Doctor Who and Dr Strangelove lined up for David Lean Cinema

The David Lean Cinema has partnered with National Theatre Live to bring their star-studded stage productions to the big screen, and the programming begins with stage shows featuring two very different “doctors”.

The stage-to-screen collaboration begins next week, on Wednesday March 19, with a screening of Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest, starring Doctor Who’s Ncuti Gatwa and three-time Olivier Award-winner Sharon D Clarke.

Then, next month, the David Lean Cinema will be screening Armando Iannucci’s adaptation of Stanley Kubrick’s Dr Strangelove, starring Steve Coogan.

The decision to bring live theatre to the 68-seater independent cinema, nestled in the Croydon Clocktower, seems a natural progression for the cinema which has always been a fierce champion of the arts, promoting independent movies, art-house cinema and international films. Continue reading

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Council planning chief Cheesbrough set to take ‘career break’

EXCLUSIVE: After nearly a decade in charge of Croydon’s planning department, one of Jo Negrini’s closest colleagues is to leave Fisher’s Folly.
By our Town Hall correspondent, KEN LEE

Heather Cheesbrough, Croydon Council’s “director of planning and sustainable regeneration” (try not to laugh), is to leave her £130,000-plus job.

Patronising: council director Heather Cheesbrough, leaving after almost 10 years overseeing planning in Croydon

Katharine Street sources say that staff were informed of this important development (no pun, etc) on the council’s intranet system yesterday. There has been no public announcement or confirmation from the council.

“She’s supposedly taking a career break,” one source said. “But it all seems somewhat sudden.”

Cheesbrough’s departure comes as the government prepares to introduce a new, anything-goes planning system (with more powers delegated to council officials, like Cheesbrough, and less power for the public), while the London Plan, with its overview of development and housing delivery across the capital, is in a state of flux. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Brick by Brick, Business, CPO, Croydon Council, Heather Cheesbrough, Jo Negrini, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 28 Comments

500 flats in £250m scheme proposed opposite Sutton Station

Developers have submitted a £250million proposal to build 507 flats on a site opposite Sutton railway centre, the latest tower block for the town centre.

Press ganged: developers are proposing more than 500 homes opposite Sutton Station

The scheme, which has been dubbed “Press Works”, will retain and repurpose a 19-storey office block on the site. The developers say that they want to retain more than half of the existing structure, in an effort to make the project more sustainable.

The proposals, from Amro Partners, will deliver 312 build-to-rent homes and 195 co-living apartments. They say that they intend to make 35% of the build-to-rent flats “affordable”. The tower block will also include coworking space, gyms and children’s play areas, while the ground floor will provide a dedicated community hub for use by locals, charities and community groups at a subsidised rate. Continue reading

Posted in Business, Housing, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Hassan Sentamu given life sentence for Elianne Andam murder

Grieving parents decry their daughter’s murderer for his ‘senseless, monstrous and evil’ actions 

Murderer: Hassan Sentamu, 18, will serve a minimum of 23 years in jail

The Old Bailey judge in the murder case of Elianne Andam told the court at today’s sentencing hearing that the mural painted on Wellesley Road in memory of the Croydon schoolgirl sent a message from the community: “Put the knives down.”

Mrs Justice Cheema-Grubb sentenced 18-year-old Hassan Sentamu to life in prison with a minimum term of 23 years, as he had taken a knife to the scene.

Sentamu, from New Addington, was 17 when he killed 15-year-old Andam by stabbing her in the neck outside the Whitgift Centre on the morning of September 27, 2023. Sentamu’s “frenzied” attack was caught on CCTV and seen by dozens of horrified passers-by and bus passengers.

Andam was stabbed 10 times, including fatally through the neck. Continue reading

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83-year-old Palace fan shaken by Selhurst security shakedown

CROYDON COMMENTARY: Season ticket-holder PETER GILLMAN had been looking forward to the Ipswich match all week, but in the queue at the gate something happened which left him questioning his club’s approach

No place like Holmesdale: but Peter Gillman was shaken by his shakedown

At the age of 83, a milestone I somehow passed last week, I was not expecting to be pulled out of the queue at Crystal Palace and given a shakedown for drugs.

But that is what happened to me last Saturday.

I attended my first match at Selhurst Park in 1957 and have followed my beloved team, through thick and thin, ever since. I was looking forward to Palace’s home match with Ipswich, hoping that we could sustain our stunning run of form, with nine wins in the last 12 games. My son and I joined the queue for the Upper Holmesdale, where we have season ticket seats. There was a jovial mood around us in anticipation of yet another win.

I became aware of a dog sniffing around my legs. It was on a leash held by a young man wearing a woven black tie. There was nothing on him or the dog’s harness to indicate who they were. The dog continued to sniff and I asked the man: “Who are you?” Continue reading

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City Commons staging ‘Meet the Calves’ open day, Sun Mar 23

The City Commons rangers are opening up their yard on Coulsdon Common on Sunday March 23 to “Meet the Calves”, this year’s additions to the herd of Sussex cattle that grazes Farthing Downs and the local commons.

Here is the moos: families can meet the Sussex cattle calves at the City Commons open day on March 23

“This is the first chance to see our new calves before they join the conservation grazing herd in spring,” the rangers say.

The open day – from 11am to 2pm – is an opportunity to find out more about the role that the Sussex cattle, Jacob sheep and goats play in supporting biodiversity across London’s second-largest National Nature Reserve, and to discover more about the work of the rangers and volunteers and what they do to look after the local commons.

There’s also a chance to make a clay medallion to take home and find out about ranger apprenticeship opportunities. Continue reading

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Addiscombe firm helps young footballers in their title bid

A builders merchant based in Addiscombe is sponsoring a grassroots football team as part of its commitment to supporting the local community.

Kitted out: Warlingham’s under-13s side has played well in their new, sponsored kits

Harris and Bailey, based in Hastings Road, has teamed up with Warlingham Football Club to provide its U13s boys team with their matchday kit for the season.

The team is third in their division of the Epsom and Ewell Youth Football League.

“It’s a pleasure to help these young footballers to do something they love,” said Neville Horsfield, Harris and Bailey’s managing director.

“We are always looking for ways to give back to our local community, and supporting sport at a grassroots level is a great way of doing this. Continue reading

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Kevin Montgomery in concert at Croydon Athletic, Mar 14

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Kerswell issues warning to staff over ‘verbal abuse’ at council

CROYDON IN CRISIS: Flashpoints between security guards and council staff after just two days of the new appointments-only system at Fisher’s Folly have seen workers told ‘we will not tolerate abuse of any form’.
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Remote: the council’s £204,000 pa CEO Katherine Kerswell presides over an increasingly ‘self-service, virtual council, where you get to talk to a half-baked AI’

Within two days of switching the council’s Access Croydon public area to No Access Croydon, and Katherine Kerswell, the authority’s £204,000 per year chief executive, has had to issue a warning letter after complaints of “verbal abuse” directed at Fisher’s Folly security staff.

Thing is, the verbal abuse has not been from (justifiably) angry members of the public but, according to Kerswell, from other council staff colleagues.

Kerswell announced the switch of access at the council’s HQ building only last Friday, one working day before the changeover. Elected councillors were given the news of Kerswell’s latest fait accompli last Thursday. Council staff were unaware of the changes until they received Kerswell’s email on Friday morning. Continue reading

Posted in 'Future Croydon', Bernard Weatherill House, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Housing, Katherine Kerswell | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Opportunity knocks as Negrini does a MIPIM turn for London

Panel of experts: no, not that latest line up for I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue, but the return to MIPIM of former Croydon CEO Jo Negrini (second from right)

Watch out London. The capital city’s Mayor, Sir Sadiq Khan, has made his first visit to MIPIM, the global property developers conference staged each spring in Cannes, with a notorious reputation in the past as a “booze and hookers fest”. Nothing quite so sordid these days, we’re almost certain.

London for sale: Sir Sadiq Khan flogging the capital to oil-rich Middle East investors, the Chinese and US property magnates at MIPIM yesterday

And there on the London roster of panellists to lecture the world on how to make a quick buck at the expense of public bodies is none other than Jo Negrini, the woman who played a key part in bankrupting a borough.

Mayor Sir Sadiq was peddling something called Opportunity London, an “investment prospectus” seeking “partners” offering around £22billion towards 20 projects that have not quite managed to get off the drawing board.

There is no sign of any Croydon schemes there, but as one example of quite how flaky some of the projects might be, one of them is for 450 homes on six development sites across the borough of Lambeth. That’s the same Lambeth that last month landed a £40million government bail-out specifically for its housing budget, in part because of the collapse of its Homes for Lambeth development scheme. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Brick by Brick, Business, Croydon BID, Heather Cheesbrough, Housing, Jo Negrini, Jules Pipe, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Planning, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Tom Copley, Transport, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

By Royal appointment: Duchess pays a visit to Croydon High

Royal visit: the Duchess of Gloucester encounters some of Croydon High’s 2025 pupils as part of the school’s 150-year anniversary

The Duchess of Gloucester has marked the 150th anniversary of Croydon High School with a royal visit to the girls’ fee-paying school in Selsdon, marking “a poignant moment in the school’s rich legacy of empowering girls through education since its founding”.

Established by the pioneering Girls’ Public Day School Company (now the Girls’ Day Schools Trust), Croydon High was one of the earliest schools established with the radical vision of providing academic excellence for girls at a time when such opportunities were rare.

The school’s first headteacher, Dorinda Neligan, was a formidable leader and staunch suffragette, known for her activism in advancing women’s rights. “Under her leadership, Croydon High became a trailblazer in girls’ education, challenging societal norms and laying the foundation for generations of confident, capable young women,” the school says.

Continue reading

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45 houses on Farleigh Meadows is latest battle for Green Belt

Farleigh Meadows: this site, an ‘Area of Great Landscape Value’ according to Surrey County Council, with the path through to a primary school, could soon seen 45 houses being built

Residents in Warlingham are fighting a rearguard action to save the Green Belt, with a succession of applications to build housing, often on sites which were formerly sports grounds or used for recreational purposes.

Farleigh Meadows, previously a stables and paddock, is subject of a planning application for 45 houses on Green Belt, despite the site having been determined to be an “Area of Great Landscape Value”. Continue reading

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Trial date for Carshalton teacher’s murder is set for October

Victim: Gemma Devonish

James Madden appeared in court yesterday and was charged with the murder of Gemma Devonish, the school teacher who was found with fatal stab wounds at a flat in Nutfield Close, Carshalton, on December 19 last year.

The local MP described the killing as “shocking and distressing”.

Madden, 38, of Railton Road, Brixton, was the long-term boyfriend of Devonish. He made his court appearance via videolink from HMP Belmarsh.

During a brief hearing at Croydon Crown Court, Judge Peter Gower KC set a trial date in October, with the trial expected to last around two weeks.

The plea hearing date has been set for next month. Continue reading

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Council finally paints double yellows so Kenley gets its 434 bus

A year after they literally “missed the bus” over Transport for London’s last-minute decision not to route the 434 to upper Kenley because of sightline issues on some suburban streets, and the ward’s Tory councillors are claiming the credit for finally getting a bus routed to serve the area.

On the buses: TfL is implementing changes to the 434, after waiting for action by Croydon Council for more than a year

In fact, the only reason for the delay in implementing the TfL route all this time had been Tory-controlled Croydon Council’s failure to paint double yellow lines along a short stretch of road.

The 434 runs between Coulsdon, Ridgemount Avenue and Caterham.

From the end of this month, the route will no longer serve stops on Godstone Road between Purley Tesco and Kenley Station, but will instead run via Foxley Hill Road, Higher Drive, Cullesden Road, Firs Road, Wattendon Road, Hayes Lane, Park Road and Hayes Lane.

“Locals have been asking for this for years,” one loyal reader observed. Continue reading

Posted in Gayle Gander, Kenley, Ola Kolade, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

East Croydon bridge to open in October, as MP fails to update

East Croydon Station’s Bridge to Nowhere is expected to be open, and finally allow pedestrians to go somewhere, in October.

Blocked off: an MP’s ‘update’ provided zero information on dates or details of plans for the Bridge to Nowhere

That’s according to Jeet Bains, the council cabinet member for planning and regeneration, in a speech at a Town Hall meeting last month.

It is suggested that he was trying to claim it as some kind of achievement for Croydon’s Tory Mayor. Which might be a bit of a gamble, since Jason Perry was the cabinet member responsible when the plight of the Bridge to Nowhere was first revealed 12 years ago.

Inside Croydon’s moniker for the £24million pedestrian access bridge that was supposed to link Cherry Orchard Road in Addiscombe to Croydon town centre via Dingwall Road, now appears to be in everyday use. This website first coined the phrase in 2013, when work was competed but the access on the eastern side remained blocked.

That inaccessibility has remained in place ever since.

The bridge is now routinely referred to by its iC moniker by Heather Cheesbrough, the head of the council’s planning department which was at least partically responsible for this multi-million-pound omnishambles, as well as by Google’s AI-powered search engine, and even by two of the borough’s Labour MPs. Continue reading

Posted in Addiscombe West, Commuting, Croydon Council, Croydon East, Croydon West, East Croydon, Natasha Irons, Planning, Sarah Jones MP, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

Vital safety works for Croydon Flyover could start in 2026

Showing its age: built almost 60 years ago, the Croydon Flyover’s concrete pillars are flaking and rusting

Vital safety works to repair the ageing Croydon Flyover could begin next year, according to Transport for London.

It is three years since TfL highlighted the need to undertake safety works on the A232 urban motorway which runs from Park Lane out to Duppas Hill, and only now is the capital’s transport authority able to consider taking on this multi-million-pound project.

The Croydon Flyover is built of reinforced concrete, and was completed in 1969, bisecting Croydon Old Town from Waddon. The Flyover is used by 40,000 vehicles a day.

Continue reading

Posted in Heidi Alexander, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Transport | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

Shocking increase in attacks on ambulance and TfL employees

Two separate surveys indicate a growing lawlessness among Londoners, with damaging consequences for some public sector workers

Murder on the Tube: Jorge Ortega’s killing at Ilford last year is one of an increasing number of assaults on TfL staff

Once every two days.

That is how often Transport for London employees working at the capital’s Tube stations are attacked and hurt while simply doing their jobs.

Those alarming figures are matched by the results of another shocking survey just released that shows a staggering rise in physical and verbal attacks on London Ambulance Service staff and paramedics, with more than 8,000 assaults on frontline workers in the past five years. Continue reading

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By appointment only: council’s been breaking the law for years

By appointment only: Croydon Council’s tree preservation orders are not as accessible as the law demands

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The council made its public ‘access’ area at Fisher’s Folly appointment-only today.
But as DON WHITE found out, even before the covid pandemic, our local authority has been most selective about how it fulfils its legal responsibilitiess at the council offices

There are a number of areas where a local authority is required by law to keep their offices open.

One example I have experienced is in relation to the tree preservation orders – knowns as TPOs – under The Town and Country Planning Act (Tree Preservation) (England) Regulations 2012 [UK Statutory Instruments 2012 no.605].

This law states explicitly “a copy of the order shall be made available for inspection, free of charge, at all reasonable hours, at the offices of the authority by whom the order was made; and where an order is made on behalf of an authority, it shall be made available for inspection also at the offices of the authority on whose behalf it was made”.

So, by law Croydon must keep a register of preserved trees and make it available to any member of the public asking to see it. Continue reading

Posted in Croydon Council, Environment, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Steve Reed MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Comedy satire brings Croydon Labour vote fraud to the stage

You’ve seen Inside Croydon: The Movie (and if you haven’t, why not?).

Now comes a comedy satire on stage, which the playwrights say they have based on Inside Croydon’s reporting, which was “incredibly insightful” and “a source of comedic and informative inspiration”. Ooo-err.

Paratroopers, written by Daniel Patten and Sol Alberman, is playing at the Lion and Unicorn pub theatre in Kentish Town later this month, ahead of a run at the Edinburgh Fringe this year.

Patten says that he and Alberman have been working on the play for more than a year, “researching all things Labour selections since January 2024”.

Paratroopers is set in Cackby, a fictional post-industrial town in northern England. An MP has died and party members – the theatre audience – gather at North Cackby Community Arts Centre to choose a successor.

But how much of a choice do they really have? Continue reading

Posted in Art, Comedy, Croydon East, David Evans, Inside Croydon, Theatre | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Murder In Cairo: Gillman’s long pursuit of Cold War cold case

Congratulations to Inside Croydon contributor Peter Gillman, who yesterday saw his latest book, Murder In Cairo: Solving a Cold War Spy Mystery, given a front-page promotion by his former employers, while extracts were published as this week’s cover story in The Sunday Times Magazine.

Gillman was a long-time staffer at The Sunday Times, and an original member of its Insight investigations team under then Editor, Harry Evans.

Before he died in 2020, Evans told Gillman that the newspaper’s failure to solve the case of the murder of its chief foreign correspondent, David Holden, was the biggest regret of his career. Continue reading

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Council settles legal challenge by blind man over postal voting

A Croydon resident who is registered blind has won a legal challenge brought against the council, which claimed that it had failed to make reasonable adjustments to make postal voting more accessible for him and other people with visual impairments.

In the post: Yusuf Osman has claimed another legal case success against Croydon Council

The challenge was launched after Norbury resident Dr Yusuf Osman was unable to vote by post without assistance in two elections held last year. He had to rely on a friend for assistance, compromising his ability to vote secretly and independently.

The council has now settled out of court, agreeing to make significant changes in the way it operates voting for blind people, and to pay Dr Osman a token sum in damages.

In the lead-up to the London Mayor and Assembly elections in May and General Election in July last year, Dr Osman was only sent hard copies of postal voting documents which contained no instructions or information in Braille. This was despite the council being aware of his visual impairment.

Croydon’s Returning Officer, in charge of the conduct of public elections in the borough – and paid extra for doing so – is Katherine Kerswell, 63, the council’s £204,000 per year chief executive. Kerswell was roundly criticised for her mismanagement of Croydon’s local elections in 2022.

Dr Osman owns software able to scan and read out plain text. But other information contained in tables or images is often interpreted inaccurately. The software does not allow him to identify where to cast his vote on the ballot, or assist with marking it. Continue reading

Posted in Charity, Croydon Council, Norbury, Stephen Lawrence-Orumwense | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Halfords gears up to take on rival business’s redundant staff

Halfords has extended an offer of job interviews to all members of staff affected by the closure of the ATS Euromaster branches in Croydon, Beckenham, Morden and Sydenham.

Business opportunity: Halfords is looking to interview ATS staff and win over their customers

This follows ATS Euromaster’s announcement last month that 86 of its service centres, selling tyres, brakes and offering MOTs, are to close.

The Michelin-owned company is closing more than one-third of its network, blaming overcapacity, increasing costs and sluggish growth. It is reckoned 400 employees are affected by the closures, including in four south London centres. Continue reading

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The Masterplan has just one aim, to make money for Westfield

CROYDON COMMENTARY: The Town Hall planners handing over Masterplan responsibilities for the town centre to Westfield, as Inside Croydon reported this week, has left reader CARL LUCAS angry that our council will be missing a significant opportunity for a sustainable future

Flats, flats and more flats: Westfield’s latest scheme, endorsed by Mayor Perry’s planning committee, could include 3,000 ‘units’

It’s an insult that Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s vague Masterplan “Framework” even made it to Croydon Council’s planning committee.

I view it as a statement of intent of how much URW can take the absolute piss and how unfit for purpose most of the people on the planning committee are.

Nicola Townsend, Croydon’s chief planner, needs her P45 for this.

Westfield were originally brought in for a reason, and it wasn’t to be a housing developer, yet now they propose 3,000 flats, front and centre.

All they’ve done since they arrived in Croydon in 2012 is slowly squeeze the life and soul out of the town centre. This Masterplan Framework has one aim, an attempt to make as much money as possible for URW. Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Croydon Council, Environment, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, Michael Neal, Nicola Townsend, North End Quarter, Planning, Property, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 25 Comments

Read all about it! Croydon’s streets of crime from 100 years ago

A century of history: George Street, in Croydon town centre, in 1925, when judging by the newspaper reports of the day, crimes were being committed on a daily basis

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: In the Roaring Twenties, the local paper was filled with reports from the magistrates court of armed crime, drunkenness and ‘inexplicable frivolity’, as DAVID MORGAN delves into the archives for more of the events of March 1925

Speakeasy: undercover reporters from The Croydon Times found night clubs operating into the small hours, with dancing and card games

The Croydon Times from exactly 100 years ago provides us with a picture of Croydon life back in the “Roaring Twenties”. It wasn’t roaring for everyone, though.

The number of law and order stories which filled the paper in 1925 revealed aspects of human frailty and shortcomings, tempered with acts of kindness. As well as reflecting a time when every local newspaper had its own, dedicated court reporter.

A youth by the name of Jesse, who lived in Selsdon Road, was stopped by the police for riding a tricycle without proper lights in South End. When the case came before Mr Francis Allen JP, Jesse was fined a half crown, 2 shillings and 6d – 12½p in decimalised currency. It was a lot of money in those days…

The 78-year-old father of the youth spoke in his defence. He agreed that the lights on his son’s tricycle weren’t working properly but that, in mitigation, the household had been in some upset due to illness. Continue reading

Posted in Crime, David Morgan, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 8 Comments

Croydon Photography Forum with Paul Bogle, Mar 17

A D V E R T I S E M E N T

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