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We need quality homes, not quantity, to avoid ghettoes

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CROYDON COMMENTARY: Location. Location. Location. LEWIS WHITE is less concerned about the need to build flats in the redevelopment at College Green, provided they offer enough open spaces and are of the right quality, and not mega-sized tower blocks

David Wickens’ article on the plans for the Fairfield Halls and College Green – “Can two-bedroom flats really be the solution for Fairfield Halls?” – was very clear-sighted, and very helpful, whilst Arno Rabinowitz’s contribution as a comment adds in just a few words a cautionary floodlight to help us avoid the pitfall of naive acceptance.

The Fairfield Halls, with College Green top left of picture, is about to be changed forever

One thing I would like to add is the observation that, for central Croydon, we have to be looking at flats, for two reasons. The first is land values. Taberner House could never be replaced with semi-detached houses, thatched cottages, or even Addams Family-sized mansions: the land value is too high and the setting is wrong.

In town centre locations, flats look right – if the designs are good, if daylight comes in through correct placing and massing of blocks relative to the sun (too often, it is squeezed out by ignorance, and greed, the two main supporters of bad design) and if materials are well-chosen and domestic in feel, for example, the right type of brick, not smooth machine-aesthetic metal panels like certain office blocks, or guaranteed to stain and look very grubby within two years.

The next questions flow on rapidly from the conclusion — how high should the blocks be? Seven-storey, 15 to 20, or Mega Mental… sorry Menta Tower-type developments of 50 to 60 storeys? Next question: how many bedrooms? One would have thought that a mix would be right.

I agree with those who feel that Croydon needs more people living in and around the centre of town, to avoid a deserted town centre after 6pm.

I hate the bleakness of the asphalted footways, the litter, the lack of greening and the deadness of much of Croydon after dusk. My personal proviso is that the highest standards of urban design, architecture and landscape architecture are needed to create a green town that has good buildings, laid-out with care about scale, inter-relationship between buildings and landscape, and direct sunlight, all linked with roads and walkways of the right scale, that are paved in natural materials like York stone and granite, and planted with trees.

Croydon after midnight: Lewis White says he “hates the bleakness of the asphalted footways, the litter, the lack of greening and the deadness after dusk”

Only a certain type of person will actually want to live in a non-green environment. They will tend to not have children (because all children need a garden to run around in, and experience mud, nature and fresh air) and they will be desperate for any accommodation… or just not care about environment… or be absentee landlords who have no desire to live on site.

Most of us want either a garden, a green roof, or would want to live in a flat in a nice block, in a street with trees and landscaped frontages to the blocks of flats, and not too far from a good park.

We should not be designing a Croydon to just satisfy the space needs of desperate people or absentee landlords. We will end up with an ugly, bleak concrete, inhuman town. Rather like the Croydon of ill-repute.

So am I for flats on the Fairfield area? Well, yes, but subject to them not being mega-sized multi-storey human storage boxes, and subject to them having lots of natural light and lots of trees and green areas within view of every flat, and that they should comprise of decent buildings.

Ghettoes of two-bedroom flats, owned by absentee private landlords? That sounds bad to me.

I would urge everyone who cares about getting the future of Croydon right, and steered in a green direction, to go the public consultation on the Fairfield and College Green area, which is happening tomorrow and Saturday. Have a look at the plans, and quiz the designers. I certainly will be going there. I hope to see other Inside Croydon readers… I will be incognito, but will be holding a rolled-up copy (on a vellum scroll) of Inside Croydon, recognisable instantly.

Judge for yourself– here is what Croydon Council is saying:

A two-day exhibition is to take place showcasing the plans to turn Croydon College, Fairfield Halls and the surrounding College Green area into one of London’s leading cultural and educational destinations. The exhibition will be held in the Croydon Clocktower court area in front of Central Library, between 11am and 7pm on Friday, 6 November, and 11am and 5pm on Saturday, 7 November.

It will be an opportunity for members of the public to meet the project team, view the plans, ask questions and make comments on the scheme. The plans see the construction of a new state-of-the-art building for Croydon College with modern facilities, on the Barclay Road annex site.

The neighbouring Fairfield Halls will also be transformed into a 21st century concert and events venue designed to attract leading acts from around the globe.

The project team behind the scheme includes Rick Mather Architects, a practice known for its work on the Royal Festival Hall in central London and the Lyric Theatre in Hammersmith, and Croydon-based consultants Mott MacDonald.


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