Town Hall reporter KEN LEE on how the site of another of the grand plans for the town centre has belatedly been adapted for ‘meanwhile use’
Building site: the old Royal Mail sorting office at East Croydon has been demolished for almost three years. Now it is to be a padel club, instead of 200 flats
The long-promised additional platforms at East Croydon Station and the clearing of the “Selhurst Bottleneck” could be more than than 10 years away, after Network Rail allowed the site of the old Royal Mail sorting office to be handed over to a padel tennis business.
Planning permission was granted last month for the 1-acre site on the corner of Addiscombe Road and Cherry Orchard Road, with the new club expected to open next year with nine courts.
Padel is a relatively recent variant racket sport which combines elements of tennis, squash, and badminton. It’s usually played in doubles on a small, enclosed court, where the walls are used as part of the game, and it is, as you might expect, quite the fashion. For now…
Some kind of “meanwhile use”, bringing rental income for site owners, Network Rail, for the long-vacant site will be welcome. But the move is only the latest set-back for all the council’s over-blown plans for Croydon town centre of the last decade, promises that have never been delivered, multi-million-pound schemes abandoned or allowed to wither into nothingness.
Planning detail: how the padel club will squeeze in between taxi rank, tram lines, bus lane and No1 Croydon – the landmark building soon to be converted into flats
The sorting office building was closed more than a decade ago, and in 2013 the then owners, Royal Mail, got planning permission for three buildings of up to 21 storeys in height – designed by architects Allies and Morrison, now working on Westfield’s latest “masterplan” – to deliver 201 flats and 20,000sqft retail space on the ground floor.
There were, however, delays.
The derelict building was squatted and also used for illicit raves, including one where a 15-year-old, Rio Andrew, a schoolboy shot put champion, died in 2014 after his drink was spiked with ketamine.
Network Rail bought the building in 2019 as part of its plans to tackle the “Selhurst Bottleneck”, one of the busiest sections of track in the country, to allow trains to run more easily on the London to Brighton line. The sorting office was eventually demolished, the building site now having stood vacant on a key site to the eastern side of East Croydon Station for almost three years.
On the other side of East Croydon Station is Boxpark, which was only ever meant to operate as a “meanwhile use” fashion outlet until Schroders and Stanhope, the owners of the Ruskin Square site, came up with a better, more permanent option. Such has been the success of “Boozepark”, with its regular beer-throwing competitions and various street food offerings, that there has been no moves to windown its activities.
Alongside Westfield, the biggest single contribution to turning Croydon town centre into a wasteland, blighted by profit-hungry property speculators and developers, has been the collapse of the Chinese property market, leaving the Nestlé Tower and St George’s Walk half-demolished, their futures uncertain. Croydon’s Mayor, Jason Perry, stands on the sidelines, an impotent spectator.
The failure of the Nestlé Tower project has created a gaping hole in the centre of town. The extensive abandoned building site today extends from just outside Croydon Town Hall, all along to Park Street, and up to Park Lane, opposite Fairfield Halls.
Tombstone to the town centre: there’s been no substantive work on the Nestlé Tower for almost five years. Even the scaffolders have given up and taken back their kit
Guangzhou-based R&F Properties acquired the Nestlé Tower, St George’s Walk and the neighbouring Grade II-listed Segas House for £60million in March 2017. Even then, St George’s House (to give it its correct title, one of Croydon’s first 1960s skyscrapers), had already been sitting vacant for five years, after Nestlé stomped out of their HQ of 50 years after… a row with the Tory-controlled council over planning.
The Chinese plans were nothing if not “ambitious”: work began in 2019 on the £500million Queen’s Square project, which included the repurposing of the 22-storey tower office block into 288 private flats.
There has been no substantive construction work carried out on the Nestlé Tower since early 2020, as contractors downed tools for the covid lockdown, never to return. The property’s owners, R&F, were among several large Chinese developers squeezed by a Beijing government credit crunch, with no immediate prospect of the situation changing any time soon.
Which is why, a short walk away across town, Network Rail finding a “temporary” use of padel courts for another site is a “least-bad” option.
But beware: the “temporary use” provision in the planning permission granted by Croydon Council is for… up to 10 years. Network Rail, it would appear, are in no rush to get back on site to pursue their logistical plans.
CARS, the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme, has been affected by “significant uncertainty about future passenger behaviour and demand following the covid-19 pandemic and funding constraints following the government’s 2020 Spending Review”, Network Rail has been saying for a couple of years.
Sorted: the old Royal Mail sorting office at East Croydon was closed in 2013 and demolished in 2022
And a spokesperson for Network Rail told Inside Croydon this week: “The former Royal Mail site was acquired by Network Rail for the Croydon Area Remodelling Scheme. This project is being reviewed following the pandemic and subsequent government spending reviews.
“Network Rail retains the former Royal Mail site and is pursuing a commercial letting to a padel tennis operator.
“We are supportive of the proposed temporary use of the site for the period of time as set out in the planning application.” And they know it is for 10 years, too.
Under the planning conditions laid out for the padel tennis operators is “an approved community benefits statement” which requires them to “invite” local schools for two hours per week of free coached sessions, “three free taster sessions at local youth organisations” (it is not explained how this will work, nor whether this is for three taster sessions over the entirety of the club’s existence), and “12 hours free a year for the wider community”, which doesn’t seem to be all that much at all…
Rocket Padel, who will operate the sports club, said that getting the scheme approved had been “a challenging journey” (isn’t everything these days?) that had taken them more than two and a half years. It is “a testament to our persistence and vision for creating a world-class padel facility”, they said.
Rocket opened “London’s biggest padel club” (there isn’t a great deal of competition) in Ilford in April this year.
The Croydon club will offer nine courts, together with “a spacious café and bar area, a retail shop, and a large food hall where we will showcase live sports events and host a variety of fun activities”.
Centred court: Rocket Padel opened their club in Ilford earlier this year
This might present a few problems, were there anything resembling planning enforcement in Croydon. Para 21 of the planning conditions states: “There shall be no hot food takeaway from the proposed development/site.”
The planners give as the reason: “To ensure that the development does not have an unacceptable impact on highway operation and to prevent the development causing harm to neighbouring amenity.” Which very possibly means not denting Boozepark’s business.
Rocket says that their “state-of-the-art club” will open in 2025.
“We’re absolutely thrilled to have finally secured planning permission for this unique site in East Croydon,” said Rocket Padel’s co-founder, Carl Heimdal.
“It’s been a long and challenging process, but the result will be something truly special for the community.
“Not only will this new venue create a significant number of job opportunities in the area, but it will also introduce thousands of new players to the sport of padel. We can’t wait to see this club become a vibrant hub for padel enthusiasts and a fantastic addition to London’s sports scene.”
And a slightly cynical Katharine Street source, told of the latest plans for the site, said, “I suppose now, when they say we’re up Shit Creek, at least we’ve got a padel.”
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