Croydon Council has been accused of failing to protect and preserve one of the town centre’s heritage buildings, the Grade II-listed Segas House, on the corner of Katharine Street and Wellesley Road.
Left to rot: the council has failed to secure the site of the listed Segas House in the town centre
The office building was given listed status in 1992, but this example of art deco design from the middle of the 20th Century has been standing empty for all of the 21st, as it has been shuffled between mega-billion property developers while the local council, its offices just a couple of minutes’ walk away across Queen’s Gardens, has stood by, impotent.
And now, it seems, gormless with it.
Fairfield ward councillor Ria Patel has flagged significant safety issues with the building, where security hoardings supposed to protect its windows from further damage and ingress have been secured in position by council contractors with nothing more than gaffer tape.
“The boards on Segas House were not properly installed and have been falling down,” Patel, a Green Party councillor, has posted on social media.
“After Councillor Patel reported her concerns, “it seems like some of the boards were ‘fixed’ with – what looks to me like – tape. Sure, maybe heavy-duty [tape], but crap nonetheless.”
No plans: the Grade II-listed Segas House has suffered an unfortunate succession of owners
By the time of Councillor Patel’s latest visit at the weekend: “Of course, they’ve fallen back down.
“This may seem like a minor issue in the grand scheme of things, but this is a safety issue – as well as a matter of preserving Croydon’s iconic buildings and heritage!
“I’m also not happy with the lack of a response from the council, considering one of these boards could fall on someone.
“It’s a Grade II-listed building. We should be treasuring our listed buildings, not letting them fall apart.”
Art deco: the detailed design on the exterior of the Segas building
The building dates from 1939-1941, and was designed as part of a scheme intended to compliment the Town Hall, though that project was curtailed by the outbreak of World War II. Segas House’s “twin”, Electric House, further along Wellesley Road, was similarly left vacant until, in a rare piece of inspired intervention by Croydon Council, they worked with South Bank University to use the building for a Croydon campus.
Segas House has been cursed with malign owners. It was acquired by Minerva, when they said they had designs on regenerating the town centre, based around a new John Lewis department store. Sound familiar?
That £500million Park Place scheme with developers Lend Lease collapsed under the burden of the owners’ multi-billion debts, though not until after a costly Compulsory Purchase Order by the local council of St George’s Walk prompted an exodus of long-established businesses, such as Turtle’s, which had been a fixture in Croydon town centre since 1894.
Let down: the work to secure the Segas House hoardings was substandard
In 2017 Segas House, together with St George’s Walk and the Nestlé Tower, was bought with planning permission in place for around 1,000 flats by R&F Properties, a Chinese company, for £60million. Their on-site demolition work across the road from the Town Hall ended abruptly in 2020, during the covid pandemic, and R&F Properties filed for bankruptcy in 2023, leaving what some have described as “a hole in the heart of Croydon”.
One of the candidates in May’s Mayoral elections, Labour’s Rowenna Davis, suggested another CPO in the town centre, to acquire and sell-on the site, and Segas House, to developers who might at least get something done with the property. Jason Perry, Croydon’s impotent Mayor, meanwhile, prefers to do nothing while literally taping over the cracks…
Over the last 20 years, various schemes have been proposed for Segas House, including handing it over to an academy chain for use as a primary school, with its playground on the roof, which was ultimately rejected as unrealistic. The cost of a site-sensitive refurbishment, even for potentially lucrative residential use, has been off-putting to private developers.
There remains some demand for Segas House to be placed into public use, such as an art gallery for the council’s extensive and hidden away collections, town centre workshops as well as new accommodation for the Croydon School of Art. But that would require many millions of public money together with some vision, neither of which the council possesses.
Instead, the town centre is left with this boarded-up building, and not even a blueprint of what its future might hold in store. Take care of those falling hoardings if you are going past…
Town centre eyesore: the bronze casements in Segas House’s listing have been left unprotected
Segas House’s graded listing description is probably worth a look – before, potentially, it is all lost due to the inaction of our local authority.
The ground floor built of a reconstituted stone called “Empire stone”, “which has the appearance of oolitic limestone”. The upper floors are “notable for the rare use of permanent shuttering shockcrete slabs”, used as covering material on the upper floors.
There are five storeys and six windows to Park Lane, and five storeys and nine windows to Katharine Street.
The listing mentions “Bronze casement windows”: these will include some of the windows with hoardings just taped to them.
“Park Lane elevation has end bays projecting in four-storey curved bays with triple windows and bronze balcony above…
“Horizontal, grooved decoration above fourth floor and end bays have a plaque with the date 1940 and the letters ‘CGC’ for Croydon Gas and Coke Company…
“Ground floor has two round-headed windows with scrolled keystone and four original gas showroom windows stretching the whole width of the five central bays with flat canopy above and central marble door surround (now disused).
“Ground floor has eight round-headed casements with wedge-shaped keystones and identical central opening with door-case with round-headed fanlight, moulded architrave, cornice and six-panelled door.”
And inside – which has not been seen by the general public for around 30 years – the interior “contains semicircular, ceramic panel in former entrance hall depicting shells, lotus flowers and vegetation current in the Carboniferous Period. Resited bronze plaque commemorating the company’s war dead.
“Oak doors throughout and walnut panelling and black marble bolection fireplace to board room.”
Read more: Chinese developers buy Nestlé Tower in £60m property deal (from 2017)
Read more: £194m takeover of Minerva could end decade of blight (from 2011)
Read more: Long overdue that we found proper future for Segas House (from 2014)
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i made a suggestion the other day regarding a art gallery and local people to use for help in socializing for the community and the historic architecture maybe we need a local historic guide to take people around Croydon including inside and charge the visitors for the touring of Croydon walking tours I might well be interested in doing this myself now i am retired and a abstract artist.
Segas House would make a fantastic hotel
I agree would be very nice to have a 5 star hotel there. But knowing CC …it will most likely be a social housing block
We need social housing.
When did Croydon Council last deliver a social housing block, Sarah?
This is a flat roof structure and such flat roofs never hold out water ingress for eternity and with the climate becoming more extreme it will inevitably succumb to severe water damage without remedial work. I would imagine it is still the same unrenewed structure that was fitted over 70 years ago.
The public interest is clearly in restoring such a distinguished building to its former glory, but as we know the public interest is no longer a concept that exists in the political economy of this Country.
No doubt this asset exists on some balance sheet of some property developer and probably their asset base will increase if it is demolished. So some political leadership is required to counter this.
The problem is that we have the problem that is Mayor Perry.
I think a cinema would be brilliant here, especially now that Vue Grants has gone. Instead of a big multiplex, it would suit more of a boutique brand like Curzon, Picturehouse, or Everyman.
I appreciate we have the David Lean Cinema, but as a single screen in the town hall that tends to get new releases quite late, it just isn’t suitable to carry Croydon’s needs alone. Segas House could easily fill that gap.
It is tarnished now after its botched refurb (did they even wreck its famously good acoustics?!), but Fairfield Hall is opposite Segas House, and Croydon is a large borough, so the entrtainment venues should be spread out, instead of having Fairfield Halls, Segas House and the Clocktower Cinema within 200 metres of each other ?