The History of Croydon

After the war part of the town was re-built and most of the building architecture was using a style commonly used in Europe in the 50's as New Brutalism which is denoted by the post war building architectures of Croydon skyscrapers such as the NLA Tower (Built 1970), Nestle Tower (Built 1964).

Brutalist architecture is a style of architecture which flourished from the 1950s to the mid 1970s, spawned from the modernist architectural movement. The English architects Alison and Peter Smithson England architects Alison Smithson (1928-1993) and Peter Smithson (18 September 1923-3 March 2003).

Together they formed an architectural partnership, and are often associated with the New Brutalism, coined the term in 1954, from the French Béton brut Béton, or "raw concrete", a phrase used by Le Corbusier (October 6, 1887 – August 27, 1965), was a Swiss-French architect.

There are some people that never liked this form of building structure as the grandness of the tall lofty buildings dwarf you into a feeling of David and Goliath.

Since 2003 a redevelopment program was formed for the town centre, called Croydon Vision 2020, a multi-billion pound regeneration project plan that will include pod-shaped buildings on stilts. The town has since witnessed a boom in the construction of high rise apartments, such as IYLO and Altitude 25, a former Brownfield site.

With the project already in place to re-develop Croydon, I’m not sure that thought has been given to the way the current changes have been implemented. The Council has already streets and precincts which have all fallen victim to progress have all fell prey to vandalism and havens for crime. I agree that a new dimension and style should be utilized to contrast the modern cosmopolitan style that Croydon composes due to the population of differing cultures.

One shouldn't have a cavalier attitude to willfully demolish the very buildings that gave the facade that Croydon imposes. Demolishing buildings to accommodate new projects is inevitable, but for goodness sake, Architects, Project managers, Organizers, get out of the office and site see around the city before you make decisions. As much as modernizing the city is a must, there is a fine line between success and failure. Too much change will kill the city and too little won't inspire change.

You should embrace and remember the past and slowly acknowledge the new changes. A visitor should be able to distinguish the timeline of changes throughout Croydon by the fantastic architecture and its application, to compare and contrast the eras from the history books.

If as i suspect that the designers headed by architect Will Alsop are looking to model their architectural designs on the city of Barcelona. Croydon should anchor itself on it's primary function the business buildings, after all this town is a working metropolis and changes need to made to benefit the town worthy of future investors.

But on the other hand by over demolishing areas you run the risk of creating pockets of "shanty" towns with the closures of shop units and boarded up shops, you'll be creating negative effect on businesses.

Making changes is fine but to lose the towns oldest traders for good is ludicrous as the very reputation that have built up over the years will all be lost and in it's place you will have nothing to build on.

We should be building on the solid background of knowledge of traders not to destroy it? To lose those long standing established traders that helped build the fabric of business structure in the town is somewhat ludicrous? WHY?

When you look at towns such as Richmond upon Thames although this is an accumulation of towns joined to make one borough and Reading Berkshire, they have had re-development in the past and were able to retain the original tones of their history blending with the new designs.