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Croydon - nightlife, accommodation, things to do and general chat

The High Street looked fucked when I visited last (a year ago). So many empty shops, no focus. Demolition works preparing the ground for a shopping centre that will never come.
 
Looking at Croydon market (Surrey Street) earlier, it made Croydon look like one of the healthiest places I have been.
It was chocked full of fruit n veg stalls :thumbs:. The high street looked very sad with a few shops permanently closed, I also note
St Georges Walk has now gone :( (wedding anniversary is next week and our rings came from in there).
Property prices holding up. A 3 bed mid terrace in Wadden New Road, 1000 sq ft, in need of modernisation £375.
Wandle Park was a delight.
 
hash tag said:
Looking at Croydon market (Surrey Street) earlier, it made Croydon look like one of the healthiest places I have been.
It was chocked full of fruit n veg stalls :thumbs:. The high street looked very sad with a few shops permanently closed, I also note
St Georges Walk has now gone :( (wedding anniversary is next week and our rings came from in there).
Property prices holding up. A 3 bed mid terrace in Wadden New Road, 1000 sq ft, in need of modernisation £375.
Wandle Park was a delight.
Click to expand...

High street was fucked before the pandemic, and St Georges too. The house prices as a bit daft. The tiny little new flats are crazy, one bedroom, one front room with kitchen (communal area elsewhere for all flat owners) for more than I paid for my whole house 10 years ago.

I guess it must be the same everywhere. Don't get me wrong, I love Croydon, I just didn't realise prices and property had gone so nuts aorund here.

One thing that is great about the pandemic and me being out of work . . . even though I knew croydon had a lot of green spaces and woodland, I have had the chance to explore even more. 15 minutes by train and you are in the centre of london, but you can jog into deep countryside in under an hour. I grew up in a Cumbrian suburb and a west country village and it's probably more rural on the croydon outskirts than they are today.
It's been a year and I keep finding new things (can't be long before I'm done now though).
 
I've been doing a bit of the Wandle walk (sort of) quite regularly. Through the park then following the river up to Beddington park, then through the nature reserve up to Mitcham Junction. . . .through Mitcham common and head back to Croydon.
Hopefully one day I'll be up for doing the whole thing to Fulham one day (when my leg is better).
 
Please don't try and follow the Wandle to Fulham. It flows into the Thames in Wandsworth. It can be a bigger to follow in places.
Reminiscing about Croydon today, I recall it has had it share of record shops. 2 HMV's at one time or another, differing locations, L&H Cloake, Our Price, Beano's of course and my first record shop Addiscombe Music Centre
 
hash tag said:
Please don't try and follow the Wandle to Fulham. It flows into the Thames in Wandsworth. It can be a bigger to follow in places.
Reminiscing about Croydon today, I recall it has had it share of record shops. 2 HMV's at one time or another, differing locations, L&H Cloake, Our Price, Beano's of course and my first record shop Addiscombe Music Centre
Click to expand...
Now all we have is 101 records (and maybe some dance ones I don't know about). Losing Beano's was very sad because I had only just discovered it.

To be fair there is barely any Wandle to follow on the bit I do, I'm not really following it after Beddington Park.
There are wandle trail maps to follow, it can't be that bad can it?
 
The wandle disappears in Wandsworth for a short way and I'm sure it does somewhere else as well. It forks at one point and we took the wrong fork. Somewhere near the ponds, the path was closed a week or two ago.
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
I've been doing a bit of the Wandle walk (sort of) quite regularly. Through the park then following the river up to Beddington park, then through the nature reserve up to Mitcham Junction. . . .through Mitcham common and head back to Croydon.
Hopefully one day I'll be up for doing the whole thing to Fulham one day (when my leg is better).
Click to expand...
Our paths may well have crossed! That's been one of my regular lockdown walks, starting from Broad Green. Do you take the footpath that runs alongside the golf course and joins Beddington Lane tramstop?
 
The wandle was one of London's most industrialised rivers. It's only about 10 miles and parts are very interesting...Dean City Farm and Merton Abbey Mills amongst other things.
 
Kev424242 said:
Our paths may well have crossed! That's been one of my regular lockdown walks, starting from Broad Green. Do you take the footpath that runs alongside the golf course and joins Beddington Lane tramstop?
Click to expand...
Hey neighbour!

I would suggest to add in Beddington Farmlands as you can go from Beddington Park across to Mitcham Junction. I guess the terrain might not be ideal for running but you might see a stork or two :D
 
Kev424242 said:
Our paths may well have crossed! That's been one of my regular lockdown walks, starting from Broad Green. Do you take the footpath that runs alongside the golf course and joins Beddington Lane tramstop?
Click to expand...
I did go that way initially, but it shorten the journey a bit too much so as Mitcham Junction I get onto the road, go up to the roundabout and run down the a236 with the common on the left and the golf course on the right .

The footpath by the golf course is nice and empty though. . . mind you I only went when it was a bit wet and flooded.
 
Callie said:
Hey neighbour!

I would suggest to add in Beddington Farmlands as you can go from Beddington Park across to Mitcham Junction. I guess the terrain might not be ideal for running but you might see a stork or two :D
Click to expand...
Thats the way I go. It's fine for running. It's the favourite part of my route I think.
 
We've cycled the Wandle Trail quite a bit with the kids (and without) over the years. There are lovely stretches - through woodland, rope swings etc and much more urban stretches of course. Beddington Park is now a favourite for us to go to with the kids and dogs. Morden Hall park, Dean City Farm etc have been favourites for a long time now.

We've recently been very much enjoying Farthing Downs and Happy Valley which are both stunning.
 
ATOMIC SUPLEX said:
I did go that way initially, but it shorten the journey a bit too much so as Mitcham Junction I get onto the road, go up to the roundabout and run down the a236 with the common on the left and the golf course on the right .

The footpath by the golf course is nice and empty though. . . mind you I only went when it was a bit wet and flooded.
Click to expand...
It's often a bit damp underfoot, and gets churned up by MTBs.
 
gaijingirl said:
We've cycled the Wandle Trail quite a bit with the kids (and without) over the years. There are lovely stretches - through woodland, rope swings etc and much more urban stretches of course. Beddington Park is now a favourite for us to go to with the kids and dogs. Morden Hall park, Dean City Farm etc have been favourites for a long time now.

We've recently been very much enjoying Farthing Downs and Happy Valley which are both stunning.
Click to expand...
Another favourite of mine. You can do a mainly off-road route taking in Coulsdon Common, Kenley Aerodrome and Riddlesdown from HV.
 
Really enjoying everyone's tales of Wandle based walking :thumbs:

The river trails and open spaces have certainly helped my MH over the lockdowns.

Just in case anyone's not already got this/heard of it, here's a link* to Bob Steel's wonderful companion to the Wandle. Invaluable to those who enjoy the river and want to find out more about it's wildlife, industrial history and grand properties. It's very well illustrated and generously supplied with easy to follow map extracts.

River Wandle Companion and Wandle Trail Guide: Amazon.co.uk: Steel, Robert William, Coleman, Derek Alan: 9780957258211: Books

* not an endorsement of this online bookseller
 
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