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Category Archives: Borough of Culture 2023
How businesses profited at expense of the Borough of Culture
BOROUGH OF VULTURES: £1.3m of arts funding provided by the Mayor of London was misused by Croydon’s Tory council to boost local businesses, but delivered a year-long flop, judging by official audience figures. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Croydon’s year as … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, CODA, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Croydonites Festival, Dance, Fairfield Halls, Kristian Aspinall, London Mozart Players, Mayor Jason Perry, Music, Stanley Halls, Theatre
Tagged Andy Stranack, Borough of Culture, Borough of Vultures, CODA, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Clocktower, Croydon Council, Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, David Lean Cinema, Develop Croydon, Fairfield Halls, Kristian Aspinall, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Tory, White Label
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Two more Croydon music and dance festivals forced to cancel
Croydon’s calendar year as London’s Borough of Culture has not quite finished, but its dubious legacy appears to be sealed in failure after not one but two established festivals announced that they won’t take place in 2024. Croydon Pride posted … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Community associations, Croydon Council, Dance, Mark Watson, Mayor Jason Perry, Music
Tagged Borough of Culture, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Mela, Croydon Pride, Croydon Pridefest, London, Mark Watson, Mayor Jason Perry, Tory, Wandle Park
7 Comments
How Croydon’s ‘Culture Club’ was turned into a business clique
CROYDON IN CRISIS: As the borough’s £1.5m year of culture is staggering to its conclusion, we reveal how the owners of a Surrey Street pub were handed £28,000 for… nothing. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES As Croydon’s year as London’s Borough … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Pubs, Restaurants, Surrey Street
Tagged Apsara Arts, Borough of Culture, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Develop Croydon, Fern, giraffes, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Mr Fox, Surrey Street, Surrey Street Carnival, Tory, White Label
7 Comments
Rewind: the real story behind Croydon’s rich musical heritage
As an exhibition opens in the Clocktower about the history of music in Croydon, NEIL BENNETT, pictured left, the former BBC News and Croydon Advertiser journalist, asks how the borough has maintained such a strong musical tradition through all its … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, BRIT School, Fairfield Halls, Museum of Croydon, Music, Selhurst
Tagged Adele, All Of Us Strangers, Amy Winehouse, Andrew Haigh, Beanos, Bill Wyman, David Bowie, Desmond Dekker, Fairfield Halls, Jessie J, Jimi Hendrix, Museum of Croydon, Neil Bennett, Ralph McTell, Raye, Rewind, Stormzy, The BRIT School, The BRITS, The Greyhound, The Rolling Stones, The Star
5 Comments
Croydon 2023: the Penn Report, dog attacks and those giraffes
THE YEAR IN REVIEW Part 2 – May to August If there was one good thing to come out of Croydon Council this year, then it must have been the Penn Report. Katherine Kerswell, the council’s chief executive, had held … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Crime, Croydon Council, Heathfield House, History, Inside Croydon, Knife crime, Mayor Jason Perry, Sarah Jones MP, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Borough of Culture, CODA, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, David Morgan, giraffes, Hammersfield, Hammerson, Ian Hislop, Ken Towl, Labour, Mayor Jason Perry, Private Eye, Purley Way, Tory, Utah, Wastefield, Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation
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Brassed off: Borough of Culture’s ‘contempt’ for arts groups
CROYDON COMMENTARY: Readers have reacted with equal amounts of disgust and dismay at the on-going revelations of hundreds of thousands of pounds of public money squandered by the shambolic Borough of Culture – where fewer than 500 people downloaded the … Continue reading
The cost of Croydon’s Music Heritage Trail: £750 per download!
BOROUGH OF VULTURES: Fewer than 500 people have bothered to use the special app intended to guide them around the town centre’s historic music locations. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES “Have we already fucked it up?” According to official meeting minutes … Continue reading
Posted in Andrew Stranack, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Boxpark, Business, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Ken Towl, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Music, Sadiq Khan
Tagged Andy Stranack, Borough of Culture, Borough of Vultures, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Music Heritage Trail, giraffes, London, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Mayor Sadiq Khan, Tory
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BID’s brass neck over plastic giraffes, as only 1,000 used app
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The council gave a £50,000 arts grant to a business organisation, where Mayor Perry is on the board of directors. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Jason Perry might as well have stood at the end of Surrey Street … Continue reading
Taking Liberty with the arts in a way that celebrates us all
KEN TOWL takes hope, and much joy, from last week’s Liberty Festival, where deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists injected some much-needed culture into the borough. Photos by PAUL FULLER The Liberty Festival, which landed in Croydon last weekend, represented the … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ashcroft Theatre, Borough of Culture 2023, Comedy, Dance, Fairfield Halls, Ken Towl, Music, Poetry
Tagged Aaron Simmonds, Ashcroft Theatre, Borough of Culture, Croydon, Drunken Chorus, Fairfield Halls, Francesca Martinez, giraffes, Inner Vision Orchestra, Ken Towl, Liberty Festival, Steve Day
4 Comments
Jason Perry’s Croydon: a place with all the wrong priorities
Inside Croydon’s loyal reader was strolling along the High Street in the town centre this morning and captured this wonderful scene Our reader dropped us a note in which they say, “Think this illustrates nicely Jason Perry’s Croydon. “Two workers, … Continue reading
Perry is director of company handed £50,000 culture grant
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES One of the biggest single grants handed out by Croydon Council for Borough of Culture projects has gone to a company where Mayor Jason Perry is a director. While several long-established, recognised community arts groups had … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, Borough of Culture, Conservative, Council Tax, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, giraffes, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Tory
13 Comments
A town centre amble that goes from the sublime to ridiculous
KEN TOWL took a stroll down Surrey Street and Church Street and encountered two different takes on what passes for ‘culture’ in Croydon The Croydon Clocktower has an exhibition of the works of Evacustes Phipson. “Evacustes who?” you may ask … Continue reading
Posted in Activities, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society, Ken Towl, Surrey Street
Tagged Borough of Culture, Church Street, CNH&SS, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Clocktower, Croydon Council, Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society, Evacustes Phipson, Ken Towl, London Borough of Croydon, Surrey Street
3 Comments
Borough of Culture ads are sending passengers up the junction
The latest in the omnishambles that is the £132,000 squandered on “marketing” to promote Croydon’s year as the Borough of Culture has attracted a series of complaints that council signage is now causing confusion for rail passengers at Norwood Junction. … Continue reading
Council planners agreed to the removal of admired public art
BOROUGH OF THE BANAL: Croydon’s professional planners had an opportunity to insist on the retention of a significant artwork, but approved its removal for something they said would ‘enhance’ the appearance of an East Croydon office block. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN … Continue reading
Posted in AMP House, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Chris Clark, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Environment, Fairfield, History, Nicola Townsend, Property
Tagged 20th Century Society, AMP House, Australian Mutual Provident, Croydon, Croydon Council, Cultural Quarter, East Croydon, East Croydon station, Humanity Relief, John Grindrod
17 Comments
£250 per day fees paid to lead on borough’s Heritage Trail
CROYDON IN CRISIS: One arts company in the borough appears to have won the Lottery for its role in the less-than-inspiring flagship project for the Borough of Culture. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES The project lead working on the Music Heritage … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon Council, Education, Museum of Croydon, Music, Queens Gardens
Tagged Borough of Culture, Croydon, Croydon Council, Heritage Music Trail, Jacqueline du Pre, Jamie Reid, Kirsty MacColl, London Borough of Croydon, National Lottery, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Queens Gardens, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Stormzy
22 Comments
Serious concern raised over brutal end to town centre artwork
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES There’s growing concerns and “disappointment” that Croydon, the 2023 Borough of Culture, has managed to lose yet another significant piece of public artwork, right from under the noses of the council. A much-admired, mid-20th Century frieze … Continue reading
Posted in AMP House, Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Chris Clark, Croydon Council, East Croydon, Environment, Fairfield, History, Property, Ria Patel, Stiles Harold Williams, Whitgift Centre
Tagged 20th Century Society, AMP House, Croydon, Croydon Council, Cultural Quarter, East Croydon, East Croydon station, Humanity Relief, John Grindrod, Richard Plant, Stiles Harold Williams, Whitgift Centre
11 Comments
Purley Festival returns to Rotary Field with live music stage
The Purley Festival is set to return to Rotary Field next month, hoping to deliver “a wonderful celebration of culture, talent and community”, according to the organisers. The focal point of the weekend of September 9 and 10 will be … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Charity, Music, Purley, Purley BID
Tagged Borough of Culture, Purley, Purley BID, Purley Festival, Rotary Field, Simon Cripps
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GLA has few checks on how £1.3m Culture grant is being spent
CROYDON IN CRISIS: The cash-strapped council received £1.35m from City Hall towards the staging of the Borough of Culture, but it is subject to next-to-no external scrutiny over how that public money is being used. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES The … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Community associations, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Borough of Culture, City Hall, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon BID, Croydon Council, GLA, Greater London Authority, London Borough of Croydon, Mayor Jason Perry, Tory
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It’s hard to find signs of the borough’s musical heritage trail
So just what do we get for the £220,000 of Lottery cash splurged on Croydon’s Music Heritage Trail? We sent LOUISA GAUTREY along to road-test the trail and its accompanying app As a teenager who listens to a wide range … Continue reading
CODA’s Alice Through Wonderland, Wandle Park, Jul 26-29
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Wandle Park to be transformed into a summertime Wonderland
Something a little weird and a bit wonderful will be appearing around the bandstand in Wandle Park next week. In its 80th year, CODA, the Croydon Operatic and Dramatic Association, is performing Alice Through Wonderland, an innovative production of Lewis … Continue reading
CODA’s Alice Through Wonderland, Wandle Park, Jul 26-29
A D V E R T I S E M E N T
Constable comes to Thornton Heath in National Gallery tour
Here’s one way of getting the Tories to have our public libraries operating on a more regular, daily basis: stage a National Gallery exhibition. Thornton Heath public library, which under Conservative Mayor Jason Perry is routinely only open three days … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Education, Libraries, Mayor Jason Perry
5 Comments
