What do you know about the fiasco around the Croydon Park Hotel? Still trying to get my head around why the council would buy it? Was that through Brick by Brick?

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

The Colonades makes a little more sense because it is a great location and has attracted some big brand names. As an investment there is a specific return in terms of the rents charged. It is a viable asset.

But hotels?

The part I never really understood about Croydon was how you could fail to make it a success. Incredible transport links (East Croydon would be an incredible rail hub for cities three times the size of Croydon), a big population within minutes travel of the centre and so on. You have to really f*** up to lose money on it.

Really the borough needs splitting in two. The northen part should become part of Lambeth where all kinds of savings could be made whilst the southern part is made part of Surry proper. The differences between the two are so wide now that there is almost zero chance of achieving any kind of real synergy between the two.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

I disagree. Huge amounts of passing traffic. Ugly as hell, I would agree but with the brand names they have there, real potential. My arguement is that they have not been adventurous enough there. Should have gone for more office based development as well. Maybe even a conference centre. Airport House over the road operates a shuttle service to East Croydon station. Expand that to cover both sites and you could have a real money spinner. That old airport land is utterly wasted at the moment.

"The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command." - 1984 - George Orwell.

Before I made the move to Slovakia my girlfriend worked two jobs, one for the Greggs bakery at the end of Surrey Street market & the other in fiveguys.

People would stroll into Greggs help themselves to breakfast and lunch and stroll out, if they were confronted by the (female) staff, 9/10 a knife would be pulled on them.

Greggs management were not interested in protecting the staff and police lost interest in filing reports.
Fiveguys wasnt much better with people constantly targeting the charity box & people vandalising the toilets on a daily basis, there would also be a gang fight in there at least once a week.

Unfortunately Croydon started to go downhill fast when the office sector pretty much packed up and went elsewhere, now its a literal hive of drug crime unemployment, beggars & misery.

Centrale is a great example of why Shopping Centres are not the answer, The top floor of Centrale looks like something out of Jumanji with roving packs of wild animals picking off anyone unfortunate enough to wander up there.
High streets are dying all over the country & people need a reason to use them be that the first snowdome south of the river a football stadium whatever councils need to think outside the box.

Edited by Ouzo Dan (12 Nov 2020 7.14pm)

The mountains are calling & I must go.

To be fair if I had to work two jobs and they were in five guys and greggs I’d have to consider moving to Slovakia.

No one is making out Croydon is the safest place on earth, but your assessment is somewhat hyperbolic. Also - I think really you mean getting out of London generally - the stats you’ve shared are nowhere near the highest, South Kensington had more in total this month. London in general is a hive of gangs and crime. Croydon is the largest borough by population, with some of the poorest residents. The crime figures are always going to be above average with that demographic, however the picture you paint does not apply to the average resident. I live 10 minutes from the station, just off what you could describe as one of the less aesthetically pleasing areas but I’ve never had any issues. I’ve had more problems living in the shires than I have had here. Plenty of wronguns in both locations. Difference is here they usually target each other.

Edited by SW19 CPFC (12 Nov 2020 8.42pm)

Did you know? 98.0000001% of people are morons.

Well said, i have to add i have never had any tropuble in centrale, top floor or otherwise!