Croydon facelift: Westfield submitted their planning application in July for what amounts to nothing more than seven ‘kiosks’, including more fast food for the town centre
CROYDON IN CRISIS: Mayor Jason Perry managed to get all excited last week by a planning application from the Paris-based shopping mall developers that amounts to nothing more than a knocked-off, down-sized, mini-Boozepark. It’s just the latest sign that the Mayor has little to offer
After a 12-year wait, the big reveal on Westfield’s plans for the Allders building ends up being a couple of kiosks selling fried chicken (or a version thereof). There’s no originality in the proposals, just a knocked-off, down-sized, mini-Boozepark, with a few “kiosks”.
That’s according to the detail in the planning application over which the Croydon Mayor, Jason “Part-time” Perry, dropped his chips in social media announcements last week.
The Allders planning application over which piss-poor Perry got so excited – reference 24/02464/FUL if you can be bothered to check it out – was lodged on July 18. It mentions seven kiosks, including two offering food, although the detailed drawings submitted on behalf of Westfield Europe Ltd show only five units, plus some “gender-neutral” toilet facilities, which are likely to boil the piss of some of Perry’s right-wing mates.
It really is a modest thing, and far from a move that might “save” a town centre that has been in a tailspin of decline since long before Westfield landed in Croydon in 2012, but which has certainly seen that decline accelerated since the shopping mall developers unveiled their first £1billion plan to regenerate the area.
‘Kiosks’: that’s what Westfield’s architects call them. All very ‘edgy’, we’re sure
There’s been further plans, planning applications, CPOs and planning inquiries in the 12 years since, but no development work whatsoever. The next Westfield “masterplan”, which was originally to be delivered in 2023, now won’t see the light of day for at least another six months. And then, according to Westfield head honcho Scott Parsons, it could take them 15 years to finish the job…
The planning application for Allders submitted last month is seeking to open up the disused building for some make-do-and-mend pop-ups (yes, more pop-ups) on the ground floor of the long-disused Allders department store on North End.
The planning application covers Nos2 to 28 North End – the Allders building – and is summarised as “Refurbishment and modifications to the ground floor shop frontages and amendments to the fascia cladding to remove existing and integrate new louvres for ventilation”.
Given that this is in the Central Croydon Conservation Area, those amendments and removals of fascia cladding proposals will need to be looked at very carefully by architects and heritage building experts. As the application is the result of some pre-application “advice” from council planners, the need for a more objective overview is crucial.
Allders has been standing vacant since 2019, when the then Labour-run council – at the behest of Westfield, naturally – sent in a team of jack-booted bailiffs to kick out the various small businesses that had set up shop in the empty building. These were pop-ups. The Croydon Village was a bit of a bizarre bazaar and, fair to say, not to everyone’s taste.
It is telling that it has taken Westfield five years to come up with a replacement for the Allders pop-ups: more pop-ups.
The department store Allders went bust in January 2013, an event which signalled the steepening decline of Croydon as a retail centre.
According to the planning submission, Westfield want “refurbishment and modifications to the ground floor shop frontage, including new entrance doors”, as well as “the removal of the existing canopy and the internal configuration of the ground floor to facilitate retail and food and beverage pop-up units”.
And if anyone suspects that this might, in some way, be some kind of stitch-up between Westfield and pliant Perry’s council, then you’d be right. “As agreed with the council,
the removal of the canopy and pop-up units themselves do not form part of the planning
application.”
Detailed drawings: the architects’ plans show only five units, not seven as mentioned in the overview report. But ‘gender-neutral toilet facilities’
Apparently, according to the application, there are “clear and demonstrable benefits of the redevelopment of the shop frontage of the former Allders department store for ‘pop-up’ retail and food and beverage units”.
And the report tells us that Croydon Council was “very supportive of the principle of the development which brings the currently vacant and centrally located building back into use to support the vitality of the town centre”. Which sort of smacks of desperation in the planning department, and the Mayor’s office. But that’s been clear for a while now.
The planning statement lays out the developer’s case for changing the fascia of a building in a conservation area by stating that it “is entirely modern and appears to date from the late 20th century”.
According to the developers who can’t wait to rip if down, “It does not contribute to the success of the original 1920s architectural composition above.”
“The proposed louvres would be an intervention into a part of the building that is not original and is considered to not contribute positively to the appearance of the building. The replacement and rationalisation of the louvres would be broadly consistent with the existing arrangement, albeit more symmetrical in their placement.
Little to offer: only Perry’s porkie pies keep on getting bigger
“Albeit not part of this planning application,” which roughly translates as “get yer ‘ands off, planners!”, “the projecting canopy is also proposed for removal.”
The North End fascia on the Allders building actually dates from 1926. What this application appears to seeking to achieve is some new doors and, in particular, some venting, undoubtedly for the fried chicken kiosks that are likely to form two of the very modest seven units in this mini-Boozepark that Westfield wants to open.
Hardly a great RoI for the borough after watching Westfield for more than 12 years of doing pretty much sod all apart from blighting Croydon town centre.
The planning application notification was published on August 1 by Nicola Townsend, Croydon’s head of planning, and the public have until August 22 – yep, just three weeks, in August – to lodge their comments.
Read more: ‘Too little, too late’: Residents underwhelmed by Mayor’s stunt
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