Croydon: How It Is - November 2024

This is my fifth annual November visit to Croydon to film it and capture the town "how it is".

I am a local historian and have made many films in the Croydon area so I do pick out certain historical elements (notably the architecture) and include some nostalgia.

Comments are reviewed before publishing, there may be a delay because of this. I ask that they are in keeping with the content I produce on my channel. If not, they will be removed.

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Links referred to in this video:

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[philswallow]

All comments are reviewed before publishing. Please be respectful and keep comments in the tone that you see on my channel. I reserve the right to remove any comments that are disrespectful/negative.

[dannyholder]

Thank you, very interesting and informative. Well presented.

[salmerola]

It's wonderful to see Croydon and thanks so much for posting it!❤

[shadyboy-ck]

Phil i remember as a kid seeing original tram tracks set in the street in Tamworth rd and Station rd.

[tonyfriend]

Thank you very much for this walk Phil how croydon has changed 😮.

[susanarmstrong]

Wonderful video, Phil. Thank you so much for sharing your thoughts. I left Croydon for Canada in early 1967 at 22 years of age, having been born & raised in East Croydon. Your videos bring back so many memories, & I can’t believe how much the town has changed. Not always for the better I have to say! I do look forward to all your videos. Thank you again 🫶🏻

[PaulMcCerery-ds]

Watching another great video, i remember the buses going right through Croydon.I got the 409 to Godstone and got off at St Lawrence's hosp where i worked

[merlinscat]

Always used to be an event coming to Croydon as a child. Surrey street kennards and lunch in BHS. As a teenager I was often to be found browsing in Beanos. Saw many films at the odeon. Happy days.

[edwardkrarup]

Always remember the back of kennards you had the swap Shop there used to love going in the swap shop

[tonypacke]

Another great video Phil. To be polite, Croydon has certainly changed over the years. Always remember queuing to get into the multi-story on Wellesley Road on a Saturday afternoon. I took some photographs from the top floor of the car park back in the 70's. If I can find them I'll email them to you.

[greyfeather]

Thanks for the updated video of Croydon.I spent a lot of time in West Croydon in the 1960's. Mum went to Tavistock school. I remember Kennards. Didnt know why Fairfield Halls was called that thanks for the info!

[sheilasmith]

Very interesting video, thanks. I really don't recognise most of the streets from my youth in late 50s to mid 60s. In fact the only parts I knew were the Fairfield Hall and Surrey Street. I used to travel in by bus from Wallington originally arriving at West Croydon Station and knew Kennards well. Then as a teenager, having moved to Purley, came in via South Croydon. Think I would get completely lost if I visited now!

[mikebarton]

Thanks. Bit of nostalgia is always good.

[cheekiex]

Thanks for the video and all the memories (now 73) in age roaming around croydon as a kid .i lived in new addington from 1954 to 2007, thanks again Peter clark

[Carol-L-]

Wow! That was a walk back in time for me.Lived down in West Croydon and used to walk into town. Used to as a family go to the Working Men's Club in Scarbrook Road ....and Where's the flower stall gone from Surrey St by the steps.? ....So much has changed so Thank You for your video.😊

[MarcoPallotti]

Thanks for another lovely video, Phil; there were so many places I knew from my childhood and teenage years in this one. I'd completely forgotten about the Swap Shop until you mentioned it, and I also remember there was a Rank bowling alley around that area too, at least in the mid-late 60s. The Tamworth Halls building was a Croydon Tech annex in the early 70s, where I went after I refused to go to Trinity any more (which you mentioned as being moved to Shirley Park). You didn't show a building opposite the Halls that I found on Google Maps as I was following your walk--there's what looks like a residence faced in brown and green tiles, and that was a pub (The Tamworth Arms?). I love the nostalgia fix I get from these... I'm 5, 000+ miles from Croydon, and 50 years from my life there, but your videos bring the memories flooding back.

[barryridge]

Another great video thank you Phil, I can remember going down Surrey street with my mum an dad in a Saturday morning, you couldn't move it was shoulder to shoulder and all the stall holders calling out prices of their produce, the smell of the fresh fruit and veg, aah happy memories and do you remember there used to be a Turtles ironmongery shop on spurgeons bridge a smaller version of the one in park street.

[edwardkrarup]

Yes there was a window you could see the loaves bread going by I remember when I was a youngster

[smorkeyyy]

Thank you for the video. We used to live in Centrillion Point (just near where you started and finished). A refurbished Office block which was reclad again following the fire in Grenfell tower block. Our GP was located along Friends Road, and we used to walk in the nearby park opposite the magistrates court. There were often smartly dressed but strangely nervous people milling around outside.

[Skaterbun]

I lived on the border SE25. We shopped in Croydon town centre every Saturday without fail, went to the little Sainsbury’s in the Whitgift to do our weekly shop, this was way before they built the one at Crystal Palace FC. Perhaps pop to M&S, Beaties model shop, BHS, Allders, Turtles and Littlewoods. I so looked forward to it, we grabbed a coffee in Pontis on the top floor. Got my first job at Leon house and my sister worked at Tabener house, parents friend worked at Segas, amazing how st George walk went straight through the middle like a tunnel.. i liked sitting in the town hall gardens with my lunch. It’s amazing how much mileage you can do walking around just taking in the sights. Love these videos you do! Good work 👍🏻