Proposals to build 676 flats in tall towers overshadowing the Fairfield Halls are out for public consultation until the end of this week, from developers who nabbed a multi-million bargain in the cash-strapped council’s fire-sale
Windy city: the plans for Tapestry don’t seem to show much green space below the tall towers
Croydon’s long-suffering residents will be left seriously out-of-pocket once again, as plans being brought forward for a controversial site in the town centre look like benefiting a private developer with a sales value for flats at least 10 times what they paid to the cash-strapped council for it four years ago.
What the developers are calling “Tapestry Croydon” was better known as the College Green site, which was sold four years ago as part of the council’s initial fire-sale of assets, and for no more than £20million. The site had previously had planning permission for 400 homes – with a potential “retail value” of more than £100million.
Inside Croydon predicted at the time that the low-ball sales price on this site and the Croydon Park Hotel site would allow private developers to get rich very quick.
The latest proposals for Tapestry Croydon look to build 676 flats, in towers rising to 41 floors, which if they were all put up for private sale might raise close to £200million.
The developers are proposing a build-to-rent scheme, which going by current market rates could see even the smallest of bijou, high-rise apartments on the private market for £20,000 per year in rent. Across the whole development, it would generate enough in rental income to pay off the site’s original purchase price in just two years. Kerrrching!
A public consultation on the development of this key site in Croydon town centre is open for another two days.
Tight fit: the Tapestry site (outlined in red) is not entirely straightforward
Tapestry is the site beside the Fairfield Halls and Croydon College that ultimately broke Brick by Brick, helped to send the refurbishment costs for the arts centre soaring and effectively bankrupted the borough.
The site is bounded to the west by College Green, beyond which sits Park Lane, to the north by Croydon College and College Tower (which includes a pedestrian link from the site boundary connecting through to College Road), to the east by the London to Brighton mainline and the Hazledean Road bridge, and to the south by the Croydon Magistrates Court and the former College Annex building.
The 2-acre site is less than straightforward, as it is on the former multi-storey car park and deck, which have been demolished leaving the existing basement exposed.
Finding a level: the site of former car parks, the developers will be expected to provide walk and cycleways that deal with the challenges of the site
Developers Delta Properties, on behalf of something called Croydon Developments Ltd, an Israeli-British owned company, describe Tapestry as “a key puzzle piece of the Fair Field Masterplan opportunity”.
They might be a tad optimistic.
“Located at the bookend of Croydon’s emerging Fair Field landscape regeneration, a soon-to-be-cultural heart…”, see what we mean? “… activated by the recently refurbished Fairfield Halls and Croydon College.”
With developers investing so much of their pitch around the Fairfield Halls and the Jo Negrini “Arts Quarter”, it is easier to understand why a plastic guttering retailer, Jason Perry, Croydon’s part-time Mayor, loses his shit when the previously secret musings of the government-appointed “improvement” panel over the potential sale of the arts venue are published.
This is the latest public consultation for the site, although like other schemes, it has hardly attracted much attention. Delta say that they want to “bring forward an ambitious and family-friendly development that all of Croydon will want to stay and play within”. Get that: “play within“.
“In 2023, we held a public consultation event where we sought the community’s view on our vision for the site. Following the consultation, we have spent the last year working to develop our proposals further in response to the feedback we received from the community.”
The proposals now offer “a socially-diverse residential-led mixed-use development” in blocks of between 15 and 41 storeys. The tallest building in Croydon currently is the nearby College Tower, which at 49 storeys and almost 500ft tall overshadows the Fairfield Halls.
Delta are promising a “12,500sqft NHS primary care facility”, which is undoubtedly much-needed locally, though on their website the developers don’t state whether the NHS either wants such a facility, nor whether it has the budget for one.
And here’s the rub: they want to build 676 build-to-rent homes – a 69% increase in the previously approved scheme – but only 20% of the homes are to be “affordable”. The London Plan and Croydon’s Local Plan usually demand at least 30% affordable housing.
A presentation to Croydon councillors last autumn saw a number of issues and concerns raised with the CGI’d scheme – which appears to offer a windswept concrete square at the foot of the tall towers, something that could make George Street’s high-velocity wind tunnel seem like a mere zephyr.
Tapestry stitch-up: the latest proposals want to build more tall towers between Ten Degrees and College Tower and the Fairfield Halls
The overshadowing by the towers of whatever pockets of open space are provided is another concern, as the perma-shadow between the blocks that were allowed to be built on the Queen’s Gardens open space on the opposite side of Park Lane now demonstrate.
“The development would dominate the skyline overlooking Croydon College, Croydon Magistrates Court and Fairfield Halls and would likely be visible from many listed buildings,” one councillor commented, according to the meeting minutes. The Chatsworth Road Conservation Area – alongside Park Hill Park on the other side of Barclay Road from the Croydon courts – would be particularly impacted.
And as one councillor told the developers at their Town Hall meeting, “The play area and the trees were welcome, but individual private balconies do not compensate for communal external amenity space.”
The sheer scale of the proposals appear to have bypassed previous respondents to public consultations. The build-to-rent flats on offer at Tapestry will “lead to expensive luxury flats that local people cannot afford to live in”, according to one concerned councillor. With good cause: one-bedroom flats in Ten Degrees, the tall black towers on George Street developed by American property firm Greystar, start at £1,700 per month.
The latest Tapestry consultation runs until Friday, February 21.
“Following this public consultation, the project team will review the feedback and look to incorporate it in the final proposals wherever possible,” the developers say.
“We will then prepare a planning application for submission to Croydon Council.”
- Inside Croydon has moved to Bluesky. Click here to join us there for latest updates and insights
Check out our archive of podcasts on Spotify, including our monthly news discussion panel show thingy, the Croydon Insider, and The Andrew Fisher Interview
FREE ADS: Paid-up subscribers to Inside Croydon qualify for a free ad for their business, residents’ association or community group, just one of the benefits of being part of our online community. For more information about being an iC subscriber, click here for our Patreon page
PAID ADS: To advertise your services or products to our 10,000 weekday visitors to the site, as featured on Google News Showcase, email us inside.croydon@btinternet.com for our unbeatable ad rates
- If you have a news story about life in or around Croydon, or want to publicise your residents’ association or business, or if you have a local event to promote, please email us with full details at inside.croydon@btinternet.com
As featured on Google News Showcase
- Our comments section on every report provides all readers with an immediate “right of reply” on all our content. Our comments policy can be read by clicking here
Inside Croydon is a member of the Independent Community News Network
If the greedy property developers (are there ever any other sort of property developers?) are making so much money by getting the land so cheap from Croydon Council and then building huge great blocks of flats in future ‘Grenfell Towers’, they can’t need to provide tiny amounts of “affordable housing” just to make the project viable.
There are certain sites which being left vacant is a blight. However leaving this site vacant seems like no great loss to the people of Croydon (it’s a slight eyesore when coming into Croydon from the south, but that’s not unique to railway journeys).
Should Croydon therefore not seek to ensure the developers provide as much value as possible? Or will we squander this upper hand again?
Flats, flats and more flats. Does Croydon have anything more to offer apart from flats? ?
What it does have, the council is flogging off…
ANOTHER block of expensive flats ,,, NOT what Central Croydon needs …….
There appear to be flats all over Croydon that can’t be sold or rented out and they are building more. If and I mean if the town centre refurbishment goes ahead there’ll be even more flats built!
Where is the evidence that there are unsold flats in Croydon? I often read and hear this but I don’t know if it’s true. Wouldn’t it be better for a developer to sell at a lower price than to keep a flat unsold for an extended period?
Flats, flats, everywhere
nor any place to shop
Flats, flats, everywhere
the prices never drop
The Rime of the Ancient Developer