In the first entry of his new blog – Plant on Property – Head of Stiles Harold Williams Surrey & South London Region and Develop Croydon Chairman Richard Plant reflects on the economic, cultural and placemaking renaissance the Borough has experienced since 2011.
For five days in August five years ago riots swept across Britain. I distinctly remember being in Portugal one morning and the kids shouting ‘’Dad Croydon is on the TV’’. I ran in and despite not understanding the Portuguese commentary it was a shock to see familiar places burnt and damaged. I felt an intense sense of disappointment that morale and civic pride around the Borough had reached an historic low.
Fast forward five summers and that Croydon is barely recognisable – many cranes line the skyline, building iconic new places for the people of south London to live and work; Westfield/ Hammerson is on the way – and at 1.5 million sqft in 300 shops and 1000 flats is, even bigger than previously thought. Boxpark Croydon will shortly open, bringing with it a vibe previously only found in the capital itself. Just about every week from spring to autumn boasts some kind of festival – celebrating food, cycling, gay pride and many other realms of human existence, even an open air cinema on the top of a multi-storey carpark!
Market sentiment reflects this new found confidence in Croydon – for example, all 719 apartments in Saffron Square have been sold years before practical completion, and competition for retail on the bottom floors will doubtless be fierce.
And this very week – which marks the fifth anniversary of the start of the riots – HMRC have announced they are moving 2,500 civil servants into the entirety of One Ruskin Square – that’s 184,000 square feet of central government faith in the Borough – and at a record rent of £35psf and may be interested in the second building as well.
Croydon’s population should be very proud of the great strides the area has made in such a short timeframe, but hopefully there is more to come – the ‘Growth Zone’ announced in March promises a further £5.25bn to build 8,000 further homes and create 23,500 jobs.
So where will Croydon be in five years? There’s plenty to be excited about – Boxpark set to open in September, new homes at Ruskin Square and Morello, set to welcome its first residents over the next 12 months, the reopening of a new cultural hub at Fairfield Halls in 2018 and vast public realm improvements ahead of the new Westfield/Hammerson scheme opening in 2021. That will crown a remarkable decade of growth as Croydon fulfils its potential.
It is remarkable to see the transformation since the riots provided such a watershed moment in 2011. And that should provide real inspiration over the next five years as we strive to make the Borough an even better place for people to live, work and spend their leisure time. Croydon genuinely has proved it can rise from the ashes.
