An exhibition, “Shaping Croydon – Architecture and Ambition”, has opened this week at the Museum of Croydon, just in time for this weekend’s celebration of the capital’s architecture with the Open House festival.
The exhibition is attractively bright and light-touch.
It looks at how town planning and architecture has shaped the Croydon skyline and environment since postwar redevelopment was let loose by the 1956 Croydon Corporation Act, which allowed the council to accumulate land for changed use without the burden of public inquiries. A deregulatory Conservative government approach from long before Thatcherism.
Museum exhibition: once the cutting edge of urban planning, Croydon town centre is now a museum exhibition
From the steady transition from a medieval market town on the edge of the North Downs in the Surrey countryside, to the home of Archbishops and wealthy merchants providing (relatively) easy access to the City of London, and the coming of the railways and 19th and 20th Century suburbia, Croydon changed dramatically after World War II, with hundreds of heritage buildings swept away.
The creation of a New Croydon, with its modern, concrete skyscrapers – the “Mini-Manhattan tag has always been something of an over-claim – all framed by urban motorways, comes from a time when the council’s borough engineer and the borough architect held real powers, supported by self-confident local councillors who had a vision for Croydon.
Some see an arrogance, rather than self-confidence, in the attitude of Croydon’s postwar leaders, which has left the place with tired office blocks and six-lane roads and the Flyover as barriers to human movement.
Parts of Croydon Council’s extensive public art collection have been released from their vaults for a welcome period of display.
2D architecture: the exhibit relies heavily on photography
Videos show the first steps in the town centre’s postwar redevelopment. Perhaps the favourites will be the Thrupenny Bit building, the IKEA towers and the flying aerial buttresses of some 1960s skyscrapers. There are contemporary pictures from the excellent photographer Glenn Foster. These can be uplifting but sometimes also brutal in portraying the imposing imposition of 1960s and ’70s highway infrastructure.
It also very two-dimensional for a subject matter which is, by definition, in three dimensions.
There is a bit of underlying sadness in the retreat portrayed of a town that once saw itself at the forefront of town planning transformation and government trusted local councils to deliver.
The Croydon Urban Room – a conceit based in the Whitgift Centre which is funded by Westfield, the very non-developers who have blighted the town centre for two decades -purports to set out where Croydon goes next.
Prepare to be patronised: Post-It notes make an appearance in the exhibit
Visitors are encouraged to use day-glo Post-It notes to recount their memories of Croydon – a lip-service exercise, what passes for museum exhibition “interaction”, and something which consultants for URW and their predecessors have utilised since they first arrived in Croydon.
There are hints in seeing town centre development also being about improving the offer on London Road.
Maybe this light-touch approach will prompt debate on where Croydon’s architecture and public infrastructure goes next.
Will automated cars reduce the need for 1960s US-style super-sized road space? Should Transport for London spend money on removing the Croydon Flyover rather than the many millions it will take to repair the tired old structure? Should more of the River Wandle re-emerge? A 21st Century Croydon with softer edges?
“Shaping Croydon – Architecture and Ambition” runs at the Museum of Croydon until July 2027, open Wednesdays to Saturdays from 10am to 4.30pm.
If you manage to get to the Museum of Croydon, in the Clocktower, in the next few days, you can also take in the Grayson Perry tapestries exhibition, which continues to September 19.
Read more: Open House 2026: from Croydon Town Hall to Downing Street
Read more: From pavement to skyline, Croydon holds a concrete grip
Read more: Council planners agreed to the removal of admired public art
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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To book to attend the open day, email AngelaTolley@whitgiftcare.co.uk
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