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Category Archives: Ken Towl
Mini-movie does a reduxed double-take on All Of Us Strangers
KEN TOWL was at a movie’s world premiere on Saturday, staged in Croydon (just off Surrey Street, as it happens), of a film shot in Croydon, of a film set in Croydon. His verdict? It’s a bit of a split … Continue reading
Frankie Goes To Croydon – a walking show with a big reveal
The first Croydonites Fringe Festival was staged over the weekend, a curtain-raiser for a month-long programme of theatre around the borough, and KEN TOWL was there to see it all unveiled at one of the shows I’m standing in the … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Art, Centrale, Croydonites Festival, Ken Towl, Theatre, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre
Tagged Amy Gwilliam, Centrale, Croydon, Croydon Town Hall, Croydonites, Croydonites Festival, Croydonites Fringe, Frankie Foxtone aka The Profit, Hammersfield, Ken Towl, Nestle Tower, Unibail Rodamco Westfield, URW, Westfield
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Get stars in your eyes on our next Croydon ramble, Nov 17
For our next Inside Croydon guided walk, we are returning to a route first checked out by KEN TOWL seven years ago – a short, sociable autumn stroll up a hill and through the woods and meadows passing Kenley aerodrome … Continue reading
Love Cronx EP plays out in the spirit of Beano’s and Cymande
KEN TOWL went along to where much-missed vinyl record store once was, and found more great beats at the heart of Croydon My invitation said, “Join the Beats and Eats team for our Love Cronx EP release party, featuring a … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ken Towl, Music, Poetry
Tagged Beanos, Beats and Eats, Big Nate, Cymande, Middle Street, The Venue
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Views behind the news headlines with the Croydon Insider
Have all the country’s politicians lost the ability to say, “No, thank you very much”? That’s just one of the questions considered by our panel guests in this latest, packed edition of the Croydon Insider. Our guests for this episode … Continue reading
Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Croydon Insider, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Whitgift Centre
Tagged #FreeGearKeir, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, Darryl Chamberlain, Donna Fraser, Ken Towl, Labour, Mayor Jason Perry, Metropolitan Police, Steve Reed OBE, Under The Flyover, Westfield, Whitgift Centre
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Croydon’s Super Size Me quest for town centre’s best burger
Croydon’s answer to Morgan Spurlock, KEN TOWL, last week set off to discover where the best burgers are to be found in the town. His harrowing account is a testimony to fortitude and a strong stomach Last month, Inside Croydon … Continue reading
Posted in Business, Ken Towl, Pubs, Restaurants, South Croydon, Wendy's, Whelans
Tagged Burgers, Croydon, East Croydon, fast food, Five Guys, George Street, Ken Towl, McDonald's, South Croydon, South End, Takeaways, Wellesley Road, Wendy's, Whelans
11 Comments
Mystery as Fuller’s exit three Croydon pubs in unseemly hurry
In the second part of his review of the hospitality trade in the borough (yes, dear reader, we sent him on a month-long pub crawl), KEN TOWL explores the reasons for one of London’s biggest and best-loved brewers’ sudden departure … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe West, Business, Esther Sutton, Fairfield, Ken Towl, Property, Pubs, South Croydon
Tagged Addiscombe, Admiral Taverns, Croydon Flyover, Fuller's, Fullers Brewery, Ken Towl, London, South Croydon, The Builders Arms, The Claret and Ale, The Crown & Sceptre, The Oval Tavern, The Royal Standard, The Spread Eagle, Whelans
5 Comments
Croydon housing policy is reminiscent of Dickensian England
CROYDON COMMENTARY: A council briefing document shows that officials and the Mayor are playing fast and loose with their legal obligations on provision for the homeless, says KEN TOWL Croydon Council is playing fast and loose with their obligations on … Continue reading
This is Tory Britain in 2024: ‘Sometimes you’ve got to be cruel’
ELECTION SKETCH: Beyond a Boundary is not only an excellent cricket book, but is what KEN TOWL did last night, going beyond Croydon, and beyond London, to see whether Labour’s candidate in Reigate really does have a sporting chance on … Continue reading
Two weeks early and most candidates are conceding defeat
ELECTION SKETCH: As other parties’ candidates in Croydon East have admitted they will lose come July 4, Labour’s shoo-in as a new MP calls her party’s bankrupting of the borough and its part in illegal hacking as ‘a load of … Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Andrew Pelling, Croydon East, Jason Cummings, Ken Towl, Natasha Irons, Peter Underwood
Tagged 15% Council Tax hike, 2024 General Election, Andrew Pelling, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon East, General Election, General Election 2024, Green Party, Jason Cummings, Ken Towl, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Natasha Irons, Peter Underwood, Tory
23 Comments
Poundshop politician who puts the ‘sham’ into shambolic
ELECTION SKETCH: It was billed as a ‘hustings’, but was really nothing other than a rally for fringe party TTIP’s star candidate. KEN TOWL went along, so that you – and hundreds of others – didn’t have to “Somebody at … Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Croydon West, Donna Murray-Turner, Ken Towl, Marley King, Sarah Jones MP
Tagged 2024 General Election, Anthony King, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon West, Donna Murray-Turner, General Election, General Election 2024, Ken Towl, Labour, Marley King, Taking The Initiative Party, Tory, TTIP
4 Comments
Talawa’s plays in search of an audience: the acts deserve better
KEN TOWL returns to the Fairfield Halls, and is left to wonder where Croydon’s theatre-goers have gone Back to the Fairfield Halls for a second production at the Talawa Theatre in the space of four days. No sooner have they … Continue reading
Amalgam of rap and Shakespeare in search for perfect partner
KEN TOWL reviews a new work of poetry, theatre and dance, performed at the under-used Fairfield Halls’ ‘Wreck’ Anastasia Osei-Kuffour has put together a (mostly) fast-moving everywoman story that tracks a thirtysomething and her search for love in the 21st … Continue reading
FREE: Our podcast answers the important election questions
Why vote? That is a question for many of us ahead of the July 4 General Election. In our latest, special episode of the Croydon Insider podcast, a panel of experts tries to answer some of the questions put to … Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Andrew Fisher, Croydon East, Croydon Insider, Croydon South, Croydon West, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Ria Patel, Streatham and Croydon North, Under The Flyover
Tagged 2024 General Election, Andrew Fisher, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon East, Croydon South, Croydon West, General Election, General Election 2024, Green Party, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Labour, Liberal Democrats, Neil Chamroo, Ria Patel, Streatham and Croydon North, The Croydon Insider, Tory, Under The Flyover, Why Vote?
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No ‘soft focus filter’ applied to latest exhibition at Art Space
KEN TOWL was caught by the Muse at Addiscombe’s art gallery, one of the outstanding works in its summer exhibition Croydon-based artist Tina Crawford counts Sir Paul Smith, Grayson Perry and Jean Paul Gaultier as her champions. They each own … Continue reading
Musical therapy that can leave us all feeling much better
KEN TOWL, pictured left, took a super fast SuperLoop bus a couple of stops from East Croydon to the Bethlem Gallery and encounters a surprisingly engaging new exhibition about music, and the mind The Bethlem Gallery’s latest exhibition is not … Continue reading
Special offer this month: free access to the Croydon Insider
The Croydon Insider, our monthly news podcast that delves behind the headlines, is available FREE to all reader this month, as a special, unrepeatable offer. Our podcast is premium content that is usually only available to paid-up subscribers, who pay … Continue reading
Posted in 2024 London elections, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, Inside Croydon, Katherine Kerswell, Ken Towl, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, New Addington North, New Addington South, Parking, Planning, Polaska, Polaska Assets Ltd, Property, Purley, Purley Pool, Sadiq Khan, Susan Hall, ULEZ expansion, Under The Flyover
Tagged 2024 London elections, 25th Purley Scouts, Artist Taxi Driver, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Katherine Kerswell, Labour, London, London Elections, London elections 2024, Mayor, Patreon, Podcasts, Purley, Spotify, Stormzy, The Croydon Insider, Tory, Under The Flyover
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Arcadia’s impressive dancers channel growing anger of youth
KEN TOWL went along to South Norwood for an opening night of dance, theatre, film and rap which displayed young talents and an urgency for action to safeguard our environment Arcadia: the name of the classical ideal of unsullied nature, … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Dance, Environment, Ken Towl, Music, South Norwood, Stanley Halls, Theatre
Tagged Arcadia, Ken Towl, South Norwood, Stanley Arts, Stanley Halls
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In Croydon’s numbers game, selectorate is denied a vital detail
SELECTION SKETCH: Finally, Labour members in the new Parliamentary constituency of Croydon East have been allowed to have their say. KEN TOWL, right, went behind the scenes of this secretive process to choose someone who very likely will soon become … Continue reading
Posted in 2024 General Election, Carole Bonner, Croydon Central, Croydon East, Ken Towl, Natasha Irons, Sarah Jones MP
Tagged Anonyvoter, Carole Bonner, Computer Misue Act, Croydon, Croydon Central, Croydon East, Croydon East CLP, cyber crime, Joel Bodmer, Johnson Situ, Ken Towl, Labour, London, Maddie Henson, Metropolitan Police, Natasha Irons, Olga Fitzroy, Sarah Jones MP
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No hiding place for Jason Perry, Croydon’s impotent Mayor
CROYDON IN CRISIS: From a couple of hundred attendees soon after he was first elected, Croydon’s part-time Mayor is now drawing crowds of only a couple of dozen for his council-funded promotional tour. KEN TOWL went along to South Norwood … Continue reading
Fairfield Halls left haunted by acts from its more glorious past
CROYDON COMMENTARY: The music-loving public expect better and the venue deserves better than a stream of tribute acts, says KEN TOWL Clive John is a very good singer and he was an engaging presence on the stage of the Ashcroft … Continue reading
While admiring town centre’s new art, try not to get arrested
The newly installed street art around the town centre has its appeal, the overtly hostile security policy in Centrale less so, says KEN TOWL It was quite a thrill to be described as “the IC1 male taking pictures with a … Continue reading
Turn again to pantomime as Sanderstead takes its annual bow
With our regular reviewer, Bella Bartock… ‘indisposed’ (too much Harvey’s Bristol Cream over Christmas, we’re told), KEN TOWL got all dolled up as a panto dame – oh yes he did! – and tottered along in his high heels to … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Dance, Ken Towl, Music, Sanderstead, Sanderstead Dramatic Club, Theatre
Tagged Aladdin, Croydon, Dick Whittington, Ken Towl, Panto, pantomime, Sanderstead, Sanderstead Dramatic Club
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