Ghost town: in his book Croydonopolis, Will Noble, who took the picture, compares the Whitgift Centre to a scene from a zombie movie
Croydon gets a bad rap. Yeah, we know that, with much of it recent and wholly deserved. Croydon has some fascinating history. Yeah, we know that, too. But as DAVID MORGAN found out from a book to be published next week, there are parts of the town’s history and geography which deserve careful study
PLUS: Get a 10% discount on Croydonopolis with an exclusive offer for Inside Croydon readers
“A Journey to the Greatest City That Never Was” proclaims the cover of Will Noble’s Croydonopolis, a hardback that traces the history of our town and borough in a quirky and entertaining read.
If the past is a foreign country, then Croydonopolis is another Croydon.
Whether you want to devour all the text in one go or just dip in and out, the book offers a view through the lens of Noble, a Croydon enthusiast who has lived in the borough for a few years.
Many residents know a few bits about the history of Croydon, but Noble has linked many of these threads together.
This book ought to become a standard for progressive sixth-form history and geography departments.
Change of land use, identity of place, development of resources, transport links, council decisions – all can be identified as Noble takes the reader on a journey through the ups and downs of Croydon life through the centuries.
Students choosing to use Croydon as a case study will find much to work with between the covers of this book.
Green spaces are built over, roads are rerouted and buildings made ever taller.
Jobs come, jobs go. Businesses spring up. Businesses move away. Noble does a good job in showing how the late 20th and early 21st Centuries have been challenging for many.
Characters who trod the boards, those who preached in its pulpits, the musicians who gigged their evenings away and the shopkeepers and entrepreneurs are woven together in a tapestry of interest, amusement and creativity.
The Whitgift Foundation, Croydon Airport, Fairfield Halls… all come under the microscope.
Noble’s writing will certainly jog some of his older readers’ memories: the Battle of Britain pilots eating in Grants, and the pets department in Kennards among the highlights.
Noble rightly identifies a Croydon penchant for knocking down buildings. Perhaps he could have looked back even further in history to when the Saxon period Minster disappeared from the townscape. Was that under the guise of “progress”, too?
Some might argue that Noble tries to cover too much detail in the book. Inevitably, one sentence about a subject, no matter how well it is crafted, cannot do more than scratch the surface.
Mayor Jason Perry has already endorsed the book. He is yet to have read it.
Croydonopolis is a book that will be read and discussed in a variety of groups. I do hope the younger Croydon generation will be enthused, for in their hands lies the future.
- Croydonopolis: A Journey to the Greatest City That Never Was by Will Noble is published on September 5 by Safe Haven at £18.99. It is available from Waterstones Croydon
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ROTTEN BOROUGH AWARDS: In January 2024, Croydon was named among the country’s rottenest boroughs for a SEVENTH successive year in the annual round-up of civic cock-ups in Private Eye magazine
Mayor Perry endorses this product? Is that in the sense of a parking charge endorsement?
Driving licence endorsement, more like it