Charity campaigns to take domestic violence off the buses

Posted on January 29, 2025 by insidecroydon

A campaign by a charity that seeks to reduce domestic violence against children is seeking to teach young people to call out bullying, misogyny and toxic masculinity.

The On The Buses campaign, organised by the SWIM Foundation – or Strength Within Me – is due to run for six months.

“Too many school and university-age girls and young women report incidents of harassment and violence on their daily journey to lessons,” SWIM says.

“The project aims to raise awareness and promote positive behaviour among young people by incorporating messages into bus advertising and social media campaigns.” Continue reading →

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Royal Mail fails to deliver in Croydon and issues public apology

Posted on January 29, 2025 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE: Former employees have claimed that the Factory Lane delivery depot has been seriously under-staffed, as employee illness affects services once again

Businesses and residents in one Croydon post code have not been getting a third-class postal service in 2025 – they’ve been getting no service whatsoever.

No service: some addresses in Croydon have gone almost two weeks without a postal delivery

The Royal Mail has admitted that there have been problems with widespread sickness at its Factory Lane sorting office, which provides deliveries to the CR0 postcode area of central Croydon.

Some addresses in this area have gone for almost two weeks without having a single item of mail delivered, meaning often vital items, including urgent notifications of NHS hospital appointments or essential GP visits, have not arrived on time.

In some cases, even medical prescriptions ordered on the internet have failed to be delivered.

Since late last year, the price of a first class stamp, supposedly offering next-day delivery, has been £1.65. Continue reading →

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Town centre tram loop set for track replacement in February

Posted on January 29, 2025 by insidecroydon

Transport disruption as closures will affect East Croydon and West Croydon and services to Elmers End for a 10-day period

Travel disruption: tram service closures from Feb 15 to Feb 24 will affect central Croydon

There are more tram network closures planned for Croydon town centre, “as part of TfL’s programme to renew London Trams infrastructure”, coming up next month.

Transport for London will be replacing a section of track between Wellesley Road and East Croydon, with the works due to take place from Saturday February 15 until Sunday February 23.

“Services will recommence on Monday February 24,” TfL predicts. Continue reading →

Posted in Commuting, East Croydon, TfL, Tramlink, Transport, West Croydon | Tagged , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Brewery’s record revenues can’t stop Two Brewers’ closure

Posted on January 28, 2025 by insidecroydon

One much-loved Croydon boozer has closed its doors, while the borough’s oldest pub is promising cheaper prices

Last orders: the brewers who owned the Two Brewers have sold the building – a pair of Victorian cottages, to developers

The Two Brewers pub on Gloucester Road closed on Sunday for the final time, its owners, brewers Shepherd Neame, reportedly having sold the property to a developer.

Not too far from Selhurst Park, the Two Brewers was a favourite with Eagles fans on their way to matches, or wanting to drown their sorrows after games such as Sunday’s. That will no longer be an option…

The pub was once described by this website, in a search for the cosiest winter pubs in Croydon, as “effortlessly cosy at any time of the year”, although our curmudgeon of a pub reviewer also noted: “its decor appears to have remained unchanged since the Spitfire was our first line of defence against the Nazi hordes”.

The Two Brewers was the only pub in Croydon run by Shepherd Neame, Britain’s oldest brewery, based in Kent and with popular ales such as Spitfire and Bishop’s Finger on offer at its bars. Continue reading →

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Age UK calls for Mayor Khan to act against Post Office closures

Posted on January 28, 2025 by insidecroydon

The charity Age UK has joined the campaign to save London’s Post Offices – including the under-threat counter service provided on Croydon High Street.

Days are numbered: Croydon’s town centre Post Office is one of 115 to be closed or disposed of

The Post Office closure plans were revealed in November, with 115 Crown Post Offices to close and 1,000 workers to be laid off in a move condemned by union leaders as “immoral”. Of the branches earmarked for closure, 32 are in Greater London.

Today, Age UK London posted on social media, “Post Office branches are a lifeline to older Londoners and people of all ages, particularly those that do not use the internet.”

The charity has welcomed a motion passed by the London Assembly which called on Sir Sadiq Khan, the Mayor of London, to use his influence to challenge the Post Office decision. Continue reading →

Posted in Age UK Croydon, Business, Croydon West, London Assembly, London-wide issues, Mayor of London, Post Office, Sadiq Khan, Sarah Jones MP | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Families left waiting seven months for repairs to damaged flats

Posted on January 28, 2025 by insidecroydon

Burned out: more than six months after the fire at South Bank flats, no repairs have been carried out

While Croydon Council pays a private developer £20million to buy a residential block in Broad Green, in the middle of a housing crisis it is failing to maintain its existing housing stock.

A council-owned block in Upper Norwood has been standing empty for more than six months, while no repairs have been carried out following a fire there last June.

Ward councillor Claire Bonham has called for action from Mayor Jason Perry over the block at South Bank, on Grange Road.

Eight families that lived in the block have had to be decanted and placed in expensive temporary accommodation for more than six months, with no indication from Croydon Council when they might be allowed back to their homes.

Croydon has almost 8,000 households waiting for social housing, with only 800 lettings available each year. Meanwhile, these eight properties stand boarded up and uninhabitable. Continue reading →

Posted in Claire Bonham, Croydon Council, Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood, Housing, Lynne Hale, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Florence Joelle, Blues at The Oval, Addiscombe, Feb 2

Posted on January 28, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Council pays £20m to buy 73 flats in Peep Show building

Posted on January 27, 2025 by insidecroydon

New council homes: the 73 flats bought by Croydon Council in Zodiac House in Broad Green – shown here in an architects’ CGI – cost around £274,000 each

Tory Mayor Jason Perry’s cash-strapped council is attempting to deal with the housing crisis by spending £20million to buy an office-to-resi development in Broad Green.

Zodiac Court is notorious as the fictionalised setting of “Apollo House”, the block including a flat shared by characters Mark and Jez in Channel 4 comedy Peep Show. Now, 73 other households will call the building home, as Croydon Council seeks to reduce the steeply rising costs of providing temporary accommodation.

The purchase price, which Mayor Perry has kept a strictly guarded secret, makes the average cost of each flat almost £274,000.

The refurbishment work to the site, which was nominated for architecture awards, was done by developers Common Projects, who just two years ago were saying that they were creating “apartments for local first-time buyers”.

Perry’s council must have made them a better offer. Continue reading →

Posted in Broad Green, Business, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

The Help to Buy mortgage and councillor’s shifting interests

Posted on January 27, 2025 by insidecroydon

INSIDE SUTTON: An absentee Labour councillor admits he did not declare his own property ownership when he or his soon-to-be wife claimed tens of thousands of pounds in a government-funded, interest-free mortgage loan.
EXCLUSIVE by investigations editor, CARL SHILTON

Labour leader: Sheldon Vestey has deactivated his social media accounts

The “local” ward councillor for Hackbridge jetted back to London from his family home in southern Spain last week, and he is due to attend tonight’s full meeting of Sutton Council.

But Labour Councillor Señor Sheldon Vestey, previously a prolific user of social media for campaigning around his new-build estate and to help get himself elected in 2022, has suddenly vanished from Facebook and Twitter.

This follows Inside Sutton investigations into what neighbours in New Mill Quarter have described as “at least unethical” use of the government’s Help to Buy mortgage scheme by the privately-educated scion of one of the wealthiest families in Britain.

Vestey’s financial conduct might be a little more than “unethical”, with guidance from Homes England, the agency that oversees Help to Buy mortgages, warning that, “applicants who make fraudulent claims for Help to Buy assistance may be liable to criminal prosecution”. Oh… Continue reading →

Posted in Dave Tchil, Sheldon Vestey, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

In-depth and informed: our podcast questions the councillor

Posted on January 27, 2025 by insidecroydon
  • Just how does Croydon’s cash-strapped council function?
  • Is Westfield deliberately driving traders out of the Whitgift Centre?
  • Why won’t Mayor Perry allow some councillors to speak at council meetings?
  • Which Newman Numpty is today the chair of a key council committee?
  • And who wants Croydon Council to flog off the Fairfield Halls?

Our first round-table panel news discussion podcast thingy of 2025 – The Croydon Insider – asks all those questions, and many more. Continue reading →

Posted in "Hammersfield", Cockneys of Croydon, Croydon Council, Croydon Insider, Fairfield, Inside Croydon, Katherine Kerswell, Ken Towl, Mayor Jason Perry, Ria Patel, Surrey Street, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

NHS urges public to take vaccine to reduce cervical cancer risk

Posted on January 27, 2025 by insidecroydon

The NHS is encouraging parents, carers and young people to learn about the life-saving HPV vaccine during Cervical Cancer Awareness Month.

Life-saving: the HPV vaccine has been shown to be very effective at preventing cervical cancer

The vaccine, which was introduced in 2008, helps protect against HPV – human papillomavirus. As a result of people receiving the vaccine, there has been a drop in the numbers getting cervical cancer and other conditions linked to HPV.

Research suggests that the HPV vaccine will help to save thousands of lives. The HPV vaccine is now part of the NHS routine vaccination programme. It is first offered in schools to children aged 12 to 13 (school Year 8) with a catch-up vaccine offered to older years. Continue reading →

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Nominate your favourite charity – and they could receive £££s

Posted on January 27, 2025 by insidecroydon

The Movement for Good Awards is set to donate more than £1million to charities up and down the country this year.

Now in its seventh year, this initiative from the Benefact Group invites the public to nominate their favourite charities for a chance to receive a donation of £1,000.

In total, £370,000 will be donated in £1,000 grants throughout the year, £250,000 will also be given away in £5,000 special grants, and up to £500,000 will be given in larger amounts over the course of the year.

The £1,000 awards are open to all charities registered in this country, not-for-profit organisations or community interest companies. Anyone can nominate at any time for the chance to receive £1,000.

Croydon residents can make a nomination at www.movementforgood.com – a simple act that could have a lasting impact. Winners will be drawn at random, and the initiative will also feature special sector-specific draws, with charities able to secure larger grants. The timetable for these draws is available on the website, with winners announced throughout the year. Continue reading →

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The man who made shopping at Kennards feel a bit magical

Posted on January 26, 2025 by insidecroydon

High Street attraction: Kennards was a mainstay of Croydon’s shopping district for more than a century, eventually being demolished to make way for the Drummond Centre. Kennards’ magical Christmas displays would attract 60,000 extra customers

SUNDAY SUPPLEMENT: A former Music Hall performer used his modelling genius to brighten the lives of countless children in one Croydon department store, while creating famous stage dummies including Archie Andrews and Lord Charles. DAVID MORGAN looks back on the work of Len Insull

Star performer: Len Insull was captured in a Pathe News film, making his Christmas models for Kennards

Memories and reminiscences are still plentiful when talking about the three department stores – or departmental stores, as they called themselves – which once adorned Croydon High Street.

Many of Croydon’s residents have fond memories of Kennards, which originally opened on North End in 1853.

Always creative in the way they attracted customers, it became well-known for its pet department and pony rides. Many Saturday treats were promised by parents wanting to reward their children for hard work at school.

Its Christmas Grotto, where hard-working and well-behaved children could meet Santa, was another well-remembered and much-loved feature of the store. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Centrale, David Morgan, Debenhams, History | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

South Norwood woman convicted for cruelty to pet cat

Posted on January 26, 2025 by insidecroydon

A woman from South Norwood who delayed taking her underweight cat to a vets has been banned from keeping animals for 15 years after a prosecution by the RSPCA.

Sad end: the cat’s condition was so poor, vets at the PDSA had to put Stormy to sleep

Jessica Smith, 29, from Sunny Bank, pleaded guilty to two offences under the Animal Welfare Act 2006, one of failing to address and investigate the weight loss of a cat called Stormy and the other of failing to seek treatment for the cat’s urine scalds.

The defendant appeared for sentencing earlier this month, when Magistrates also imposed a 12-week jail sentence, suspended for 12 months.

The court was told that Smith eventually took Stormy to a PDSA Animal Hospital on April 10 last year, although the cat’s health had been a concern for two to three weeks previously.

The black and white cat was so unwell that a vet decided that they had to put him to sleep.

RPSCA Inspector Harriet Daliday said in a statement to the court: “Stormy was extremely underweight with no obvious fat. All his ribs, hips and his spine could be easily felt and his rear paws had raw open lesions on the pads of the feet.” Continue reading →

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Streatham drug dealers jailed for importing gun from Florida

Posted on January 26, 2025 by insidecroydon

Drug dealers McNeil Colly and Keston Redhead, who tried to buy a handgun by mail order, have been jailed following a National Crime Agency investigation.

Convicted: Streatham drug dealer McNeil Colly

The Taurus self-loading pistol was seized by Border Force officers at Stansted Airport in July 2023. It was hidden inside the packaging for a metallic safe box, along with two empty 9mm magazines.

Colly, 48, from Streatham, and Keston Redhead, 35, an asylum seeker from Trinidad and Tobago, were found guilty of importation of a firearm and conspiracy to import Class A drugs following a seven-week trial.

Colly also pleaded guilty to possession of cannabis with intent to supply at an earlier court hearing.

They appeared at Kingston Crown Court this week, where the judge sentenced them both to 17 years’ imprisonment. Redhead will be deported after serving his sentence. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Abstract and Beyond, Croydon Art Space from Feb 1

Posted on January 26, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Holocaust Memorial ceremony at Croydon Town Hall, Jan 27

Posted on January 25, 2025 by insidecroydon

Croydon is staging its annual Holocaust Memorial Ceremony in the Town Hall on Monday, January 27, at 12 noon.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of Allied troops liberating the concentration camps, where millions of people were killed under the Nazis.

On Monday, Croydon’s Civic Mayor Kola Agboola will provide an introduction and read the Croydon Pledge and sign a Book of Remembrance.

Penny Smith-Orr, on behalf of Croydon Synagogue, will be among others to speak at the event.

There will be keynote addresses, from Professor Nelly Ben-Orr, a survivor of the Holocaust, and Idris, a Syrian refugee. Continue reading →

Posted in Church and religions, Croydon Council, Education, History, Schools | Tagged , | 7 Comments

Cockneys offers a real taste of soon-to-be-lost London tradition

Posted on January 25, 2025 by insidecroydon

Today sees another pie and mash shop bring down its shutters for a last time – Manze’s, of all people, in Deptford, of all places. Here in Croydon, though, Cockneys is good for a few years yet, as KEN TOWL discovered with a bowl of eels, and more, this week

Welcome to a bygone age: Cockney’s of Croydon, on Frith Road

“Is that tea too strong for you?” Debbie said, as she plonked a mug of steaming hot builder’s tea down on the white marble table top beside a builder. The builder, in his builder’s hi-viz work clothes, seemed happy enough with the strength of his tea.

We are in Cockneys of Croydon, thought to be the last remaining pie and mash shop in the whole of the borough. It is, for now at least, surviving.

A walk down Surrey Street market just after noon on a Saturday takes you past a 30-strong queue for Adrian’s artisan bread stall, a van selling Turkish coffee, the Asian veg stall with its bewildering array of produce and a vendor selling “genuine” Mauritian food.

But as you leave one of London’s oldest street markets and cross the tramlines on Church Street, then take a sharp right at Frith Road, you can enter a bygone age by stepping into Cockneys, all white tiles and union jack bunting. Continue reading →

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Quiz for Ukraine, White Eagle Club, Balham, Feb 27

Posted on January 25, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Free! Toddler Tuesdays at St Alban’s, Grange Road, Selhurst

Posted on January 25, 2025 by insidecroydon

Continue reading →

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Mayor Perry accused of ‘cover up’ over Sentamu case review

Posted on January 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

A lifetime in care: Hassan Sentamu is awaiting sentencing for the murder of Elianne Andam

Sources at Croydon Town Hall say that they suspect there is a cover-up over what the council’s social workers, Metropolitan Police and community groups knew about Hassan Sentamu, the teenager convicted of the vicious murder of schoolgirl Elianne Andam on the street outside the Whitgift Centre in September 2023.

It was less than a couple of hours after an Old Bailey jury handed down its guilty verdict on Sentamu last week when it was announced that Croydon’s Mayor, Jason Perry, had decided that there would be no serious case review.

Serious case reviews were established under the 2004 Children Act to investigate the circumstances of a child’s death or serious injury caused by abuse or neglect. Serious case reviews can be called when there is concern about how authorities worked together to protect the child – and while Elianne Andam, the victim, was never in council care, her murderer, Hassan Sentamu, certainly was. Continue reading →

Posted in Andy Brittain, Children's Services, Community associations, Crime, Croydon Council, Knife crime, London-wide issues, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, New Addington, Policing, Youth Services | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

TfL spending £3.2m to replace Croydon bus shelters by March

Posted on January 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

CROYDON IN CRISIS: After four years of waiting in the wind and rain, the borough’s bus passengers are about to have much-missed street furniture replaced – but no thanks to Mayor Perry and our dysfunctional council.
PLUS: the official list of the locations for replacement shelters
EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES

Re-instated: Transport for London is installing 99 bus shelters in the coming weeks

Transport for London is spending £3.2million to replace 99 bus shelters on the streets of Croydon that the borough’s incompetent senior council officials ordered to be ripped out in 2021 after they had struck a “deal” with an American con artist.

In total, around 110 bus stops will be equipped with shelters under the TfL programme – 75 sites fewer than Croydon Council had offered under its worthless £6.8million contract with Valo Smart City.

TfL already operated some of its own bus shelters in the borough, and they installed four new shelters at town centre bus stops last year.

“We want to make bus journeys in Croydon more attractive and comfortable, which is why we’ve been working to ensure that, wherever possible, there are replacements for all 110 stops that had shelters in 2021,” a TfL spokesperson told Inside Croydon. Continue reading →

Posted in Business, Commuting, Croydon Council, Mayor Jason Perry, Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, TfL, Transport, ULEZ | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Mother of four boys killed in Sutton fire sentenced to 10 years

Posted on January 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

Deveca Rose has been jailed for 10 years for the manslaughter of her four sons who died in a house fire on Collingwood Road, Sutton, while she was out shopping.

Tragedy: the four boys, Bryson, Kyson, Leyton and Logan, all aged under five, who died in December 2021

Rose, 30, had left her two sets of twins alone when a fire ripped through their terraced house a week before Christmas 2021.

Four-year-olds Kyson and Bryson Hoath and Leyton and Logan Hoath, three, were unable to escape the locked house and died under a bed.

Rose was found guilty of four counts of manslaughter at her trial at the Old Bailey in October. She was cleared of a single count of child cruelty. Her sentencing hearing had been delayed since November.

During the hearing today, Rose sat in the dock with an anorak hood over her head and wearing headphones. According to her lawyer, this was for medical reasons.

At the time of the fire, the children had been left home alone. Rose had gone shopping at Sainsbury’s. She had left her children for little more than half an hour.

Sentencing, Judge Mark Lucraft KC said that none of the shopping she had gone out to buy on the day of the fire was “essential or vital”. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, London Fire Brigade, Policing, Sutton Council | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Beddington knife attacker was floored with a fire extinguisher

Posted on January 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

Have-a-go hero tells of how he managed to halt warehouse knife attacker: ‘I  hit him with a fire extinguisher, which sort of calmed everything down’

‘Horror stabbing’: five people were hurt when a man using a ‘Rambo knife’ went on the attack in an Argos despatch centre

Further details have emerged following yesterday’s frenzied “horror stabbing” in business premises on the Beddington trading estate.

Described by the Met Police as a “Croydon warehouse stabbing”, the incident took place in an Argos despatch centre. One man was arrested and five people – a man in his 50s, two in their 30s and two men in their 20s – required hospital treatment.

Although the London air ambulance was called out to attend, “Their conditions were assessed as not life-threatening,” a Met spokesperson said of those injured. Continue reading →

Posted in Crime, Knife crime | Tagged , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

Riddlesdown pupil killed in ‘tragic accident’ by Kenley Station

Posted on January 24, 2025 by insidecroydon

One of Croydon’s biggest secondary schools, Riddlesdown Collegiate, is closed today out of respect for the grieving family of a pupil who was killed on the railway line near Kenley Station yesterday morning.

Kenley Station: the Y7 pupil was killed on a pedestrian crossing near the station

The child, a Year 7 pupil at Riddlesdown, was pronounced dead at the scene despite being attended by London Ambulance Service and British Transport Police. They had been hit by the 7.55am Caterham to London Bridge train.

Commuters in the Purley area said they saw a fire engine at the scene, which was at a pedestrian crossing of the railway lines between Kenley and Whyteleafe stations. Continue reading →

Posted in Kenley, Riddlesdown, Schools | Tagged , , , , , | 8 Comments