Tag Archives: Hammersfield

This is where ‘Don’t rock the boat’ has become official mantra

CROYDON COMMENTARY: With local elections fast approaching, the national press has been taking a closer look at Croydon. Business owner NITIN MEHTA posted a comment in response to an article in Murdoch-owned The Times, and here expands on his points … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Broad Green, Business, Crime, Croydon 8/8, Croydon Council, Croydon West, Jo Negrini, Katherine Kerswell, Knife crime, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 21 Comments

Whitgift Foundation puts Allison in charge of its finances

Flying Tiger is the latest retailer to join the exodus from the largely vacant Whitgift Centre, as the land-owners appoint a new CFO Becky Allison is to move into the Whitgift Foundation’s offices on George Street from June as the … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Becky Allison, Business, Care Homes, Old Palace, Roisha Hughes, Schools, Trinity School, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation, Whitgift School | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

A Vue to a killing: Grants landlords to blame for cinema closure

The closure this week of the Vue Cinema in Grants in the town centre was down to the building’s new owners’ greed, in ratcheting up the rents for businesses already struggling for survival in Croydon’s run-down high street. That’s according … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Cinema, Grants, Tokia Square, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Perry makes no formal intervention as Mayor over Vue closure

Tory Mayor fails to act over doomed multiplex cinema, as he uses latest blow to ‘evolving’ town centre as an opportunity for a bit of late-term cosplaying. SANDRA STEAD reports Jason Perry, Croydon’s impotent and out-of-touch Mayor, had no idea … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Cinema, Grants, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis, Tokia Square, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments

Town centre multiplex cinema to close in latest blow for Perry

KEN LEE, Town Hall reporter, on how Croydon’s failed Mayor has been blindsided, again, by another major loss to the High Street The latest hammerblow to Jason Perry’s bogus election claims that he has Croydon “back on track” and that … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Cinema, Grants, Tokia Square, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 26 Comments

Derren Brown has the tricks to bring the magic back to Croydon

Posted in "Hammersfield", Inside Croydon, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , | Leave a comment

The Mayor’s record in office has worse delivery than Royal Mail

With Tory Jason Perry’s election pledges dropping on residents’ doormats this week and Labour candidate Rowenna Davis publishing her manifesto, the claims and promises of the two front-runners for Croydon Mayor are examined here by ANDREW FISHER While incumbent Mayor … Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Andrew Fisher, Council Tax, Croydon Council, Croydon parks, Fly tipping, Mayor Jason Perry, Rowenna Davis | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Westfield consult public for 6th time and deliver more delays

Paris-based multi-bilion developers URW today begin another public consultation over the future of the town centre – Consultation No6 – which means that their latest planning application, already two years late, won’t see the light of day until long after … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Allders, Business, Centrale, CPO, Croydon Council, Housing, Mayor Jason Perry, North End Quarter, Planning, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 22 Comments

Charity formed last October buys two Old Palace buildings

The Rise School of Excellence has paid £750,000 for two buildings on the site of the former girls’ fee-paying school, as Croydon’s biggest landowners, the Whitgift Foundation, continue to dispose of their properties. By GENE BRODIE, education correspondent The piecemeal … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, CPO, Education, Old Palace, Roisha Hughes, Schools, Serenity special school, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre, Whitgift Foundation | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Labour’s Davis looks to CPO the ‘hole in the heart of Croydon’

Mayoral candidate intends to discuss a Compulsory Purchase Order of Chinese-owned property with Prime Minister on his return from Beijing. EXCLUSIVE by STEVEN DOWNES Labour’s candidate for Croydon Mayor, Rowenna Davis, says that if elected in May she will look … Continue reading

Posted in 2026 council elections, 2026 Croydon Mayor election, Nestle Tower, Property, Rowenna Davis, St George's Walk, Waddon | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 14 Comments

Whitgift Centre managers accused of lying about bar’s fate

Paris-based Westfield refuse to comment after Post Office forced to abandon planned move, while developers’ February deadline for planning application draws near. By STEVEN DOWNES Westfield have plans to redevelop the Whitgift Centre “earlier” than previously believed. That’s according to … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Fairfield, Post Office, Pubs, Restaurants, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Backlash against Westfield over forced closure of Bishops bar

There has been an outpouring of anger at the news, first reported by this website, that ‘the Scrooges of Westfield’ have ordered Bishops Wine Bar to move out of their home of more than 40 years The latest closure of … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Fairfield, Pubs, Restaurants, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

Whitgift Centre’s wine bar given six months’ notice to quit

‘Shuttering the doors deprives Croydon… of a piece of its community’s heart’ says the businesswoman who runs Bishops, after being handed an ‘arbitrary and unjust’ notice to close by the Scrooges of Westfield The management of the Whitgift Centre waited … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Fairfield, Pubs, Restaurants, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 11 Comments

Rubbish contractors don’t know how many bins there are

Four years after being caught out ripping out 1,000 street bins – all to make work for rubbish contractors Veolia a bit easier – and now Croydon Council is forced to admit it has no real idea of how many … Continue reading

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CEO quit council with £50,000 pay-off to not work for 3 months

This was awkward: Jason Perry, the politician who promised to clawback money from the massive golden handshake paid to the previous council CEO, in October found himself overseeing a pay-off to Katherine Kerswell, as she resigned after five years as … Continue reading

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Croydon and council at centre of new £100m housing scandal

The housing scandal at Regina Road was appalling, but by September 2025, Croydon found itself embroiled in another dreadful instance of the shortcomings of tall residential towers. Plus our writers get lost searching their way through the half-closed shopping mall, … Continue reading

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How Farage’s party picked a dead woman as election candidate

Into August, and the news stories just kept coming, including the latest moves by Westfield to make the Whitgift Centre ever more inaccessible, and the public library where council contractors chucked thousands of books on to the street. There was … Continue reading

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Westfield Scrooges stop choir singing carols in Whitgift Centre

The traditional free, charity fund-raising Christmas carol concert by a long-established Croydon choir never took place in the Whitgift Centre this month. Last year, the Scrooges at Westfield turned away the Croydon Male Voice Choir from what was once an … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Charity, Croydon Male Voice Choir, Music, Sutton Council, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, Whitgift Centre | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

The cash-strapped council paying consultant £726 PER HOUR

The dog days of a long, hot summer are not usually a time for significant news stories. But that wasn’t to be the case in Croydon as readers flocked to this news site for our coverage in in July and … Continue reading

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When council boss blocked staff from reading Inside Croydon

Our review of the year’s Croydon news continues with a ecelctic mix of the infuriating and the absurd, as the unelected and unaccountable £204,000 per year public servant at the head of the council looked increasingly all at sea   JUNE … Continue reading

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After 120 years, the Eagles live the dream at Wembley cup final

As we reach the month of May in our review of the biggest and best news stories of the year, there was one report, direct from the National Stadium, that had many Croydon folk walking on air for days afterwards…  … Continue reading

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April fool! Plus: school goes co-ed, new owners for old pub

As we continue to sweep through the biggest and most important news stories of 2025, the latest part of our annual news review arrives at the month of the annual Council Tax hike APRIL Trinity boys’ school confirms that it … Continue reading

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Council’s closed doors, Selhurst security, Bridge to Nowhere

Here’s more of the most significant or best-read news stories of 2025, as we delve behind the headlines with Inside Croydon reports from the past 12 months  MARCH No Access Croydon: Kerswell closes off Fisher’s Folly to public The increasingly … Continue reading

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2025 in review: Purley Pool, porkie pies and a busted budget

As we approach the year’s end, we continue with our review of 2025 by taking a look at some of the Inside Croydon reports which generated most public interest  FEBRUARY Croydon In Crisis: budget overspend now close to £100m The … Continue reading

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101 Records to shut with final blast at landlords and council

One of the stalwarts of the Croydon music scene since the period of peak punk, where singer Kirsty MacColl once worked in its mail order department, is to close next month. NADIA AZIZUDDIN reports Another key part of Croydon’s retail … Continue reading

Posted in "Hammersfield", Business, Centrale, Music, Nadia Azizuddin, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 6 Comments