging about outside the Islamic Centre.
On deeper acquaintance you discover gems, of course. There is a peaceful wooded park on top of a hill, while the Jam Rock café serves an excellent goat curry and the beer garden of the Railway Pub is a fine enough spot for a summer evening. Even the godawful Wetherspoons which, being on the ground floor of the block that used to house my office, claimed more than its fair share of my Friday evenings, turned out in retrospect to be a rich den of humanity compared to the dismal blandness of the successor we appointed when we relocated to East Croydon. A recent reunion there with ex-colleagues reacquainted us with the advantages of good, cheap beer and a spacious saloon bar.
In all, though, not much seems to happen here. Granted you see the occasional police drug search and on some days an Evangelist comes to harangue her fellow sinners while the legless man effs and blinds in his wheelchair over a can of Old Speckled Hen, but mostly you have the sense of a neglected, but oddly content little community lost between London and Croydon. There is no real sign of gentrification – it’s not going the way of Brixton any time soon, let alone Shoreditch – too much effort, and who’d come anyway? For now, I like it like it is.
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