One year and thousands of happy customers on, the Croydon Visitor Centre is celebrating its birthday as part of the Croydon Christmas Festival this month.

The centre welcomes visitors to Croydon and gives handy information on attractions and travel.

Every Saturday in the lead up to Christmas – on December 5, 12 and 19 – there will be a whole host of family friendly activities at the Centre, which is next to East Croydon Train Station.

Expect face-paining, magic shows, balloons and free giveaways aplenty, as the Croydon Business Improvement District (BID) staff, along with locals, celebrate their anniversary.

Open during the main trading hours, seven days a week, the Croydon Visitor Centre has a small team of staff who meet and greet people as they arrive in Croydon.

The team supplies helpful information about key attractions, so that they can help make the 'Croydon Experience' a safe, secure and enjoyable one.

The Croydon Visitor Centre also now sells train tickets and provides an alternative point for Oyster Card top-ups outside the busy East Croydon Station.

BID manager Ros Morgan says: "The Croydon Visitor Centre has been a great success story in its first year.

"We've had thousands of happy customers through the doors in the last 12 months and that is testimony to the hard work and dedication of the Visitor Centre Team.

"I've had many people remark to me what a great addition the Centre has been to this increasingly busy part of the Town Centre.

"We're looking forward to building on the success of our first year and improving the services on offer in 2010."