Recent Comments
Category Archives: Ken Towl
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?
Leave a comment
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
Leave a comment
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
1 Comment
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
1 Comment
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
Leave a comment
Winners’ dinners: loyal readers scoop South Norwood prizes
Congratulations to David White and Paul Hepden, winners of our latest Inside Croydon competition. Paul and David both guesstimated closest to the amount that Ken Towl paid for his delicious lunch at the South Norwood Community Kitchen, where they operate … Continue reading
Community kitchen that’s serving up much more than soul food
KEN TOWL reviews a South Norwood restaurant with a difference, and launches iC’s final competition of 2023, with two lunches for two on offer as the prizes In the well-lit open-plan kitchen, Anne and Yaba were dancing. Their smiles and … 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
5 Comments
Everything really is political on a stroll around South Norwood
SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: This week, KEN TOWL wanders off on a tour of South Norwood, helped with a guide map that is available from one of Croydon’s libraries that is closed for five days of the week… The modern dictum that … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Ken Towl, Libraries, South Norwood, Walks
Tagged 20th Century Society, architecture, Art, Ken Towl, Selhurst Park, South Norwood, South Norwood Library, Wilfried Zaha
1 Comment
Addiscombe gallery once again shows off its art with a heart
You don’t need to go far to discover genuine art, says KEN TOWL after visiting the latest exhibition at the Croydon Art Space Aurelia Duplouich found herself stranded during the first covid lockdown, an artist without artist’s materials. She was … Continue reading
Posted in Addiscombe East, Addiscombe West, Art, Croydon Art Space, Ken Towl
Tagged Addiscombe, Croydon Art Space, Ken Towl, Lower Addiscombe Road, Paul Hall
Leave a comment
7 killings in 6 months: Croydon Insider on the lasting tragedies
“Someone went out with a bunch of flowers in one hand and a knife in the other” Our latest episode of The Croydon Insider deals with one of the worst crises to affect Croydon, and London, after a series of … Continue reading
Posted in Crime, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, Inside Croydon, Ken Towl, Knife crime, Local media, Mayor Jason Perry, Old Palace, Schools
Tagged Andrew Tate, Conservative, Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon schoolgril murder, Dan Wootton, Elianne Andam, knife crime, Laurence Fox, Mayor Jason Perry, murder, New Addington, Spotify, Tory, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation, youth knife crime
Leave a comment
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
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
Our latest podcast on giraffes, Marks & Sparks and murder
In our latest Croydon Insider podcast, our guests catch up on what’s happening in Croydon, discussing the spate of murders in and around the borough, plus what’s caught their eye on the pages of our website over the past couple … Continue reading
£1.5m being spent on our Borough of not-very-much Culture
We are now well into the third month of Croydon’s year as the Borough of Culture. Waddyamean, you haven’t seen any publicity or signs of anything special being staged? Neither have we, so we sent KEN TOWL off to see … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Business, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Ken Towl, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Museum of Croydon, Music, Sadiq Khan, Theatre
Tagged Borough of Culture, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Four Communications, Grey Label, Heritage Music Trail, Jo Gumb, Katharine Glass, Ken Towl, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Mayor Sadiq Khan, Oliver Lewis, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Stanley Halls, Stormzy, White Label
7 Comments
Recognition at last: Coleridge-Taylor gets placed centre stage
The people behind Croydon’s Borough of Culture did not invite Inside Croydon to the press night for the prestigious new production at the Fairfield Halls. KEN TOWL got in anyway At last, we can see where some of the Mayor … Continue reading
Posted in Art, Borough of Culture 2023, Fairfield Halls, Ken Towl, Mayor Jason Perry, Music, Talawa Theatre Company, Theatre
Tagged Borough of Culture, Croydon, Croydon Council, Fairfield Halls, Ken Towl, London, Mayor Jason Perry, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Talawa Theatre Company, This is Croydon
2 Comments
Podcast: The Croydon Insider discusses issues of the week
Hear about the plans to get Croydon’s biggest organ throbbing once more. Listen as our guests discuss the arrogance of local authority chief executives who have described a £6,000 per year pay rise as ‘pettiness’. Talk about Croydon’s speeding drivers. … Continue reading
