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Locals concerned that Perry plans to sell listed Norwood Grove

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Gone to pot: the gardens at Norwood Grove, once described as among the most beautiful parks in London, have been neglected and vandalised

CROYDON IN CRISIS: The cash-strapped council continues to allow Listed buildings to fall into serious disrepair while attempting to flog off public property that was bought through public subscription.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

The way we were: how the Grade II-listed White House at Norwood Grove, opened to the public in 1926 by the Prince of Wales, used to look

Another day, another alarming report of the abandonment to near-dereliction of part of Croydon’s built heritage, while council officials make moves to sell off another piece of once-cherished public property.

In the case of Norwood Grove, which was bought 99 years ago through public subscription, it is arguable that the property is not Croydon Council’s to sell.

Norwood Grove was once described as “surely… the most beautiful of all the parks to be found in South London”. Not now it isn’t, with the Grade II-listed building, which is thought to be 200 years old and steeped in history, looking in a very sorry state, the gardens left untended and vandalised and its out-buildings subject to graffiti and some close to collapse.

Bordered by Covington Way and Gibson’s Hill, the grounds adjoin The Rookery and the broader expanse of Streatham Common, both of which come under the jurisdiction of Lambeth. According to Croydon Council – which in one shape or form has been in charge of the property for 110 years – Norwood Grove comprises “Mansion set in ornamental garden and grounds; Toilets…” Ha! Wait till you see the state they’ve been allowed to fall into, and “… bowling green”.

Well remembered: the blue plaque marking the charity works of Frederick and Mary Nettlefords

The house, known as the White House was, from 1847, the home of Arthur Anderson, the Scot who founded the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company – or P&O.

After Anderson died in 1862, ownership passed to the Nettlefolds, the family behind the engineering firm which later became Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds – or GKN. Frederick Nettlefold was a notable Victorian industrialist as well as a leading churchman. There’s a blue plaque on one side of the house to commemorate Frederick and Mary Nettlefold’s charitable works.

Following Frederick’s death in 1913, Nettlefold’s family sold the house to Croydon Corporation.

It is almost exactly 100 years ago that the parkland around Norwood Grove was last under threat of redevelopment – a proposition that was fiercely opposed by an “acquisition committee” that had the then Mayor of Croydon as its president and whose 14 vice presidents included two Earls, one Baron, two Members of Parliament and the Mayor of Wandsworth.

They even had god on their side: the committee patron was Randall Davidson, the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Left to rot: the ‘stables’ at Norwood Grove today. Used by council gardeners as a nursery until 2019, Croydon is looking to sell the property for development

The committee had been formed by Stenton Covington (hence the street name) in 1910 to save the Rookery from development, and it was re-activated in 1924 to preserve Norwood Grove, too. They raised £18,000 – about £1.4million by today’s values – enough to save both sites, and to buy an additional 32 acres from the Nettlefold family.

So effectively, the White House and Norwood Grange had been bought by public subscription, to be handed into the care of the local council.

Norwood Grove was opened to the public on November 16, 1926, by the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII, the abdicating king).

According to the council’s own archive, it was an event full of Edwardian pomp and circumstance: “The Prince arrived at 3pm and was conducted to the drawing room where local dignitaries were waiting to be presented, he was then led to a carved seat on a dais overlooking the Park. The Standard of His Royal Highness was then broken and the National Anthem played by the RAF Band.

Fenced off: the padlocks and fencing have failed to deter vandals

“After making a speech the Prince handed the Title Deeds to the Mayor of Croydon and the Mayor after receiving them gave the Prince a golden key cigar cutter, modelled from a key of the Grove, in token of remembrance of his visit.

“The Prince was then asked to plant a tree to commemorate the opening. Due to poor weather, the Prince planted a Cupressus macrocarpa Lutea [a Monterey Cypress] close to the French windows, not on the main lawn as planned.

“The chair was given to Mr Covington as a token of appreciation of his work and he was also honoured by the construction of a bird bath in the garden and a road being named after him…

Down the toilet: Norwood Grove’s public loos have been unsecured and broken into

“The spade is kept in Croydon Reference Library and was again used in 1987 when The Mayor of Croydon planted another tree at Norwood Grove to celebrate its 50th year as a public open space.”

Whether Norwood Grove manages to last until the 100th anniversary of the playboy Prince’s opening ceremony must now be in some doubt, as under Tory Mayor Jason Perry, Croydon’s cash-strapped council is looking to flog off anything that is not nailed down.

For many years after World War II, the building was put to good, public use. As well as two nearby bowls greens rated as being “superb”, according to the Norwood Society, the oak-floored music room of the mansion was rented to the Norwood Grove Social Centre, “whose activities include dancing, drama, tennis, table tennis, whist drives, and so on”.

The original dining room, “complete with its hand-painted ceiling, is now a public tea room and other parts of the house are used by the bowlers and for storage and staff accommodation” the Society’s journal recorded 60 years ago.

House of ill-repute?: the former Rangers Lodge has already been sold off by the council, with a colourful outcome

Norwood Grove “consists of 32 acres of gently sloping, velvety lawns, falling beautifully towards Croydon, giving wonderful views and almost unlimited horizons”, the Norwood Society wrote, describing it as “a veritable paradise for trees and birds… The nightingale has been heard there and finches, jays, redwings, wagtails, woodpeckers, wood pigeons and wrens and all the English garden birds delight in this extremely pleasant grove”.

Today, residents from Norbury and Upper Norwood have become increasingly concerned at the state of disrepair that Norwood Grove has been allowed to fall into, particularly the old stables area, which until four years ago had been used as a nursery area by council gardeners.

Visitors to the Grove in the past couple of weeks have also observed visits from contractors acting for the council, looking at securing the site, perhaps in preparation for a sale.

“The security company was there looking at the stables to secure it,” according to an email from a loyal reader.

“Nice guy also took photos of the rose arbour where broken to pass on to council team as a health and safety issue.”

And they added: “They are definitely selling the stables. The council has been told to sell what they can due to debt.”

Another visitor to the park regards this as “the final step of asset stripping of Norwood Grove that the council has undertaken”.

Ill-maintained: the White House, with an old refreshment cabin at the side of house and the entrance to bowls club room

The first floor of the White House was converted to flats some years ago. It is believed that these flats may have already been sold off by the council.

The ground floor has been rented out to a nursery school run by Joan Runcorn for more than 30 years, and the bowls club still uses a room in the building. The council’s intentions here are, as yet, unknown.

Shocking: the dereliction around Norwood Grove saddens many visitors

Other attempts by the council to generate cash out of the Norwood Grove property have not gone so well. The Rangers’ House, a small lodge building at the top of the park on the pathway to the Rookery, was sold to a landlord who rented it out.

Locals say that the tenants used the lodge as a brothel; when the landlord discovered this, he evicted them, and took up all the floorboards inside to deter squatters.

Little work on the once-famed Norwood Grove gardens has been done for many months. “Just the occasional bin emptying,” according to one local.

Residents are concerned that the piecemeal disposal of parts of the park are denying the Grove an opportunity to have a sustainable future as a thriving public park. They don’t have to go far, to The Rookery and Streatham Common in Lambeth, to see a well-run and well-cared-for public parks and gardens operation, with public tea rooms doing a roaring trade most days.

“All these places that Croydon is selling off should be providing a rental income for Norwood Grove, to enable it to have a gardener and perhaps support gardeners for some other areas in Croydon.”

And locals remember previous instances in which the council flogged off public property that it didn’t actually own. Both Jason Perry and his cabinet member for finance, Jason Cummings, were part of the Conservative-run council that sold a large part of the Riesco Collection of porcelain which had been left by Raymond Riesco to the people of Croydon.

“Norwood Grove was bought by public subscription,” one regular park user, who has researched the council’s own archive, told Inside Croydon. “While the deeds might have been given to the Corporation nearly 100 years ago, that was only for safe-keeping. It surely doesn’t give the council the right, now, to sell any part of the White House, its out-buildings or the park.

“It’s less than a year since Jason Perry was elected on a pledge to protect the borough’s open spaces. He doesn’t appear to be doing a very good job of that here in Norwood Grove.”

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