A

RE

TR

OA

CT

IVE

M

AN

IFE

ST

O

FO

R

1

CR

OY

DO

N-

NE

SS

21

1959

A LONDON FESTIVAL OF ARCHITECTURE EVENT

1 July 2010, at Studio Egret West, No. 1 Compton Courtyard, 40 Compton Street, London

************

With contributions from:

David Patterson, Make

David West, Studio Egret West

Julian Lewis, East

Richard Lavington, Maccreanor Lavington

Vincent Lacovara & Finn Williams, Croydon Council

Zineb Segrouchni & Fiona Kydd, OKRA

************

With thanks to:

Jane Dennyson, Daniela Donohoe, Tony Kildare, Croydon Economic Development Company

Studio Egret West

20 1

1969

2 19

UNFINISHEDBUSINESS

Croydon gives every scale of opportunity

From garden shed to industrial shed, or nursery to nursing home

Architecture and buildings are only part of the story

Croydon-ness is about Croydon’s people; their aspirations and their social and cultural memory

Croydon-ness is not knowing what might happen next

18 3

INTRODUCTION

Croydon is a Super Suburb. A C20th idea-city transposed onto a medieval market town, in the middle of semi-detached suburbia. A rudely beautiful product of civic ambition, popular aspiration, geographical accident and imperfect political and economic speculations.

The views from the 19th fl oor of Taberner House, Croydon Council’s Pirelli-like offi ces, are revealing.

From the north side the view is epically urban. A motorway cuts through collages of post-war tower-blocks. Seiffert’s NLA wedding-cake and Lunar House’s space-age rooftop wing compete for attention, whilst the Millennium Dome and Wembley Arch are pathetic miniatures on the horizon. Down below, the Fairfi eld Halls’ ‘Bootleg Beatles’ posters provide melancholy 1960s feedback.

But from Taberner House’s south side, the view is of green-belt Surrey. In the southern half of London’s biggest Borough, the last of Croydon’s tower-blocks tip-toe their way into a landscape of clay-tile roofs, playing fi elds and church spires.

Croydon is a place where the mildly provincial coexists with, and often generates, the boldly radical. Central Croydon, with its towers and fl yovers, is not the result of wartime bombing, but the speculative ambitions of provincial town fathers.

Croydon’s self-confi dence sets it apart.

Many fi nd the resulting urban bricolage uncomfortable, but closer examination fi nds an ideal landscape for exercising the imagination and honestly generating culture. Ikea’s inhabitation of Croydon B power station was a proto-Tate Modern, Croydon College inspired Punks, whilst Birds Portchmouth Russums’s 1993 fantasy to place alien culture-dromes atop Croydon’s multi-storey car parks couldn’t have been more consistent with the place’s unique spirit.

************

by Vincent LacovaraOriginally published in Building Design Magazine, 27th February 2006

4 17

VALUABLE CHEAPNESS

A signifi cant city in its own right?

Or ‘just another satellite of London’?

The chance to be either is Croydon’s freedom

Croydon has a history of rebuilding itself

With each wave of regeneration attempting to solve the mistakes of the last

FINN WILLIAMS, CROYDON COUNCIL

16 5

Frontier Town

Brassy not too classyA bit like Kate Moss

An international collection with international connections

Broad shouldered, but paper thin

A chaotic collage of piecemeal and planned

Threshold of city and countryside

A real epitaph to the concrete jungle

DAVID WEST, STUDIO EGRET WEST

PIONEERINGGATEWAY

6 15

AN IN-BETWEEN DESTINATION

Lost in transition

Touching of time layers

An in-betweenness that makes space for change

A socio-culural passage

Smell the fl owers… Hear the birds

ZINEB SEGROUCHNI AND FIONA KYDD, OKRA

14 7

PERFECTLYINCOMPLETE

Enhanced Topography

Self Confi dence

Super-Connected Super-Market

Empty and full at the same time

Juxtaposition

Fruity Details

VINCENT LACOVARA, CROYDON COUNCIL

8 13

A SENSE OFDISCONNECTION

Croydon’s history has been interrupted by new forms of transport that have been constantly reinvented but never quite completed

Coaching routesSurrey Iron RoadCroydon CanalLondon and CroydonRailwayStagecoachesCroydon CentralA new Ring Road

Only fragments and names of old Croydon remain...

This disconnection is still at the heart of Croydon-ness

DAVID PATTERSON, MAKE

12 9

BOTH A CITYAND A SUBURB

Welcome to Fabulous Croydon, Surrey

Taberner House, the NLA TowerLeon House, the Nestle Building

Croydon is defi ned by its big blocks

But these tall buildings are an endangered species

Earmarked to be replaced by residential towers

Could the residential tower be a red herring?

Perhaps the answer lies in Suburbia

RICHARD LAVINGTON, MACCREANOR LAVINGTON ARCHITECTS

10 11

A WONDERFUL COLLECTION OF

UNDESCRIBED USES AND

SPACES

A newness that’s no longer that new

Ongoing change

Diversity and richness of scale and texture as yet unmanaged

Old fashioned Civicness made from gardens, architecture and sky

A tree for every building

Buildings without volume

“Croydon needs record shops and bagels; not fried chicken”

JULIAN LEWIS, EAST