Well. This will be embarrassing for Croydon Council leader Tony Newman just as he packs his bucket and spade for a weekend jolly by the seaside on a Labour group “awayday” to Eastbourne.
Whoops: a Boxpark poster has been splattered across a shop which Croydon Council wants to re-open as a trendy art gallery next month
Boxpark, which has been in receipt of a juicy £3 million loan of public money from Croydon Council, backed by Newman, may be spending some of its generous marketing budget by fly-posting across the borough.
Such activity may, in some, instances be illegal.
In one case, someone has fly-posted a giant-sized logo for the hipster food and drink hall on the windows of a shop on Portland Road. The shop is currently undergoing a refit, paid for by Croydon Council, as part of a regeneration effort in South Norwood. It is just up the road from Newman’s own Woodside ward.
Boxpark posters have been slapped on to other sites around the borough, too, and these cases have been reported by local councillors, including at least one cabinet member, to the council department responsible for clearing up fly-tipping and other anti-social conduct.
It means that Council Tax-payers’ money will have to be used to clear up the mess.
The shop where a council-backed art gallery is to open has been fly-posted
The Portland Road fly-posting instance has occurred on the property where, as Inside Croydon has reported, Elizabeth James hopes to open a gallery next month, in a shop provided for her by Croydon Council as part of a competition through its South Norwood regeneration project.
Of course, it is usually only abandoned shops and properties in areas regarded as being run-down which face the scourge of fly-posting.
The matter may not be black and white – unlike the posters.
It is not known whether Boxpark accepts responsibility for this outbreak of fly-posting around the borough – though if the company, of which founder Roger Wade is the sole director, is not conducting the fly-posting campaign, then it is hard to imagine who else might carry it out on the their behalf.
Inside Croydon called one of the three (or is it four?) public relations companies which Boxpark has hired to promote its business, to see what they have to say about the company’s fly-posting campaign.
But it is Friday, and they were out to lunch.
They never did call back, as the bloke on reception said that they would.
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I was wondering when this site would mention Boxpark.
Anyway this gives me a chance to have my say. I’m afraid I think its a bit of a turkey. The prices are so hideously expensive that only Rothschild could possibly afford to eat there regularly.
Some of the shops have such daft ideas that they are clearly doomed to fail. My guess is that a third will close within three months. It will be interesting to see what will replace them.
As for the beer on sale, they are mad. In plastic glasses and the main lager (yes I know some people don’t regard lager as real beer!!) is Coors light, for the love of god. God forbid one could buy a Carling, Fosters or even a Peroni, no we are forced (well I’m not as I chose to go to a pub instead) to drink this overpriced dross, such arrogance.
Ive been a few times and it seems to be reasonably well attended, however once the honeymoon period is over I fear it will become something of a dead, lifeless place to be. A huge rethink is needed if it is to become an enduring part of Croydon.
Odd that you’ve missed our previous coverage of Boxpark’s development.
There was this:
https://insidecroydon.com/2016/09/26/newman-breaks-manifesto-promise-over-boxpark-festival/
And this:
https://insidecroydon.com/2016/03/16/after-3m-loan-now-council-lays-on-festival-for-boxpark/
Oh, and this:
https://insidecroydon.com/2015/09/08/boxpark-announced-food-plan-after-getting-3m-council-loan/
And you must have seen this…
https://insidecroydon.com/2015/12/23/official-who-brought-boxpark-to-croydon-gets-job-with-boxpark/
Do try to keep up, David.
I think you will find that I had mentioned that you didn’t give the OPENING of Boxpark any coverage. Of course I had seen the occasions you had mentioned it before completion.
No. You didn’t.
You couldn’t make it up. Oh, you don’t have to because this is Croydon where this sort of thoughtless incompetence is the norm. Maybe Boxpark got the idea of sticking their posters wherever they want from the graffiti hoardings around the Taberner House site and its associated spread of graffiti to the surrounding areas.
David Hamiton is 99% spot on in his description of and prediction for Boxpark. The only thing he left out is the horrendous noise at night….its certainly the place to go for a noisy, overpriced, stupidly esoteric snack. Its a good precursor for the doomed Hammersfield.