Ashburton High School

The last post got me thinking about my old secondary school, Ashburton High School in Croydon, which I attended from 1983 to 1988. My lockdown clearout has also thrown up an assortment of old school letters, dog-eared documents and photographs which are quite amusing to look back on.

Some dog-eared documents from my time at Ashburton High School

The school I remember has long since been demolished and much of the land given over to housing. It was the largest secondary school in the borough of Croydon when I joined, sprawling over a 26 acre site with two wings of largely single storey buildings holding over 1,000 pupils.

The large site had its pluses – each year group had its own asphalt playground, everyone could spread out over the extensive green space in the summer and there was room enough for the school to have established its own swimming pool. Mind you, I hated that swimming pool – it was covered, but always absolutely freezing. It didn’t help that you had to walk across the school grounds from the changing rooms to the pool in just costumes and shoes.

A new school (Oasis Academy Shirley park) has been built on a smaller portion of the site, incorporating a public library. Nothing has been left to make it feel like a peek was worthwhile. You can compare the footprint of old and new using the superb maps on offer from the National Library of Scotland. My stash of old documents also contained an old map from a Parents evening from the mid 1980s drawn by deputy head Donald Mann.

School plan from Parents’ visiting evening

Among the documents I found a letter from 1985 cataloguing the complaints from local residents which led to my year being banned from leaving the school in the lunch hour as third years. Instead, as I recall, I mostly hung out with my friends on the outside steps of the school library, much to the annoyance of the school librarian. The library was also a useful sanctuary from the madness at times.

I have mixed memories of the school. On the one hand I made some good friends and was inspired by some terrific teachers, who spurred me on to get the grades to go on to Sixth Form College at John Ruskin. However, it strikes me as a tough environment for learning now when I think back on it. It must have tough as a teacher too from what I remember of the number of permanent exclusions (at least three from my form alone in the time I was there).

When Labour came to power in 1997 Ashburton High School was named as one of the 18 worst schools in the country. The school’s reputation must have been reasonably well known as when I went for an interview at HM Treasury in 1999 they were shocked that any applicant had come from there. Had it been that bad when I went there!? It didn’t feel like that at the time but I suppose I don’t have anything to compare it with.

Last day of school in 1988

I have never been great at keeping in touch with folk and have no idea what happened to any of my school friends. On chucking out my old school books the other day I saw that one of our exercises in my English class had been to write an imaginary obituary for our friends. Adulthood felt a long way off which probably explains the fairly short lives we wrote up. Hopefully my friends have fared better than we were predicting at the time!

Postscript. After I wrote this post I found an old diary with an account of our leaving assembly on 20th May 1988 where we were told that of the 175 students that had reached the end of the year, 81 were going to college, the next largest group to jobs in banking and then beyond that, the construction industry. That doesn’t sound so bad? I was among a fair number of Ashburton students who went on to John Ruskin Sixth Form College later that year.

Woodside wanders

In an effort to add some variety to my weekly walks I set off today on a route that re-traced a good chunk of the half hour trek I used to make to and from my secondary school in the 1980s. Today’s walk took me across Woodside Green, through Ashburton Park and then into Addiscome Railway Park – covering all the variations on my route to school and a bit more on top.

I had long forgotten just how much local interest there was to take in on this walk, even if that probably wasn’t something that I would be likely to appreciate in my school days. Some of the local landmarks from my schooldays, such as the Black Horse Inn and the long-standing model railway shop Engine ‘n Tender, have long gone but enough remains to make this quite a nostalgic circuit.

Commemorative stone on Woodside Green

At Woodside Green I came across the first couple of sights on my walk. First up, a new addition – a stone placed on the Green in 2015 to mark the fiftieth anniversary of the formation of the London Borough of Croydon on 1st April 1965. It’s not exactly impressive and wouldn’t have given it a second glance but for the plaque I spied on passing. I’m not sure I agree with the PR quote which describes them as “beautiful recycled stones”.

Apparently there are another 19 stones dotted across Croydon, each marking one of the original wards. On seeing the full list I realised I’ve walked past one outside Norwood Junction most days for years without noticing which says an awful lot about the utter waste of money this was! Unfortunately, that seems to be something that the council specialises in.

Granite water trough on Woodside Green

Next up, a much older sight. A granite trough from the Metropolitan Drinking Fountain & Cattle Trough Association, now in use as a planter. The Metropolitan Free Drinking Fountain Association had been established in 1859 in response to the inadequate supply of unpolluted free drinking water. The organisation expanded its remit to include animals in 1867 in recognition of the conditions for cattle driven to market, who could go days without water.

Woodside Green can be traced back to at least 1662 in records and has been defended with vigour by local residents throughout its existence with mixed results. Local residents fought against the building of a church on the green in 1870 but their protests failed to stop the green from being divided by new roads.

In 1871 ownership of the green passed to the Local Board of Health for use as a public open space. Ten years later, in May 1881, the board agreed to the installation of a water trough at the southern end of Woodside Green on condition that the existing pond was filled in. I assume this is the same trough that we can see today. Maps suggest the trough was later re-located to its current position when a war memorial was created at the southern tip of the green.

Woodside Fire Station

I continued on my way, heading up past St Luke’s church (1927), the boarded up buildings of Woodside Station (in use from 1871 to 1997) and the rather splendid Woodside Fire Station (1933) before ducking into Ashburton Park.

The 18.5 acres site we know today as Ashburton Park was once part of the grounds of an 18th century mansion. After passing through many owners the estate was purchased by Arthur Tooth, who established the Community of the Paraclete and founded a chapel, convent and orphanage school on the site.

Arthur Tooth was an interesting character, who gained unwelcome notoriety for using ritualist liturgical practices in his Church of England services. It is hard to imagine the contentiousness of this issue today, but in January 1877 it led to riots every Sunday and Arthur needed a bodyguard to make it safely back to the vicarage after each service. This culminated in Arthur’s arrest, prosecution and a brief spell of imprisonment at imprisoned at Horsemonger Lane Gaol in Southwark. In 1878 Arthur Tooth was successful in quashing his conviction but by now his health was broken and Woodside was to be his retreat.

Interestingly, there is also a Folkestone connection. Arthur Tooth had a brief stint in Folkestone as a priest in 1864. Online articles disagree on the location – naming either St Mary’s or St Michael’s.

The old convent buildings and former Ashburton Library

The original footprint of the Woodside Convent can be seen on the excellent historic maps provided by the National Library of Scotland. The site was purchased by Croydon Corporation in 1924 and the original mansion buildings demolished. Today, all that stands is the former chapel buildings which date to 1882. By the time I went to school Ashburton Library had been established here and we came over as a class in my first year at Ashburton High School.

The old Ashburton Library was closed in 2007 after the deterioration of the building, with a new library established on the site of my old school. The former chapel and library has since been restored at cost of £1 million and re-opened as Ashburton Hall.

I spent a while wandering through the park, enjoying the sight of some friendly squirrels enjoying an unusually sunny spring day. A community group, the Friends of Ashburton Park, have more on the history of the park and its structures, as well as details of their campaign for the restoration of the Pavilion in the park which dates back to the 1940s.

Although I was re-creating my old school walk I felt no need to walk up to the gates, as most of what I remember has long vanished. Ashburton High School was demolished in 2004 and replaced with a modern school (as have two of the four schools I attended between 1983 and 1990). Instead I walked back into Addiscombe, where I would go and get my lunch as a fifth former.

Addiscombe Railway Park

The final stop on my walk brought me to Croydon’s newest park for a quick peek. Addiscombe Railway Park opened in 2007 and is a linear park built along the route of the former Addiscombe branch line to the terminus at Addiscombe. It’s clearly much loved and well looked after from what I could see. It’s a welcome addition of green space to the area and who doesn’t like walking along a historic railway line!? On that note, I looped back and headed home.

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Thornton Heath and Grangewood Park

One of the revelations of staying local has been how easily I have overlooked places on my doorstep, sometimes quite unfathomably. A good example is Grangewood Park, which is no more than twenty minutes walk from my childhood home, but which I have never visited before. Today’s walk took me on a long overdue visit to Thornton Heath, up through the woodlands of Grangewood Park and back down to the heart of South Norwood.

Mosaic by Maud Milton at Thornton Heath

There have been a few changes since I last visited Thornton Heath. In the 1980s I came to swim at the rather grand and atmospheric Victorian baths (1897) with the Scouts, possibly during the temporary closure of South Norwood baths in 1984. The baths have long since demolished and replaced by a much blander, if probably more suitable, leisure centre for the modern age.

Much later, I returned to make regular visits to the Job Centre in the High Street upon entering the job market at the post-recession peak of youth unemployment in 1993, when the unemployment rate stood at 18.3%. Many months of struggling to get my foot on the career ladder eventually paid off, just as the advisers were suggesting I try a different career – working for the job centre.

Making my way down the High Street today I could see that the job centre was much as I remembered, though I hadn’t appreciated that it was a product of the New Elizabethan age with it’s distinctive architecture, a stylised sculpture of a winged woman cradling a child on the side of the building and a rather more obvious ER crest dated 1958. As a somewhat reluctant visitor in the 90s I was not likely to have looked up to admire any of this.

Mural at the junction of the High Street and Gillett Road

My main reason for taking a walk in this particular direction was to seek out some of the art from the recently established Thornton Heath Art Trail. The trail has seen the addition of some striking mosaics and murals to the area. I think my favourite would have to be the piece contributed by YOU&ME architecture which translates an old photograph of the A.F.Bundle furniture shop into a striking black and white mural. Other pieces celebrate the flora and fauna of Thornton Heath’s green spaces; instruct us all to never stop dreaming and remind us of the potential of the local community. It’s an enjoyable wander.

Midway through my walk I ducked into Thornton Heath railway station to admire the new mosaic by Maud Milton, installed in August 2020. The mosaic is a reinvention of the station roundel using tiny pieces of mosaic, many of which contain words chosen by locals including “Community”, “Selhurst Park”, “White Squirrel”, “Support NHS” and “CPFC”. The final result is absolutely stunning. I’ll have to seek out some of the other mosaics by Maud and Artyface that can be found across London when we get out of lockdown.

On my way back to South Norwood I headed uphill to Grangewood Park, a striking patch of oak woodland that turns out to be another remnant of the ancient Great North Wood.

The 28 acre park, on the Norwood Ridge, was originally known as Whitehorse Wood. The land was purchased by Croydon Council in 1900 along with a grand mansion that was used to billet Canadian troops during the Great War. Today, the foundations of the demolished mansion provide a striking setting for a flower garden (or cycle circuit on the evidence of my visit). It seemed like a well-used park.

Foundations of the mansion at Grangewood Park

Some 195 square metres of land around a later addition to the park, Heath Lodge, is currently under threat from Croydon Council which put out plans for a sell-off in December 2019, despite previous promises to protect green spaces in the borough. There have been no consultations with the local community groups. Local residents are calling on Croydon Council to scrap their plan and their petition has already got over 4,000 signatories.

I had a good wander, admiring a group of four green feral parakeets swooping noisily from treetop to treetop. Like many I wonder where these non-native birds originated from, with stories circulating that the ancestors of these green parakeets were escapees from the branch of Ealing Studios responsible for the filming of The African Queen. The truth is most likely to be a lot duller. The original parakeets probably just escaped from suburban aviaries. At one time there was an even more unusual sight in this park – a family of albino squirrels – as one of the murals on the High Street reminds us.

It was great to get out, explore the area and take in some uphill stretches for exercise. To be honest, I had quite forgotten just how vibrant Thornton Heath is, even under the constraints of the latest lockdown. I was glad of the spur to visit and banish some of the lingering memories from my reluctant visits in the 1990s.

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Good riddance to 2020

Taking a look back twelve months, no one could have anticipated what 2020 had in store for us. A year of astonishing turmoil, isolation from the people that matter and lives sadly cut short before their time. At times the slog through 2020 has seemed endless, so it is a relief to finally see the year draw to a close. I hope that the new year brings us some fresh hope after the darkest days of winter lockdown.

Pressure rising

I began working from home on March 17th with just one day back in the office since then. I can’t say that I have enjoyed the extended hours or the way that the working day bleeds in to the rest of the day, but things have settled down quite a bit since those manic first few months. The wind down that the homeward commute provided has been replaced by a nightly scrabble match. A great way to re-focus thoughts away from work.

Travel

It is hard to imagine just how normal the first couple of months of the year felt. I somehow managed to get a photographic trip to Sri Lanka and India in the bag before Covid-19 swept across the world, but it still shredded most of my plans for the year ahead.

The measures we saw on arrival in Sri Lanka were some of the most stringent in the world at that time and quite a stark contrast with what I saw landing back in the UK. I remember standing on a platform in Mount Lavinia in early February when one of my fellow photographers offered the opinion that we should just make it back to the UK in time before the eastward spread of the Covid-19 epidemic caught up with us. At the time I thought that sounded a little extreme but that proved to be absolutely spot on. It’s hard to imagine not taking the virus seriously now.

In spite of the virus some travel has been possible as the world re-opened, including a rather wonderful trip to Germany to fulfil a long held desire to see the Wuppertaler Schwebebahn in action. Hopefully, the coming year will allow us to make some trips a bit further afield, including one of those pushed back a year from 2020, but I am far from convinced that these will materialise. I would like to be proved wrong.

Arts

By the time the first lockdown arrives my diary had plenty of plays booked. Out of 32 plays booked for the year, I managed to see 12. Most of the remainder have been cancelled but a few have been pushed back to 2021. Some of the refunds went back to the theatre companies and the charities that sprung up to support the acting world but that must have been a dip in the ocean with the scale of losses generated by the crisis.

Some of the theatrical highlights from early 2020

In the first few months of 2020 I saw some terrific plays, with highlights including the Duchess of Malfi at the Almeida; a gender reversed Taming of the Shrew at the Barbican; Snowflake at The Kiln; The Welkin at the National Theatre; Teenage Dick at the Donmar; You stupid darkness! at the Southwark Playhouse; Leopoldstat at Wyndhams; The Haystack at the Hampstead Theatre; Love, love, love at the Lyric Hammersmith.

On the re-opening of theatres I was treated to the marvel of Ralph Fiennes raging against covid and the government’s disastrous response in David Hare’s Beat the Devil at The Bridge. It was supposed to have been the start of a short run of plays that we would see in person but ended up being the only one we got to see before everything locked back down.

I have tried watching some filmed plays but have found it difficult to engage with most. The exception was the innovative Living Newspaper: A Counter Narrative from the Royal Court which was splendid in its fury and defiance.

Television

In a year when staying in and watching television became a way to stay sane through long months of lockdown, there was much to be enthralled by. The highlight for me would have to be Normal People on BBC, which unexpectedly stirred up all sorts of memories of the beginnings of university life and finding your way in the world. It really deserved all the hype it got.

As a newcomer to the world of Amazon Prime, Netflix et al there was plenty to binge on. I particularly enjoyed The Man in the High Castle, Thirteen Reasons Why and Sex Education. The award for most intricate and satisfying drama would have to go to Dark, the German language time travel epic co-created by Baran bo Odar and Jantje Friese.

Sport

The re-emergence of competitive sport certainly helped carry me through the year, especially in those months when there seemed little difference between the working week and the weekend.

Highlights including the terrific grand tours with the excitement of the close victories for Tadej Pogačar in the Tour de France and Tao Geoghegan Hart in the Giro. I have been following Tao’s career with interest having picked up on his writings about his career on his Le Stagiaire blog ten years ago, so was delighted to see his triumphant win in Milan after the low point of the exit of Geraint Thomas after the most unlucky crash on a bottle.

I am not the motorport nut that I was in my twenties but the packed F1 season helped keep me going right up to mid December. Pierre Gasly’s terrific win at Monza and George Russell’s heartbreaking near-thing at Bahrain proved to be season highlights.

Staying local

Staying local has been the message for large chunks of the year, providing an opportunity to revisit places I had long forgotten and support struggling local businesses. I certainly have a better appreciation for what is on my doorstep. As the notice on a billboard in front of a local cafe says, buy local or bye bye local.

The pub sign for the Albert Tavern

The local area has seen some significant changes – our wonderful community pub, The Albert Tavern, was boarded up at the beginning of lockdown in March and Greene King have since announced that it will never re-open. It joins a rather too long list of pubs with long histories to have closed in recent years, most to be demolished or converted into flats.

In recent years many local pubs have been demolished, converted into flats or boarded up – including many with long histories. Among those to have disappeared in recent years have been the Goat House (closed 2004, demolished 2007 and replaced by a block of flats); the Duke Of Clarence (closed 2010, converted into flats); The Alliance (closed 2010, converted to a club); The Ship; The Portmanor (undergoing conversion to luxury flats); The Queens Arms; The Gladstone (closed 2007, converted into flats).

The promise of a new local library seems set to be thwarted at the eleventh hour following the news that Croydon Council had effectively declared itself bankrupt last month. Among a raft of measures floated to help address the £66 million pound hole is the closure of five libraries, including the new South Norwood Library. The consequences of the council’s investment in its house-building company, Brick by Brick, have been well documented through Inside Croydon‘s determined reporting on local developments.

New library – or not?

The only crumb of comfort that could come from the unravelling of Brick by Brick would be if it put paid to the absurd suggestion that South Norwood would be fixed by adding another tower block inside the South Norwood High Street Heritage Action Zone. The suggestion that anyone would have stood on the platform at Norwood Junction and been distressed by what they described as the aesthetically unpleasing ‘broken tooth’ skyline of South Norwood was too ludicrous for words.

My year in numbers

Statistics for 2020 will inevitably be all over the place. The figures for all sorts of measures from library book loans to public transport will look simply unrecognisable from any previous year. My personal stats are just as warped, though my holiday at the beginning of 2020 helped make them look more normal than they would otherwise be.

7,860 travel photos taken (down by 1,240)
250 games of scrabble (up by 250)
47 blog posts written (down by 27)
45 days in the office (down by 178)
12 plays attended (down by 32)
5 countries visited (down by 4)
2 rounds of ten pin bowling (down by 10)
1 steam locomotive seen in action (up by 1)

It hasn’t been the busiest of years for blogging, for obvious reasons, but the blog still racked up 29,819 views from 8,823 visitors over the last 12 months. To put that in perspective, the blog saw 29,797 page views and 8,501 visitors in 2019 so it’s broadly comparable – if a long way short of the 45,918 page views and 13,486 visitors of 2015.

There has been plenty written about the rise and fall of blogging. I only started blogging to test the water for a work blog that never materialised but enjoyed it so much that I have kept going. It’s surprising how much I have learnt from researching a trip or following up on odd things I have spotted on my wanders. I have no plans to give up now but can’t help but admire how bloggers like Diamond Geezer find something fresh to write about every day.

The almost equal most popular posts in 2020 were two oldies – Eight unexpected delights of Riga from 2016 and The last inhabitants of the Bourbon Tower from 2017. The most popular post from 2020 was A circular walk around Crystal Palace Park.

Tier 4

In a year that has maintained it’s ability to shock, the sudden shift of London into Tier 4 yesterday shouldn’t have been a surprise. Yet somehow it still did, perhaps because we had placed so much faith in a Christmas gathering as our reward for making it through the grimmest months. I think we had been talking it since Easter!

The Independent: PM cancels Christmas

Needless to say, the last minute cancellation of christmas gatherings was a blow to us, particularly having self-isolated for 13 days so far to minimise the risk to family (turning our kitchen into what look like an overstocked mini-mart with all the food stored up to get us through the month). In theory the only risk left was our fleeting interactions with delivery drivers and postal workers. Still, it is better to eliminate the risk altogether given the way the new more transmissable variant of the virus is rampaging through London and the South East.

I have watched the rapidly rising rates spreading westward across the south east with mounting concern. My local authority (Croydon) recorded the sixth highest daily total for new cases in the country yesterday. Croydon is currently sitting on a seven day rate of 525 cases per 100,000. The areas in Kent we have connections with have fared much worse – Folkestone is on a 7 day rate of 672 cases per 100,000 and Swale (including the Isle of Sheppey) is on a 7 day rate of 816 cases per 100,000.

It hasn’t felt like the Government reacted quickly enough to what was going on in the South East, particularly as there was no sign of a dip during or after lockdown in Kent. I guess that is consistent with the pattern of slow responses set earlier in the year, always reaching the right decision a week or two later than they should have done. It’s hard to have much confidence in anything they say. I feel for business owners frantically grappling with this while Brexit looms only a fortnight into the future.

London and the South East on 19 December 2020

The turkey can be frozen and our gathering delayed for however long it takes. In the coming week we will conjure up an unexpected Christmas meal from what we have in store and transfer our hopes to 2021. Hopefully better times are around the corner with the vaccine rollout under way. Stay safe everyone – now more than ever.

The blueprint for modern air travel

Up until the pandemic the world had never seemed so accessible – thanks to the relentless evolution of passenger aircraft and the development of thousands of airports over the past century. In all my travels I have taken the functions of a modern airport for granted. It never occurred to me that the blueprint for things as simple as the check-in counter or arrival/departure gates began somewhere. That somewhere was Croydon Airport.

The de Havilland Heron gate guardian in front of the former airport terminal

As you walk down the Purley Way with its blend of industrial units, supermarkets and offices it is a little hard to imagine that this was the location of the luxurious beginnings of international air travel which would once have seen passengers driven to the terminal in their chauffeur driven cars. Or that, when established, this was a tourist destination its own right with hundreds of thousands of visitors enticed by this glamorous new world.

The approach to the world’s first purpose built airport terminal may have been adapted to its new role as a business centre, with a car park replacing manicured lawns, but a stunningly positioned de Havilland DH114 Heron gate guardian creates an impressive entrance. A Heron operated the final scheduled flight to leave Croydon Airport on its closure, appropriately flown by Captain Last.

The terminal building and air traffic control tower

The first international passenger flights began in 1919, linking London with Paris. Those first flights took off from Hounslow Heath but operations quickly outgrew the site and a more suitable location was identified – an aerodrome in Croydon established during the First World War for the defence of London by the Royal Flying Corps.

The inefficiencies of operations in those early days, moving from hut to hut for each function, led to the development of a fully integrated airport terminal with customs facilities and an air traffic control tower. At the same time quirks of the original airfield, like a road crossing the airfield (complete with level crossing) were swept away. Next door, the world’s first airport hotel opened and a network of airport hangars were constructed around the complex.

Airport buildings occupied 34 acres of the 330 acre aerodrome site by the early 1930s. The airport recorded astonishing growth in passenger demand, rising from around 6,000 passengers in its first year of operation to 120,000 by 1935. The success of the operation, combined with the acceleration in aircraft technology during the second world war, would ultimately lead to the demise of the airport.

A lack of room to expand and the limitations of Croydon’s grass runways saw Heathrow take over the role of the UK’s main international airport in 1946. The airport continued to function as a regional airport but the writing was on the wall when Gatwick was designated as London’s second airport in 1950, followed by a major renovation at Gatwick in 1956-58. Operations at Croydon were steadily run down and the airport finally closed in September 1959.

After some years of neglect the airport terminal was converted to a business centre in the 1990s, with a museum in the control tower. The building is now Grade II* listed.

Section of the mural on display at Airport House

Our visit to Croydon Airport began with a walk around the former booking and waiting hall. This space is plastered with photographs that show how the airport site developed, along with a splendid model of the airport complex after the construction of the terminal building in 1928. Some elements, such as the check-in counters, have long gone but other elements, such as the post room, have survived.

Along one wall you can see the 8 metre long mural “British Air Transport – The Pioneering Days 1919-1934” by William Kempster (1914–1977) which was commissioned by the British Airports Authority for Heathrow Airport. The mural was displayed in Terminal 1 from 1969 until it’s closure in 2015 (footage of the unveiling can be seen in the British Pathé newsreel Queen Opens New Airport Building).

It’s great to see the mural here as it depicts Croydon Airport in its prime with some of the planes and personalities of the day, as well as the original wooden air traffic control tower at Croydon from the 1920s. The timeline stretches from the Airco de Havilland DH16 bi-planes to the Handley Page HP42 Heracles airliner of Imperial Airways, the forerunner of British Airways.

Our tour took us around the building, past the loading bays, with our guide pointing out the extensions to the original building. At the rear of the building, which would have faced out onto the airfield, we got a good view of the air traffic control tower and the world’s first arrivals and departures gates.

Finally, our tour guide took us into the control tower with a fascinating set of exhibits such as the bag Amy Johnson carried on her fatal last flight, a splendid model of the Heracles and a reconstruction of the radio room on its original site with equipment from the 1930s. It capped a wonderful visit that was far more interesting than I would ever have expected.

Thing are a little trickier now with Covid-19 in our midst, but our tour and museum visit still managed to be a wonderful way to spend our first day out in over a month and our last for the year. Thank you to all the volunteers who shared their passion for this incredible building with us.

Model of the Handley Page HP42 Heracles airliner of Imperial Airways hanging in the stairway of the control tower

There are other survivors from the airport complex, such as the lodge building (described in a 1930s guide as ‘air ministry police, first-aid and detention quarters’); the neighbouring aerodrome hotel and some less obvious tarmac elements out in the fields. Aerial shots of the site also appear to show other traces of the airfield invisible from the ground.

The last remaining hangar was demolished around ten years go, replaced by a rather bland cash and carry wholesale warehouse. There is another echo of the past as some modern buildings are still aligned with the long vanished airfield, in much the same way as modern buildings in the city of London reflect the medieval street pattern.

Further information

Much has been written about Croydon Airport if this has piqued your interest. The Historic Croydon Airport Trust have a terrific website that takes you through the history and offers information on the next open days. There are also some great aerial photos on the Britain from above website.

Some good books have been published about Croydon airport. On our visit, during the open day, a selection of postcards and books were available for sale. I picked up a splendid reproduction of the ‘Guide to the AirPort of London (Croydon)’ from the 1930s which includes a selection of photos and plans that help you understand how everything fitted together (complete with contemporary adverts that give you a feel for the time).

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A circuit of Kenley airfield

The unwelcome return of lockdown turned an otherwise normal weekday into a strangely busy day as folk hurried to complete last minute tasks before midnight. For the last day of freedom in a while it was as glorious a day as you could hope for. I headed to one of the more remarkable green spaces in my local area, Kenley Common, for a morning walk before tackling my own pre-lockdown tasks.

Kenley Common

Riddlesdown and Kenley Common were purchased by the Corporation of London in 1883 for public recreation and to help preserve the natural environment. However, it was the requisition of land at the centre of the common for use as an airfield in the First World War that makes this space more than a little bit unusual.

The growing threat from a re-militarised Germany prompted the modernisation of the airfield during the 1930s, including the construction of two concrete runways so that aircraft could take off in all conditions. RAF Kenley was re-activated in January 1940 and became a fully operational sector of Fighter Command in May 1940, playing an important role in the defence of London during the Battle of Britain.

Unlike other airfields there was little possibility of extending the runways for the new breed of jet fighter so the focus moved away from Kenley. The curious effect of this was that Kenley retained its original runways and has been left as “the most complete fighter airfield associated with the Battle of Britain to have survived” according to English Heritage.

Much of the infrastructure can still be seen on a walk around the perimeter. New wing signposts and table-top boards have been installed in 2020 to help explain the history and the key dates in history, such as the series of attacks on Kenley on 18th August 1940 (usually referred to as “The Hardest Day”) which were intended to destroy the airfield.

One of the new wingtip signs

The conditions today were perfect, with cloudless blue skies and bright sunlight to melt the crisp morning frost. I spent a leisurely couple of hours walking around the perimeter of the airfield, taking a look at the remaining structures – including blast pens, a rifle range, triangular hard standings for tying down aircraft and the concrete remains of the fuel dump.

The RAF station closed in 1974 but the airfield is still in use by 615 Volunteer Gliding Squadron most weekends – at least in normal circumstances. It is fascinating to watch the operations on the airfield – gliders being launched by winch under the watchful eye of instructors in the mobile Launch Point Control. I was sorry not to be able to hang around long enough to see the first launches of the day when I visited.

Practicalities

To get to Kenley Common I took the train to Whyteleafe. It takes around 15 minutes to reach the edge of the common from here. If you make a small detour into the grounds of St. Luke’s, Whyteleafe, you can pay your respects at the special plot (‘Airman’s Corner’) set aside in the churchyard.

The Kenley Revival website contains all the information you could possibly need on the history of the site and includes some handy downloadable leaflets with self-guided walks highlighting some of the surviving heritage features. A map of the heritage trail is also available indicating where to find the new display boards.

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A trio of 20th century architectural delights

One of the lessons that lockdown has taught me is to take a fresh look at the everyday sights you took for granted.

Five months between visits to my nearest town centre, Croydon, reminded me once again that the perception of it as an architectural wasteland is more than a little unfair. As with any town centre it has seen its fare share of re-development, good and bad, but there are plenty of interesting buildings to be found.

The NLA Tower

One of the most striking post-war additions to Croydon was the NLA Tower, designed by Richard Seifert and Partners. The distinctive octagonal building, built in 1968, is often referred to by its nickname of the threepenny bit, cheerfully ignoring the disparity with the twelve-sided coin.

The NLA Tower (now renamed No. 1 Croydon)

I have always associated the NLA Tower with arriving in Croydon town centre, whether that has been taking the roundabout in a double-decker bus or stepping out of East Croydon Station. It struck me as an amazing sight even as a child, when I wasn’t generally wowed by great architecture. How could you not like something so different to the rather dull square and rectangular office blocks around it!?

The siting of the mosaic-clad tower, in a sunken pit on a roundabout, somehow makes it all the more dramatic as it seems to rise out of the earth – an effect somewhat spoilt by the addition of a Sainsburys Local at the base a few years ago. There was an attempt to list it by The Twentieth Century Society in 2012 that sadly failed, but it remains a much loved building. I think John Grindrod’s article on the NLA Tower perfectly captures what makes it so special and why anyone from Croydon can’t help but fall a little in love with it.

The roll call of buildings designed by Seifert is impressive and includes the NatWest Tower (now Tower 42), Centre Point, Euston Station and Space House (now One Kemble Street) but for me nothing beats the NLA Tower.

SEGAS headquarters

A short walk away, on the corner of Park Lane and Katharine Street, stands the boarded up and long vacated SEGAS headquarters. The Grade II listed offices, built in 1939-1940 to a modernist design, look somewhat forlorn in its current state with broken window panes and graffiti. It has always struck me as a stylish loner, out of keeping with the buildings around it. This makes more sense when you discover that there was originally a masterplan to site civic buildings around the Town Hall which came unstuck with the Second World War.

The SEGAS headquarters

A panel on the side of the building names the architect as William Newton as well as highlighting a connection with the accountancy profession with the chairmanship of William Cash (ICAEW President 1921-23).

The post-war development around the offices have largely been swept away as the 1960s offices along Katharine Street and the southern half of the St George’s Walk shopping parade are demolished. The re-development plans here will see a new civic square, Queens’s Square, created in front of the Town Hall and the un-recognisable transformation of the Nestle Tower into the much blingier residential Highgrove Tower.

Electric House

Electric House is another boarded-up art-deco marvel dating from 1939-42. The building still sports an ‘electricity’ sign that recalls its heyday as a showroom for the latest in modern appliances and I have a dim recollection of this from visits as a child while my folks were stopping off to pay their electric bills. I don’t recall anything as elaborate as the pictures from the 1940s, so maybe it was already somewhat diminished (though my appreciation for architecture as a toddler was quite limited).

Electric House

The building has undergone substantial interior re-modelling for re-use as offices since the 1980s, but has lain unused since the Home Office moved out in 2013. New plans for its conversion into the Croydon campus of London South Bank University recently received approval. It would nice to see some life breathed back into the place as it looks in a sorry state now.

It will be interesting to see whether the developers are able to restore something of the building’s original glory with this re-development. The plans promise refurbishment of the exterior, the inner courtyard and the few remaining features of architectural interest inside. In addition, there is the potential to restore the original mosaic of the borough arms that most likely remains hidden under carpet.

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A winter election

This has been a strange election, one of more importance than usual, but also one where all the normal conventions seem to have been tossed in the air. If I am honest, none of the choices thrill me. However, far worse in my mind is the casual discarding of truth and respect. This election will set the course of the country far into the distance, so a solid foundation of facts has never been more necessary. Instead, we have a terrifying mixture of lies, half truths and disinformation. It’s scary to think where that will lead.

Croydon Central

In some ways I am in the lucky position of having a vote that can make a difference. My constituency, Croydon Central, has form as a seat that has swung between the Conservatives and Labour with some very small majorities (75 for the Conservatives in 2005, 165 for the Conservatives in 2015 and 164 for the Conservatives in October 1974). It’s a constituency nestled between a safe Labour seat (Croydon North) and a Conservative stronghold (Croydon South).

The polls initially suggested that the vote in the constituency would be tight again. This probably explains the deluge of election pamphlets that have come through our letterbox, been delivered by door-to-door canvassers or handed out in the street. So far we have received ten from Labour, two from the Conservatives, one from the Brexit Party and one from the Liberal Democrats. I also received one Green Party flyer, but for the wrong constituency. The dedication of the volunteers has to be admired – one of the Labour party leaflets was pushed through our letterbox between 1am and 6am on the day of the election.

I placed my vote in the darkness of the early morning, at my local polling station in a Scout Hut, then headed in to work as the sun rose. I wonder what the view will look like in 24 hours time.

Banksy in Croydon

The overnight appearance of a Banksy ‘shop’ generated a lot of attention in the media. It’s not often that Croydon gets in the news for the right reasons, so it made a nice change. It’s also not often that you get to go out for your weekly shop and admire some Banksy artworks along the way!

The pop-up-shop, named Gross Domestic Product, has been set up by Banksy as part of a legal action with a greetings card company over the use of his trademark. The result is an extraordinary shop that never opens its doors and never switches off the lights. It will only be with us for a couple of weeks but in the meantime it was great to have the opportunity to take a look at the products on display and the accompanying descriptions.

Banksy in Croydon

I thought the cot continually observed from above by a set of moving surveillance cameras was particularly accurate and chilling. The label next to it described it as a Baby Mobile, stating: Banksy has created the Ultimate ceiling mounted stimulus toy to prepare your little one for the journey ahead – a lifetime of constant scrutiny both state sanctioned and self imposed. Other favourites included the three wall display drones (instead of the more familiar ducks) and a toilet duck leading a series of yellow ducks.

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Lavender blue

Our wanders this weekend took us to Mayfield Lavender, a 25 acre lavender farm just a short bus ride away from Croydon. It is virtually on my doorstep and yet I had never heard of it until last week (courtesy of a fascinating post from Diamond Geezer).

The field makes a striking sight from the first moment that you enter – a sea of blueish-indigo flowers in which visitors can be seen bobbing about. It is certainly a popular attraction at this time of year, with almost the entire bus emptying on our arrival.

Mayfield Lavender

In the nineteenth century this part of Surrey (encompassing Mitcham, Carshalton, Wallington and Banstead) was at the centre of a lavender growing industry, supplying companies such as Yardley for use in their perfume and toiletries. Hundreds of acres were planted with lavender, swathing the area in blue during the summer months. Today, there are relatively few farms in operation in the UK.

Mayfield Lavender was established in 2002 on the exact site of one of the nineteenth century lavender farms. Within its opening hours you can walk up and down the rows, admiring two varieties of english lavender (Folgate and Maillette) and a hybrid (Grosso).

A sea of indigo-blue flowers

It was interesting to note the differences between the varieties, particularly the sheer volume of bees buzzing around the Grosso and the amazing sound that this created (assuming that you haven’t got Marillion’s Lavender involuntarily running through your head!).

After our short walk we rewarded ourselves with some of the farm shop’s homemade lavender ice cream before heading home. Many thanks to Diamond Geezer for highlighting such a surprising local attraction!

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Bluebell explorers

One of the delightful side-effects of the Bluebell Railway’s re-connection to the mainline has been the emergence of Sheffield Park as a destination for charter trains. In the year to date there have been three steam-hauled charters, starting with Tornado’s visit on 10th September 2013. I missed that occasion but managed to catch the next two charters en-route to the Bluebell Railway.

The next charter to the Bluebell Railway was hauled by BR Britannia Class no. 70013 Oliver Cromwell, which blasted through Bletchley rather magnificently at 11:01am on 2nd November 2013. The tour was pretty neat in design, as it ran from one preserved railway to another (having started at Bridgnorth on the Severn Valley Railway). Unfortunately, the weather was rather dreadful by the time it arrived at the Bluebell Railway.

Oliver Cromwell hauls the Bluebell Explorer through Bletchley on 2nd November 2013

The third charter stuck to southern metals, running from London Victoria to Sheffield Park, followed by a run to Uckfield and then back to London Victoria. Unusually, this charter was topped and tailed by steam locomotives – BR rebuilt Light Pacific 4-6-2 no. 34046 ‘Braunton’ on the front and LMS Class 5MT 4-6-0 no. 44932 on the back.

Braunton hauls the Bluebell Explorer through South Croydon on 9th November 2013 around 9.21am

Typically, the light was beautiful in the lead up but the clouds had crept in by the time the railtour passed through my chosen spot at South Croydon. Nevertheless, this was still better than conditions on the Bluebell Railway itself which was once again quite wet.

A Southern class 455 electric multiple unit passes through South Croydon about 40 minutes earlier, with significantly better light

It will be good fun catching other railtours as they pass through the area in the coming years. It’s a great stretch of line with some interesting places to watch and photograph a steam locomotive working.

The thaw

It was a relief to hear the sound of dripping around town today that indicated the thaw was well under way, even if it still isn’t exactly tropical!

In the morning there was still plenty of snow on the ground when I made a detour from my christmas shopping to see what was happening on the rails south of East Croydon. I was surprised to see a couple of diesels (one class 73 and one class 37) running light engine – I don’t know whether they were helping to clear the lines, heading out to rescue a train or on some other mission but interesting to see nevetheless…

Electro-diesel 73202 at East Croydon on the morning of 4th December 2010