No-notice closure: Wellesley Road underpass. The council’s ‘communications’ on this has been a single, belated and unapologetic tweet
A week on since Inside Croydon reported on the plight of Whitgift Centre traders, cut-off from their customers by the abrupt, no-notice closure of the Wellesley Road pedestrian underpass, and Croydon Council has responded. With an unapologetic tweet.
It is now three weeks since the council closed the Wellesley Road subway, without any notification to the shop owners in the Whitgift Centre, just at a time when businesses would be hoping for an increased number of visitors doing their Christmas shopping.
“We’ve been here 25 years and this is one of the worst seasons we’ve had,” was the view of one business owner.
Judging by the council’s all-so brief message, there’s no prospect of the subway being opened to permit a last-minute dash for late Christmas shopping, either.
“Unfortunately,” the council tweeted, reeking with insincerity, “the Wellesley Road underpass is closed due to fire damage making it unsafe for public use.” In three weeks, there’s been no sign of any work parties doing anything at the underpass, never mind making it safe for public use.
No apology: the council’s tweet, which redefines the use of the word ‘nearby’
But the council is full of less-than-helpful advice, and a new definition of the word “nearby”.
Because the council tweet continued: “During this time, pedestrians can use nearby crossings at George Street between Popeyes and Wendy’s restaurants or near Bedford Park between Green Park House and Lunar House.”
The subway is a designated fire exit from the Whitgift Centre for those with reduced mobility. So the council’s apparent lack of concern about getting it re-opened does take on added significance.
The council’s belated response has done nothing to dim speculation that the council wants to close the underpass permanently, which would make it even more difficult for potential customers to reach the few shops and businesses that remain in the long-neglected shopping centre.
The council has already blocked off pedestrian subways near East Croydon Station, as Town Hall sources suggest that Mayor Jason Perry has determined to remove the underpasses as a night-time option for homeless people.
The subway under Altyre Road was blocked in the summer because it “attracted repeated antisocial behaviour”, the council said then, adding that it became a “disused and unsafe site”, and referred to “an unauthorised encampment” which led to “further antisocial behaviour”.
The Wellesley Road subway closure has occurred despite previous assurances that it would be kept open and properly maintained.
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I walked through the subway a few days after the fire. There was a smell of smoke, and you could see the ceiling and walls were dirtier than usual. But “unsafe for public use”? That’s a filthy lie, made without a risk assessment by a qualified structural engineer, I’ll wager.
The Council’s website includes a page announcing “Wellesley Road: crossing improvements” that “potentially closes the existing pedestrian subway, but will create a more direct and attractive route between East Croydon station and the redeveloped Whitgift Centre.”
When? “This project will take place between 2018 and 2022.”
Trust part-time short-sleeved double-chinned Perry to get things arse about face, and close the subway before putting in the crossing. It’s as if he and the property developers whose behinds he licks want to kill off the Whitgift traders to make it easier and a whole lot cheaper to bulldoze the place for redevelopment
Could they not just put another pelican crossing across the tracks. It would slow the (often terrifying) Croydon car traffic but it would avoid the horrible tunnel?
The point is, there’s been a “promise” to do that for a decade. The road crossing should be in place *before* the tunnel was closed.
It always seemed to smell of wee down there
Just do what they do Bangkok . Put in an overhead footbridge with escalators at both sides and a lift for the infirm . Now your going to ask about all the vagrants and other waste . Just use your freedom pass to gain entry to the lift . Job done .
One slight problem with that idea, the high voltage overhead electric cables that power the trams!
You’re spot on, Jackie.
The problem with all of the alternative ideas, and the complaints of the subway smelling of wee, is that they mostly miss the points.
One: that an alternative crossing, a safe crossing across the six-lane urban motorway, ought to have been in place *before* the subway’s closure. As Arfur Towcrate point out, that was meant to be in place between 2018 and 2022.
Two: the subway wouldn’t “smell of wee” if it was properly maintained and cleaned regularly.
And three: the businesses that still operate in the Whitgift Centre deserve to be afforded the simple decency of being kept informed of the significant changes to public infrastructure.
Croydon Council has failed on all counts.
The fire occurred back in the summer and the subway was closed for a period. But it was open again for a long spell afterwards and before this most recent closure. Where was the hazard then?
Will there be someone available to help disability / wheelchair users to get access across the road ?
It looks like the morons at Croydon Council who closed the subway under Wellesley Road didn’t tell TfL? I was just on a tram (1pm on Wed 18th Jun 2025) which after it left West Croydon tramstop announced that the next stop would be “Wellesley Road – For the Whitgift Centre”, but that involved using the subway, which was closed six months ago and still has red plastic barriers blocking the ramp down to the subway at the end of Wellesley Rd tramstop platform !
People wanting to look at empty shop units in the Whitgift Centre (as most of them are now) would be better off getting off at the Centrale stop and walking through that “shopping”(?) centre or at West Croydon and walking around the corner from there?