There is a certain nerdy joy in exploring a vast urban centre by foot, bike, bus, train, metro or tram. There are certain little sub-centres that form intriguing transport hubs and look interesting when the mind wanders when browsing a map. Big cities swallow-up smaller population centres and make them into something strange. Such places can become like dormitories for commuters. It is rare for people to seek such places out. It is odd for people to see the subtle glow of a Croydon when the hypnotic glare of a London is so close...
...but if London can be said to have it all, this can mean that it lacks, but lacks in a different way. Certainly Croydon has a certain gradeur and a skyline...
...and if Edinburgh is 'The Athens Of The North' and Birmingham (slightly less convincingly) is 'The Venice Of The North' then Croydon is (in a tongue-in-cheek way) 'The Manhattan Of South London'. Though I didn't capture it photographically, heading west out of Croydon on a tram, from a raised section of tram-track, you look back on the impressive skyline of towers, standing proudly, as if it could indeed be the true centre of a south London, because from such a viewpoint London is nowhere to be seen, and Croydon is impossible to ignore...
...from close-up, the buildings demand you look upwards. They even house the endless corridors of government departments, like a colony of Whitehall, and corporate headquarters, like The City...
...but there is also a feeling that Croydon is many miles from London. In fact, if you were to wake randomly in the middle of the town, you might be forgiven for thinking you were in somewhere in the North or the Midlands...
...like London though, there is that incongruity of old and new. You are at times faced with something centuries old juxtaposed with something dwarfingly modern. However, the modern feel of Croydon is of a Milton Keynes 'New Town' nature rather than a Tokyo 'living in the future' ambience...
...yes, to love Croydon you have to love concrete towers. You probably would have to like those miniature architectural models they make for grand post-war reconstruction schemes. You would probably need either a sense of kitsch, or a sweet, stubbornly sincere and unswerving devotion to modernist architecture...
...Croydon certainly can function as a kind of Disneyland of beautifully ugly buildings. One curious highlight (not photographed) was an Alders home furnishing store. I can only think of a couple of these stores, both housed in nondescript buildings, and I hadn't thought about these places in about a decade. However, the branch in Croydon is housed in a building that looks like it was specially built between the wars, or certainly pre-1960s, and proudly declaring itself to be an Alders on the fabric of the building. In addition to this, there was the usual garish stuff they adorn nondescript buildings with. The combination made for something of a spectacle, but you'll have to take my word for it. I can't remember whether it was the case here, but I always find it interesting to find an old-style sign for Gregg's (the bakers). Even if Croydon does not have such a bakery with such a sign, it would seem appropriate, and most places I am reminded of here have such bakeries, almost invariably with an old sign...
...one of the most notable virtues of Croydon, as I have already mentioned (briefly) is the public transport. By this, I'm not saying I think it serves Croydon's commuters well or anything like that, I simply mean that it has an interesting mix of transport. When looking at a map, stations with interchanges always look like they would be exciting to see in the flesh. The presence of a modern tram system also adds to the feeling that you could be in a part of Birmingham, Sheffield or Manchester. Then again, one of the places I'm particularly reminded of is Stockport, and Manchester's Metrolink goes nowhere near that particular high-rise town...
...I get the impression that there will be additions to the skyline. I imagine that the feeling of an isolated cluster of concrete in an otherwise low-rise sprawl of the suburbs of southern London will persist, much as Manhattan will always evoke images of Art Deco skyscrapers...
...the same part of me that does things like take myself to Croydon found it interesting to see the destinations of the buses. This part of me seeks to connect the sprawling mass of a built-up area, but also hopes never to succeed in finally doing this. What would be left to do? Luckily, it'll never happen...
...there is something genuinely pleasing about a town that adorns itself with flowers. These boxes sit on the barriers of a central reservation like windowboxes on pretty Georgian cottage windowsills, or on a early retiree's canalboat...
...all-in-all, a fascinating daytrip (just look how much I had to say!). It is so wonderful to think of how fascinating places can be that most people would avoid, or just never think about. How easy it is to gravitate to the places that want to outshine other places! How great to look hard at places that do not demand to be looked at! How fulfilled is the man who follows his nose, and understands a little more of his world! How happy is the man who can see the interesting in the ordinary!
Hey kids: always begin with wonder, and never lose sight of that sense of wonder...!
