“Ohhhhhhhh Noooooooooo please don't encourage him ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz”

“Ohhhhhhhh Noooooooooo please don't encourage him ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzz”

“Yep! J think you definitely have sold this one..have you ever written the history of Croydon?”

“Blimey J Croydon you really need a hobby , or are you writing a book!! what a bore you are go get alife for gawds sake me old mukka.
Good for insomnia tho..ZZzzzzzzzzzz”

“Greg, Ex Croydon thank god. yeahhhh right lol”

“J, It all makes sense now....you moved to Croydon,not a native.
The heritage that you mentioned was from a time when Croydon was a brilliant place to live,detached and a town in its own right.
Not enough has been done to promote the historical past which still exists and much has been destroyed.
Successive local authorities chose to turn Croydon into a faceless economy town devoid of identity.
How many residents remember Wandle Park with its flowing river and boating lake.How many know about the iron age settlement in Shirley Hills.
The old RAC offices (no longer) in Lansdowne Rd,the first high rise built in Croydon. Built to eleven stories to enable the directors to watch cricket matches in the Whitgift ground,now a dated shopping centre.Surrey St market when there was a seven year waiting list for a pitch.Addington Village church and its association with the Archbishops.Purley Way open air swimming pool and Croydon Airport.

All things which made Croydon brilliant.I agree that homes are important but the infrastructure has to be in place before an influx of newcomers.Parking problems,limited shopping opportunities,a short trip to Sutton is a much better experience.
Mayday hospital cannot cope with the existing population.
Both lists could go on but they both show the systematic destruction of a once superb place.”

“Thank you RPB, for your support and kind comments.

In my professional life, I run a small integrated marketing agency. Part of my job is to identify what the positives are: in particular the unique selling point.

And your completely right - this is something, products or places, that everything needs to be a good prospect:

So in your example of Clapham I suppose that would be Common. I should think Brixton would be the music scene, and in Kingston and Putney, that would be having the river running by. I think Battersea's most notable feature is its huge ex-power station.

What I think Croydon's unique offering is precisely in being a micro-city: Somewhere that offers a slice of everything about city life, in a compact walk-able area. And where something isn't in easy pedestrian reach - the bigger parks for example, is a short hop away on a clean, efficient urban light rail system - rather like many small European cities. Something none of the places above, can do by themselves.

I studied in Oxford for my degree. The architecture was beautiful, and undoubtedly an eternal draw for tourists. But after there living there for 4 years, that was something you just got used to - just part of the backdrop. The thing that made it a really liveable brilliant place was that I could walk everywhere I ever needed - I rarely ever needed to leave. Shopping, eating out, Seeing my friends or going for a walk round a park - I could be anywhere I wanted in 10 minutes. Croydon, may not have the architectural interest, but amazingly compact as it is, it offers this unique kind of convenience.

The only disadvantage of Oxford was that if you wanted to see a play in the west end, it was a real mission. Croydon on the other hand is of course, is amazingly well connected to central London. With trains every 15mins to London Bridge or Victoria, Sometimes I can leave for a play at 7pm that starts at 7.30. I'd be lucky to ever achieve that, if I lived anywhere beyond zone 2 on the tube. And that's before we start talking about the tram to Wimbledon and the new ELL to the East End.

All the fundamentals for this small "European-style" city model -

Being a regional centre onto itself , high concentration of shops & amenities, mix of high density residential developments and leafy suburbs, excellent internal transport, excellent transport to other place, multiple parks, a splash of local history in its industrial heritage (Atmospheric Railway, Croydon Airport) & its strong links with the Archbishops of Canterbury, a smattering of cultural events, like the recent Croydon Film Festival, and one large cultural venue - The Fairfield halls

- Are already here. Only Croydon has one more vast advantage over small regional cities - It's also a constituent part of one of the world's greatest megacities - London.
.
A few more educated and affluent local residents, some nicer bars away from the main drag, and more impressive line-up at a re-painted Fairfield halls, and I think we could be pretty much done. A little bit of positive thinking, as you say, and we can do this.

Croydon: 'European style' micro-city - this I think for me- is its unique selling point, and part of why I moved here.

Anyway - I'm very glad there are some other positive people around!”

“J, I've enjoyed reading this discussion, and I do admire your positivity. I'd love Croydon to be a place that I was proud to live in - but I do share the cynicism of some of the other posters.

It'd be great if more affluent people moved to the area, bringing prosperity and creating a virtuous circle, but I'd question whether Croydon's got any of the natural attributes to attract them in the first place. In short, there's very little beautiful about Croydon.

Go to Kingston, Clapham, Battersea, Putney, even Brixton - there's either some heritage or some natural feature that makes them more than just another identikit town. And I don't know if that can be built.

Anyway - I don't want to be negative, because I agree wholeheartedly that it's onlythrough positivity that we can improve. For what it's worth, I'm with you. :-)”

“J Croydon ( Know it all) haa haaa serves you right hope they build lots & lots and fill them with pikeys.”

“RobinHood,
See all points below.

From what I can see ignoring is quite a good way to describe it. You don't answer my points with evidence or counter argument. You merely re-assert your statement that Croydon is bad, occasionally comparing to places where no sensible comparison can be made.

If no one else does respond now, it will probably be because my lengthy attempts to make this an intelligent discussion have bored them all away.

One would think you'd be happy that educated young people were moving in, and enthusiastic endorsing the place you were born in. Clearly this is not the case.

Since it is clear that were not really having a discussion here, its probably not productive to answer any more of your comments. So if you did want to have the last word now - you can be my guest.”