In good voice: the Croydon Male Voice Choir offered to perform for free at the Whitgift Centre to raise funds for charities – just as they have done for more than 10 years
Members of one of the borough’s leading choirs have declared the Westfield managers of the Whitgift Centre as “Scrooges” for banning them from raising funds for local charities by singing carols in the shopping mall in the days before Christmas.
The Croydon Male Voice Choir has entertained Christmas visitors to the Whitgift Centre for the past 10 years or more by performing a selection of songs in the Christmas spirit. The two performances have always attracted good audiences, and even helped the choir recruit new members.
The choir appeared twice in each Christmas period, raising thousands of pounds for charities including Crisis at Christmas, which supports the homeless, Croydon Vision, which assists the visually impaired, and Croydon Council’s Just Giving Fund for victims and families of the Sandilands tram crash.
But not this year.
“Those wonderful people who run the shopping centre have said, ‘No’,” a source at the choir told Inside Croydon. “What a bunch of Scrooges!”
In September, Kimball Ormond, the CMVC chair, emailed the Whitgift Centre, now under control of developers Westfield, asking to arrange this year’s dates. For reference, he mentioned the official at the centre who had overseen the bookings in 2023.
After some delay, eventually, Ormond got an anonymised response from “Enquiries, Centrale”.
The Croydon Male Voice Choir was invited to enter the shopping centre’s “Christmas Carol Competition!” There are three categories, including one for “Community Groups”, with performances on December 4, 5 and 6, and a cash prize of £500 for each.
Which was all very well, but the Croydon Male Voice Choir was hoping to give a couple of free-of-charge performances to raise some much-needed cash for community causes, just as they have done since before Westfield had ever expressed any interest in Croydon.
Ormond replied, offering again to give “a free, charity concert” on the same lines as before. There was no reply.
Ormond asked again if the choir could go ahead. Then came this reply, again from “Enquiries, Centrale”: “Hello Kimball, We are only running the Christmas Competition this year.
“Kind regards…”
Ormond was dumbfounded. When he informed his choir colleagues, they were equally astonished at this astonishing display of meanness.
“It’s a smack in the face for both the choir and all the local charities we have helped over the years,” one singer said.
Fortunately, for those who want to see the choir, an alternative is close at hand, one which springs from a charitable spirit. On Saturday, November 16, the choir will be joining with two other local groups in a performance to be staged at Croham Hurst Golf Club, South Croydon.
The two other groups are the Sandilands ShantyMen – an offshoot of CMVC – and the Madder Mill Molly Dancers, a mixed gender dance group in the Morris tradition based in Carshalton.
The performance – Together for Iain – is to benefit a member of both CMVC and the Molly Dancers, who was recently diagnosed with motor neurone disease.
The proceeds are intended to assist Iain with the costly modifications which are required in his home as a result of his rapidly declining mobility. Admission is £15 (cash, please) on the door on the night.
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The choir should go where everyone else who used to come to Croydon goes: Sutton! Feel sorry for the shops at Whitgift with such incompetent management actively pushing away footfall!
Or better still – Bromley
With some gentle persuasion, this ludicrous decision will be hastily overturned by someone higher up the food-chain, e.g. the chair of Croydon BID. Joanne Bailey (the Centre Manager of Centrale Shopping Centre and Whitgift Shopping Centre)
Not many people go into the Whitgift Centre any more as there are so few shops still left there. Could the choir sing in North End outside the entrance to the Whitgift Centre (in the open area btw the larger entrance to the Whitgift Centre and the entrance to the old Drummond Centre/Debenhams was, where Burton’s used to be and near where WH Smith still are)?
That is a public road (so out of the control of the Westfield charlatans), and it is traffic-free so there will be no noise or pollution from fume-belching vehicles.
I find it crazy to ban such a unique opportunity to attract locals to a festive occasion and perhaps some shopping. This never happened during the time I was on the management team during 1999-2010. What’s the matter with those who are now in charge of what was once a destination of choice for many. I suggest the bean counters think again and reverse this decision.
We’ren’t they even pictured on the mural by Poundland/Allders until it was whitewashed over?
Too unseemly to be sharing the limelight with the yellow buckets?
This is such a shame.
This annual event raises a few thousand pounds for charities and brings some festive joy to many. Not only these but is a valuable time for recruiting in the local area. In fact it was this event which recruited me all those years ago and I’ve enjoyed paying it forward since by volunteering to sing there each year.
As decade of volunteers, giving freely of their time each year to collect money for local charities being brought to an end adds to life’s unfairness. Shame!