CROYDON COMMENTARY: Following the brief, tokenistic ‘engagement’ with the public over plans for the town centre, TED GUSH says that the whole approach offered by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield and the council to the so-called ‘North End Quarter’ needs to be seriously challenged
This scheme is no more: This Westfield has ceased to be! It’s expired and gone to meet its maker! Its a stiff! Bereft of life! This is an ex-Westfield!
I think the big problem here is credibility.
Generally any business or person that loses credibility needs to focus on regaining it, prior to proposing any new ideas or excuses.
The Whitgift Centre had a credible reputation and was generally respected by locals and “shopping centre cognoscenti” when it opened in the 1970s as an open air, modern shopping mall which people travelled to visit.
The first Westfield Centre in Britain, at Shepherds Bush, had a similar reception in its early years, so the notion of a combined Westfield at Whitgift had considerable credibility.
Clearly, even by 2010, the Whitgift was a very tired retail environment but its historic reputation was a pretty good fit. Sadly, the recent history of this once promising project is now such a tale of woe and incompetence that its credibility is officially in tatters.
Think Dead Parrot Sketch.
The current Master Plan is for a huge mixed use inner city redevelopment project that may be well conceived. More likely, it is a further iteration of the ongoing woe and incompetence.
My humble proposal would be to put everything on hold (especially expensive speculative development investigations) and focus on repairing its credibility. If Whitgift were to be fully occupied and functioning in a contemporary vibrant manner, the notion of Croydon being a viable town centre would again become credible.
Credibility gap: Westfield’s re-design of the town centre using washing up bottles and scrunched up tissue paper has failed to convince many Croydon locals
This could not be achieved by the current management following orthodox town planning principles or orthodox “landlord and tenant” dynamics.
It would need to be pitched as a disrupter project, with very low rental space mostly on turnover related agreements to a wide variety of retail, hospitality and community focused occupants.
Shops, craft businesses, cafés, walk-in consultations, restaurants, charity shops, repair centres, booking offices, galleries, a micro brewery, a small library, meeting spaces, a potters wheel, performance spaces, Citizens Advice, well-being surgeries, an artisan bakery, glass-blowing, a creche, small manufacturing companies, local TV and radio, a podcasting studio, bike repairs… you name it.
The pre-letting would need to be very well-conceived with a realistic target of gaining a critical mass of a minimum occupancy that would make or break the proposed project’s prospective opening.
I do, of course, understand that this all seems a bit far-fetched. Maybe it is.
But there again, how much less far-fetched is it than proposing a big mixed use inner city development project by a team with zero credibility and very little likelihood of getting anywhere near the funding required for it? Taking a bit of a bath on the rental income for five to 10 years would probably be cheaper than throwing good money after bad on “professional” fees for another five to 10 years and ending up back where we started.
It might even go some way to reversing the great David Bowie reference that surely fits the current situation: it’s just so fucking Croydon!
Read more: Waiting for Westfield leaves us Urban Room for improvement
Read more: Westfield wants to build five times as many flats in town centre
Read more: Westfield appoints firm that oversaw King’s Cross scheme
- Ted Gush has tutored on design management at the RCA, lectured on design strategy and innovation at Brunel University and led on Blueprint Magazine’s training workshops. In 1995 he was awarded Fellowship of the Chartered Society of Designers. And he lives not far from Surrey Street Market
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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
“I do, of course, understand that this all seems a bit far-fetched. Maybe it is.”
It’s not far-fetched. What’s crazy is having empty premises while fleecing long-established tenants and forcing them out of business
The nice thing about the ideas laid out in the article is that they could be implemented much sooner than the grand Westfield concept which might not actually be in use until the 2030s. I would, however, suggest one thing first – fix the holes in the roof asap!
Before I would visit the Centre I would need to know that there are no unconscious addicts on the car park landings who had been using the lifts as lavatories. The last time I visited, a few years ago now, I felt unwelcome, I had no confidence that my car or I were safe, and the stench in the old and inadequate lifts made me feel ill. If nobody is prepared to add lighting and replace the lifts (very costly commitments) I shall not visit even if the glass roof is repaired, the loos are modernised, maintained and working and all the shops and cafés are fully stocked and staffed. I shall continue to shop in The Glades at Bromley where I feel safe, despite the large number of empty shops. If I don’t feel confident, (and I am probably pretty typical of Whitgift’s former customers), I doubt whether retail tenants will invest. Security, lifts, ease of access, toilet facilities are the first priorities. Restoring North End to a shopping environment rather than giving it up to teenaged gangs would add to the attraction. I fear it is too late, though. Nobody thinks of shopping in Croydon any more, it is not somewhere anyone wants to go to. Turning Allders into a shopping mall and closing the Whitgift Centre completely might make far more sense, and could bring a new vitality to George Street.
And it wasn’t a good sign when Westfield banned Croydon Male Voice Choir from its customary Christmas sing for charity at the centre. Not exactly the way to win friends and influence people.