In this Issue the articles can be found in the following order:
- Chairman’s Notes
- Membership News
- Croydon Festival of Walking
- The Trams of Today
- Transport Group News
- LT is wrong over buses
- The Gillet and Johnston Clock faces & Westwood High School
- Book Review - London Suburbs
- Cicely Mary Barker Memorial Garden
- The City of Croydon
- The World of Croydon
- Croydon Regeneration Strategy
- Croydon Local Agenda 21 - News Update
- An Invitation
- Crystal Palace - Stop Press
- Cane Hill - Medium Secure Unit and Science & Business Park
- Meetings, Lectures & Exhibitions
- Care for Croydon
- Letters to the Editor
- Vacancies
- Words from the Editor
- What’s On
We have responded to a document called
“The Regeneration Strategy for Croydon”. We all want
to see a Croydon made better in every way. The Council has applied
to have us made a City. It is good to aim high and if ever there
was a time to gain City status, it is now. With the Millennium
year approaching and many bountiful things happening with grant
support - it might just happen. It doesn’t hurt to try.
Who else has not one but two palaces in their town?
I doubt whether our feet will touch
the ground next year with all the events going on in Croydon
and elsewhere. You’re going to sleep through it? Forget
that! Fireworks and lighting and noisy parties everywhere. Get
away from it? Just jump on the bandwagon and enjoy it.
We have a full programme which you
are invited to join in and enjoy. Yes - join in. A Millennium
only comes once. Visit the Dome; see the lights in Croydon -
yes Croydon. Why not? I have just received a brochure inviting
me to see the Walsall lights - whatever next! Spend a day or
weekend it says. Can’t think they will outshine Blackpool’s
lights and they’ve been doing it for years.
Well anyway enjoy yourselves in your
own ways - whatever suits you and we hope you join in some of
the things we have on offer. Things will soon be back to normal
at the beginning of the year 2001.
May Johnson
25 Years of the Croydon
Society
April
6th 2000 will be our Anniversary dinner, we would
like you to be there - you are welcome to bring friends and will
be assured of a very pleasant evening all for a ticket price
of only £11.
This
is your last chance to book a place because we have to reach
60 places booked to confirm the restaurant to ourselves.
The closing date
for places is 1 December 1999.
Please send names to Jean Richards
- contact details inside front cover.
Welcome
to new members
The
Society is delighted to welcome Mrs B Tyler, Mrs AM Whitehorn
and
Mr
& Mrs P Turner into membership of the Society.
The Perfect Christmas
Have
you got a friend you think would like to join us? Why not give
them a membership for Christmas - or buy them one our books -
list available on request. We also have several new postcards
and with Robin Redsull’s move to Sussex we have many Graveney
greeting cards for sale. List also available of these. Obtainable
from May Johnson.
The Dome
We have news that visits will be taking place in January, February and March. It will cost £20 for a standard ticket or £18 if you are retired. For groups the price falls to £18 per ticket or £12 if retired. You are considered a group if there are 15 or more. If you fancy travelling with the Society then get in touch with May Johnson. Bring your friends. Transport would be public. Telephone May on (020) 8654 6454.
Congratulations
to
three members of our photographic group who entered the Croydon
Council Competition for photographs of Croydon. Peter Barry won
a prize and Hugh Byford and Michael Hope had pictures on display
in the Drummond Centre and the Exhibition Gallery in the Fairfield
Halls. Michael Hope’s photograph of a sunset Taberner House
is used in the current edition of ‘Croydon Reports’.
Future events
We
have been trying to gain access to London Wildlife’s latest
Nature reserve in the Selhurst Triangle - locally called Lupin
Junction. You can see it from the train only on the down side.
Contracts have not yet been exchanged between LWT and Railtrack
so we have to be put on the waiting list. This site was achieved
by Selden Residents Association who objected to house building
on this site and proposed a local nature reserve. The Inspector
was taken on a train ride so that he could see it among the railway
sidings. We supported them and went to the enquiry. We will keep
you posted!
Condolences
We
are sorry to learn of the death of Ron Locke, lately Chairman
and President of the Sydenham Society. We offer our sympathy
to Ruth, his widow.
Also
to Peter Appleford, on the death of his mother earlier this year.
Mrs Appleford was a great raconteur of her memories of Old Coulsdon,
with a lively wit. Fortunately she has recorded these recollections
so that they can be useful to today’s historians.
Lifetimes
Museum is offering tuition in how to record your family’s
memories. Get in touch with them in the Clocktower - telephone
(020) 8460 5400.
Croydon
Festival of Walking 1999: 11th 12th September
The Croydon Society’s team, eleven
strong, including our Chairman, Hon Secretary and Treasurer,
received the trophy for the largest club or society team in the
Festival, having completed a 9 mile walk in five hours and twenty-one
minutes. Although the Festival walks are not races, this was
a creditable performance on a hot day, when breaks for drinks
at check-in spots provided by the organisers, and for our packed
lunches, eaten in shady spots in Selsdon Woods Nature Reserve,
were most welcome.
This was the third annual Festival
of Walking, raising funds for local charities. The Honorary Festival
Director is Colin Saunders, whose company, Walkwise, is
based in Croydon, and specialises in the organisation of walking
events. We are grateful to Colin and his willing band of helpers
for a event enjoyed by more than two hundred participants.
A party of seven from the Sandefjord
Walking Club in Norway took the trophy for the furthest travelled
participants, and there were also teams from Germany and elsewhere
in Britain.
There were three self-guided walks
on each day of up to 25 miles from Lloyd Park, and shorter guided
strolls in other parts of Croydon.
Festival Director Colin Saunders said
“We’re now listed in the International Calendar of
Walking Events, so it would be great to increase the numbers
from other countries. One of our original aims was to show what
lovely countryside there is around here, and help to dispel Croydon’s
more negative image” This is an objective our Society most
heartily supports.
Next year's Festival is planned for
9 and 10 September 2000.
Walk organisers please include one
or both days in your programmes.
Geoffrey Myers
When the last of the old trams ran
in London few mourned the passing of these venerable vehicles,
which appeared antiquated and inflexible, and a hindrance to
the rapidly growing volume of motor traffic. Some regretted their
passing for reasons of nostalgia, but a few kept alive the vision
of street-running light railways, supported by Continental example.
In 1986 the results of a study by London
Transport and British Rail entitled “Light Rail for London?”
was published, followed shortly by the Croydon Area Light Rail
Study. This identified Croydon as a location for an experimental
light rail system in the London Area. After much deliberation
the London Borough of Croydon agreed to be the co-promoters with
London Transport of a light rail system in Croydon serving the
town centre with branches to New Addington, the geographical
and social isolation of which had been on the conscience of Croydon
for many years, and Beckenham and Wimbledon, the latter
forming an East-West public transport
link to supplement the existing, largely radial links. These
proposals received support of both political parties on the Council,
and in November 1990 a programme of public information and consultation
was embarked on. An independently commissioned survey by Mass
Observation confirmed a high degree of awareness of Tramlink
among persons living along the route and the groups targeted
in the information exercise. On 22nd February 1991, a Press presentation
was made, chaired by the Mayor of Croydon, Councillor Maurice
Fowler. Other speakers were Sir Peter Bowness (now Lord Bowness)
Leader of the Council and Councillor Mary Walker, leader of the
then minority party. Council officers, Mr David Wechsler, then
Director of Economic and Strategic Development, and Mr Dennis
Coombs then Director of Planning and Transportation, together
with Mr Scott Macintosh, Lightrail Development Manager, London
Transport, also spoke. From the earliest days Croydon Council's
support for Tramlink, and for Croydon's full participation in
it, was bi-partisan.
Other elements of the consultation
process were public meetings, presentations to local societies
and organisations, a video and a series of leaflets, some generally
distributed and others aimed at those with special needs or concerns.
A public opinion survey carried out in March 1991 interviewed
nearly 1300 residents and 325 visitors, indicating a high level
of awareness and perception of a good standard of knowledge of
Tramlink; four in five residents stating that they thought Tramlink
“a good idea”, and among those who were likely to be
affected directly by Tramlink, 29% thinking it a bad idea.
The results of such surveys must always
be treated with caution and certainly not be relied on as the
sole basis for policy decisions. Doubters always claim that such
surveys are designed, not to determine public opinion, but to
give support to decisions already taken. The documentation tends
to present any proposal in its most favourable light, not giving
the minus points or considering alternatives. It would be interesting
to carry out a survey after Tramlink is operational to see if
these figures remain unchanged.
At a Council meeting on 4th November
1991, both parties supported a resolution to promote jointly
with London Transport a Parliamentary Bill to empower the Council
and London Transport to provide for the construction and operation
of a system of light rail in the London Boroughs of Merton, Sutton,
Croydon and Bromley.
The Croydon Society had been following
these developments with the keenest interest. In the Summer 1991
issue of Croydon Focus, Richard Pywell contributed an article
on behalf of the Transport Group analysing the Tramlink proposal
in detail, including the technical reports and consultants’
reports on projected patronage, revenue and costs. The article
concluded:
These words remain as valid as when
they were written. The Society's Transport Group presented well-researched
memoranda to the Council questioning certain assumptions, and
stressing the need for an integrated approach to Croydon's transport
needs.
The enabling Parliamentary Bill was
deposited in Parliament in November 1991, and received Royal
Assent on 21st July 1994. The tortuous and time consuming
Private Bill procedure for granting the necessary powers for
carrying out transport and other major projects has now been
replaced by an abbreviated procedure under the Transport and
Works Act 1992, which introduces a system of Order-Making by
Ministers to give such authority.
It includes a Parliamentary stage by
which permission to make the Order may be granted on the application
of the Minister, which may then be followed by the consideration
of objections and if necessary a Public Inquiry, with the appointed
Inspector reporting to the Minister, who decides whether to make
the Order. It is too early to say whether this procedure, which
relieves Noble Lords and Commons back-benchers of the time-consuming
task of sitting on Select Committees on Private Bills, and eliminates
the duplication of such hearings in Lords and Commons will be
an improvement from the point of view of promoters and objectors:
in the only case affecting Croydon so far, the first application
from Central Railways, the proposal was thrown out at the first
House of Commons stage.
Among the documents the Promoters were
required to prepare was the Environmental Assessment, as required
by EC Directive.
This was commissioned by the promoters
from Halcrow Fox and Associates. The full report, with Annexes,
weighs over 1.5 kg, so it is fortunate that a non-technical summary
was provided in the form of a coloured leaflet. The status of
the assessment is unclear: it was provided to the Select Committees,
but objectors had to buy their own copies, and it was clearly
played down by Counsel for the promoters, who said to the Committee,
“You have the Environmental Statement. I am not going to
ask you to open it, as it is enormously comprehensive.”
That should have sounded a warning bell, but it did not. As a
result, there was no requirement on Tramlink’s sponsors
to observe any of the remedial measures specified in the Assessment.
It is perhaps enough to say that those relating to landscape
and visual impact state, “The construction of Tramlink in
Central Croydon provides an opportunity for the enhancement of
the townscape with new sympathetically designed street furniture,
paving materials and overhead wires. The overhead wires should
be supported from lighting columns or wall-mounted where appropriate.
Outside Central Croydon, where the tracks run through open spaces,
the ballast should be grassed. New planting and screening should
be provided, especially where tree loss occurs.”
The policy and design input to the
stages of Tramlink up to and including the Parliamentary stages
was provided by the Tramlink Project Development Group, comprising
representatives of London Transport and Croydon Council with
Tarmac (construction) AEG (tram manufacture) and
Transdev (tram operations).This Group was disbanded in1995,
when tenders were invited for a consortium to finance, construct,
operate and maintain the system. The successful group comprised
The Royal Bank of Scotland, with 3is Project Finance
(finance), Sir Robert McAlpine and Amey Construction
Ltd forming CJV (Construction Joint Venture) Bombardier
Transportation (vehicles) and First Centrewest - part
of First Bus (system operation). An early task of the
successful consortium was to examine the work of their predecessors.
Two major changes were proposed: to terminate the New Addington
line at Parkway, short of the original terminus, Central Parade,
and to substitute a crossing at street level for the original
“cut and cover” under the roundabout at the top of
Gravel Hill. The latter was a departure from the Parliamentary
plans, permissible only by reason of a loophole in the Act intended
for other contingencies. A combination of this possibility and
financial pressures meant that Croydon Council would have to
meet a bill of £2m if the cut and cover were to be retained,
and this allowed of only one answer -the surface-level crossing.
The financial package for Tramlink,
under the then Government’s Private Finance Initiative,
was announced shortly afterwards. It comprised a one-off government
grant of £120m towards the estimated total capital cost
of £200m, with no operating subsidy, and a concession term
of 99 years.
The environmental consequences of Tramlink
were coming increasingly to the fore, and because of this, members
of The Croydon Society at its AGM voted for a Special General
Meeting on Tramlink, which was held in July 1994 and was attended
by over 100 Society members and others. A Working Group was established
comprising representatives of the Society and residents’
associations, with a strong input from Richard Pywell of the
Society’s Transport Group, to monitor in detail the progress
of Tramlink. This Group has regular meetings with Mr Ed Tumath
of the Council's Tramlink team who has supplied much helpful
information, receives weekly lists of applications for Council’s
approval of applications from TCL for planning approvals and
approval under Sect 40 (environmental) and Sect 57 (highways)
of the Tramlink Act.
Residents’ associations have received
our support, notably Rectangle in its successful bids to secure
an improved design for the Waddon New Road flyover - the original
design earned the sobriquet “The Berlin Wall”, and
the associated footbridge. Determined efforts by Heathfield RA
to secure a rational, safe and aesthetically acceptable solution
to the fencing of the track in Lloyd Park, and an acceptable
location for the Coombe Road stop following the decision to abandon
the “cut-and-cover”, have been no less cogent, but
less successful. Many other matters have been raised with Council,
with varying success. While the Council has been energetic in
its enabling role, and in keeping the public informed on Tramlink
progress through reports and the efficient and friendly Tramlink
Office in George Street, it has been less effective in regulatory
functions.
Tramlink cannot begin to carry fare-paying
passengers until the Railway Inspectorate, an arm of the Health
and Safety Executive is fully satisfied with all aspects of its
design and operation including its emergency procedures. In view
of the pioneering nature of Tramlink it may be that the Inspectorate’s
requirements for the safe fencing of the track in Lloyd Park
and other locations, and its demand for the replacement or modification
of approximately 115 lighting columns in the town centre and
a further 17 on the New Addington branch could not have been
foreseen. But in any future development of Tramlink or other
light rail it is to be hoped that they will spring fewer unwelcome
and costly surprises.
This contribution is not a historical
account of the development and progress of Tramlink: others are
far better qualified to provide that. What I have sought to do
is to point out some features of the story so far which may have
lessons for the future. It would be of interest to have readers’
views on whether the Council was right to act as co-promoter
of the scheme, or whether an independent position would have
enabled it better to safeguard its own interests and those Croydon
residents and businesses. But the biggest question of all, whether
Tramlink will achieve its aims, by attracting fare-paying passengers,
meeting their transport needs effectively and bringing about
a reduction in transport congestion in Croydon, will be answered
only when it starts up soon.
Geoffrey Myers
A
Cautious Welcome To Tramlink
When it was decided to build Tramlink,
the intention was to open the whole system before the millennium.
At the time of writing, no firm opening date is known. However,
it is expected that the Wimbledon branch will open this year
followed by the New Addington branch with the Elmers End and
Beckenham branches delayed into the New Year.
Many people expect environmental groups
to wholeheartedly support the building of new tramways as it
is expected that they will cause diversion of travel from the
private car to less environmentally damaging public transport.
Actually, however, The Transport Group has many reservations.
The railways from West Croydon to Wimbledon
and from Elmers End to Addiscombe were heading for closure because
too few people were using them. Converting them to tramways and
increasing the frequency of service was expected to attract more
passengers and so avoid politically difficult closure proceedings.
Once it was suggested that a tramway
network serving Wimbledon, New Addington, Elmers End and Beckenham
would ameliorate Croydon’s endemic congestion and would
enable more people to work and shop in Croydon, the proposal
to build Tramlink gained an unstoppable momentum because it appeared
to be a politically acceptable method of ameliorating traffic
congestion.
Croydon’s town planners have long
recognised that endemic traffic congestion was undermining the
town’s prosperity. Maximising the proportion of travellers
who use public transport for the journey to work has been their
objective. Yet, proposed Tramlink fares have always been within
the “London Transport fares structure”. Although fares
on public transport in London are cheap compared with those in
the Home Counties, they are too expensive to persuade the motorist
who can avoid parking charges to consider public transport. Moreover,
a substantial proportion of Croydon residents on Tramlink corridors
will find that door-to-door journey times by tram will compare
unfavourably with current door-to-door journey times by bus.
This will be caused by trams having fewer stops than buses resulting
in increased walking times to the stop, by the time penalty of
interchange from feeder bus or by the tram being routed away
from residential development in order to avoid property demolition.
Detailed planning appears to have been
left to the last minute. It is likely that trams will be running
in public service before work starts on the Bus Station at East
Croydon. It has been known ever since the Parliamentary Bill
received the Royal Assent in 1994 that bus stops at East Croydon
would need to be relocated, yet the first application by the
council for outline planning permission for the Bus Station was
not made until 1999. It means that the present unsatisfactory
situation in which bus passengers from East Croydon to Shirley
have half their buses stopping in College Road and half in Dingwall
Road will continue into 2000. How can the council objective of
maximising the proportion of people using public transport be
credible?
Public
Consultation
London Transport and Croydon Council
as joint promoters of Tramlink carried out a public consultation
exercise in 1991. Some of the topics omitted in the briefing
notes are as important as those which were included.
It was said that Tramlink “will
be quicker” because “much of the track is segregated
from road traffic, while at street level traffic lights are phased
to favour trams”. However, we have not seen any evidence
of tram priority at traffic lights in our observations of the
trial running.
It was said that “Relative to
new road building, its [Tramlink’s]construction will cause
minor disruption.” Having road works in many town centre
streets almost continuously for two years can hardly be described
as minor disruption.
Nothing specific was said about the
impact of Tramlink on existing bus stopping places, yet it appears
that many bus stops will have been relocated as a result of the
construction of Tramlink with the result that a large number
of existing bus users will suffer increased door-to-door journey
times because they will have longer walks from bus stops to town
centre destinations.
It was said that “Fares will be
comparable to normal bus fares, based on London Transport’s
existing travel zones,” and that “Use of Travelcards
will be encouraged but each Tramlink stop will have machines
for automatic ticket purchase. Drivers will not have to handle
fares on supertrams, thus helping to speed boarding times.”
No commitment was given to accept Bus Passes which are used by
a high proportion of travellers from New Addington. However,
the absence of a Bus Pass facility will mean that Tramlink travel
will be much more expensive than bus travel for some people and
cannot be considered reasonable for people whose door-to-door
journey time increases through the opening of Tramlink. At the
time of writing, cash fares on Tramlink were not known, but were
expected to be more expensive than current bus fares.
Former Croydon Council leader Sir Peter
Bowness was quoted as saying “Through Tramlink, people in
Merton, Sutton, Bromley and Croydon can look forward to reliable
and convenient travel, less road congestion and lower levels
of pollution.” However, the fare levels proposed were such
that it was highly unlikely that traffic congestion would be
reduced through diversion of travel from car to Tramlink. Moreover,
experience suggests that traffic would increase to fill any road
space made available by Tramlink. Tramlink itself should not
increase pollution in Croydon as electricity consumption produces
no pollution at the point of use. However, the generation of
electricity causes pollution at the power station. It was said
that Tramlink is “energy efficient” and this would
be true if Tramlink resulted in diversion of travel from the
private car. In practice, most of the travel on Tramlink will
be from former bus passengers or will be generated travel - there
will only be a small reduction in the number of buses in service.
Road traffic increasing to fill the road space made available
by Tramlink will mean that there will be increases in both pollution
and energy consumption as a result of the opening of the system.
On Tramlink’s visual impact, it
was said that “In urban areas the conductor wire will be
suspended from insulating cables, either strung between buildings
or slimline tubular steel poles.” In the centre of Croydon,
public consultation made us expect slimline tubular steel poles,
not H-section girders. Why the change? Was the public consultation
fraud?
It was claimed that Tramlink would
be safe. Doubts have been expressed about the flat crossing of
Gravel Hill and Kent Gate Way where both trams and road traffic
will be under traffic signal control. Psychology has not been
applied in the design of the Bus Station at East Croydon, the
layout of George Street East and the complications of the George
Street, Wellesley Road junction to persuade pedestrians and drivers
to act safely.
The present government and its predecessor
have emphasised the importance of good interchange between buses,
trains and trams as a means of persuading people to use public
transport. In the fifties, there was an entrance to West Croydon
Station in Station Road but it was closed before the original
Bus Station was built. With the opening of the Bus Station, it
became apparent that interchange between train and bus could
be improved by reopening the Station Road entrance but nobody
was prepared to spend money to make it happen. In recent years,
public money has been available to improve interchange. A design
should have been agreed between all parties in the course of
drawing up the detailed plans for running Tramlink along Station
Road but now appears to be stalled because transport operators,
Railtrack plc. and town planners cannot agree on an acceptable
location for the second entrance.
Tramlink is expected to make an operating
profit. However, substantial sums of public money have been provided
both overtly and covertly to facilitate construction and amount
to a subsidy. The bus bridge over Park Lane, which would not
have been needed without Tramlink, was paid for with money voted
for Bus Priorities!
In the 1991 public consultation, it
was made clear that there would be substantial changes to bus
services between Croydon and New Addington, but very little was
said about changes to services in other directions. Detailed
proposals have only become available this year and public consultation
on them closed at the end of August after the publication of
the names of the operators who had been awarded contracts to
operate the proposed new routes. It is proposed that some existing
routes should be turned into Tramlink feeders. Reduced in-vehicle
journey times will be offset by interchange time. Unless co-ordination
between tram and feeder bus is good, travellers’ door-to-door
journey times are likely to increase. A requirement for interchange
on any journey increases the variability of door-to-door journey
times and is particularly unpopular with the less agile members
of the population and those carrying shopping or other heavy
baggage. Proposals to withdraw through buses to Central Croydon
were bound to be unpopular with pensioners and are also unpopular
because of the expected higher Tramlink cash fares. The proposals
which have particularly concerned us are the withdrawal of through
bus services to New Addington via Shirley Hills, the withdrawal
of route 54 between West Croydon and Elmers End, the 40% reduction
in frequency along Shirley Road and the lack of service from
Shirley Road to East Croydon Station.
The
Future
Croydon Council are now consulting
on their Draft Sustainable Transport Strategy.
The people of Croydon want their transport system to work. They
are tired of endemic traffic congestion. During public consultation,
support was given to Tramlink on the expectation that it would
ameliorate traffic congestion but as the opening date approaches,
it appears that the higher price of travel on Tramlink than on
existing bus services, longer door-to-door journey times and
a higher proportion of public transport trips requiring interchange
will result in diversion of existing bus travel to the private
car thus aggravating congestion.
High parking charges in town centres
can reduce the number of cars coming into town centres but encourage
motorists to patronise out-of-town shopping centres and encourage
commerce and industry to move out of town centres, thereby becoming
inaccessible to people who do not have access to cars and generating
more private car travel thereby aggravating traffic congestion.
If we are to reduce traffic congestion
in Croydon, we have to recognise that some motorists pay more
for parking their cars than they need to pay for travel by public
transport. We also have to recognise that the car is expensive
to own but cheap to use. Moreover, we have to recognise that
traffic congestion is now so widespread that the only way to
ameliorate it is by reducing car use. We also have to recognise
that reducing car use is one of the most effective ways of both
reducing atmospheric pollution and the production of greenhouse
gases. Yet, the motorist's cheapness of car use is causing commerce
to move out of the suburbs of our cities thereby undermining
their prosperity and generating more travel. Persuading people
to use the more environmentally-friendly modes of travel -walking,
cycling and public transport - is much easier if journey lengths
are short. We consider that the introduction of mileage based
road pricing will encourage motorists to shorten their journeys
and are concerned that the rumoured Tramlink flat fare will make
it unnecessarily difficult to abstract short journeys from car
travel.
Tramlink is likely to be seen as reliable
public transport. It will not be so vulnerable to staff shortages
as bus services but is liable to be more easily disrupted by
vandalism. If it proves to be reliable, then developers will
wish to build on open land close to Tramlink stations. The pressure
to build will be such that it will be difficult to resist development
on environmentally sensitive areas on the New Addington route.
Tramlink is likely to be popular with its users. However, experience
abroad indicates that Tramlink is likely to be more successful
than bus services in abstracting passengers from cars.
There will continue to be political
pressure for the extension of Tramlink into areas it does not
serve but it will be extremely difficult to find acceptable routings
other than along streets. Street running, however, will be resisted
once it is realised that the street running in Central Croydon
has a disruptive effect on the Tramlink timetable. There will
also be pressure for Park-and-Ride which will be resisted because
there are no acceptable sites for car parks and it will undermine
other public transport services. In the appraisal of the East
London line extension to Croydon, generating new travel appears
to carry more weight than ameliorating traffic congestion. We
will welcome the opening of Tramlink as it will mark the completion
of major road works in town centre streets but fear traffic congestion
will get worse.
London
Transport is wrong over buses
From
a non member of the Transport group
The
current controversial local news item about the buses is that
London Transport wants to alter some of the routes AHEAD
of Tramlink running - because, we are told,
the buses won’t be needed once Tramlink has started.
Even
if London Transport is right and the users of Tramlink will
be those who divert from buses, why the hurry to alter bus routes
NOW? Surely,
it would be more acceptable to the public to get Tramlink up
and running first and then - if and only if the evidence of travel
patterns supports the changes - change
the bus routes. That
would have the added advantage of providing real evidence of
the effect of Tramlink on travel. Any evidence for the effect
of Tramlink of travel patterns will surely be lost if changes
are forced on passengers by prior circumstances.
And
it disregards all the social justice issues of the comparative
costs of buses v Tramlink - let alone the fact that the Bus Routes
to be axed are not exactly replaced by the routes the Trams will
follow. To my cynical mind, it looks like the opening of Tramlink
is being used as a hook on which to hang changes that London
Transport already wants to make - regardless of the rights or
wrongs of the situation - or that the bus cancellations are designed
to force people to use Tramlink so as to justify building it.
Bus
Conductors:
I
saw in my Guardian recently that one of the candidates for the
Mayor of London was advocating the re-introduction of Bus Conductors
because they would speed up the boarding of passengers and thus
enhance the flow of traffic on our congested streets. I would
fully support the return of bus conductors, on these grounds,
and for other reasons too.
Every
bus I see these days seems to carry an advert for bus drivers
- the press tells us the shortage is so great that drivers are
even being recruited in France. Wouldn’t a look at the working
conditions for bus drivers suggest that it is a stressful, dangerous
and lonely job, with unsociable and irregular hours - and only
a moderate pay packet to recommend it.
Surely a return to two people operation of our buses would
redeem this - working with a driver / conductor partnership must
be less dangerous and more companionable than working alone.
It would not only create more jobs for Londoners but perhaps
make it easier to fill those driver vacancies.
And
the staff are not the only people who would benefit. Transport
is something that affects all of us in so many ways. Have you
ever considered how many people with learning or physical difficulties
find it hard to use a driver only bus - there’s no one to
remind them when to get off, no one to help them down the steps
… a return of conductors, my friends at Mencap tell me,
could also give travel independence to some of those whose lives
are made difficult by our complex society.
Which
brings me to my last thought - Minibuses and CATS. No, not lions
and tigers but Croydon Accessible Transport Scheme - a new charitable
company set up to help make community transport accessible to
all in Croydon. CATS was launched in July - it has a large Executive
Committee and carries the hopes of many to improve transport
in Croydon for those unable to easily use public transport for
whatever reason. It hopes to run a fleet of wheelchair accessible
mini buses safely and efficiently and to encourage shared use
and proper maintenance, etc of other buses already owned by other
community groups - thus eventually increasing the pool of community
transport available in Croydon, on the lines found in some of
the other London Boroughs. I wish CATS well.
Watch this space for news of its progress.
Liz Bebington
The Gillet and Johnston
Clock Faces & Westwood High School
Westwood
High School celebrated its new buildings (as the roll moves from
600 to 900 girls) on 28 September 1999.
Part of work in progress at the School is the Clock Faces
Project which we have begun with the support of the London Borough
of Croydon. The work depends on the use of 3metre in diameter
Clock Faces from the Gillett and Johnston Factory in Union Road,
Thornton Heath. The Clock Faces have funding attached (almost
£ 10,000) and we have used this dowry to commission a proposal
for a public art project with the girls of Westwood. Members
of the Croydon Society will have taken part in the public protest
which secured the preservation of the Clock Faces when the Gillett
and Johnston factory in Thornton Heath was demolished and replaced
by a mixed development including storage and housing.
In
mid May 1999, we invited four artists to visit the site of the
Clock Faces, Stubbs Mead Depot, and Westwood. The women artists
had been recommended by the Royal Society of British Sculptors,
by an experienced Education Officer of the Crafts Council and
latterly the V&A, and by the Professor and Head of Department
of Arts Policy and Management at the City University.
We asked them to work on the project by presenting a submission
of what their art work should be, where it might be sited, and
how they would work with the girls. On 28 June 1999, the small
group - Cllr Raj Chandarana, Chair of the Leisure Services Committee;
Laura Dyer, Principal Arts Officer, London Borough of Croydon;
Janet Suttcliffe, Head of the Art Department in Westwood High
School, and Jean Gooding , Chair of the Governors - met to consider
the proposals. We chose the work by Gudrun Nielsen, and have
offered her the commission.
The
head of Art at Westwood has mounted a lively display of Gudrun
Nielsen's proposals, picturing some of her other sculptures (a
design that won the competition for the entrance to Greenham
Common Park) and showing an exhibition of her work currently
at Beckenham. Many members of the community, including some of
the councillors involved in securing the Clock Faces in 1995,
joined the school in the celebration and enjoyed the small exhibition
placed in front of the huge wall where the work will be
installed. The designs are powerful, and the proposal to make
the clock a working timepiece is a lively addition to the project.
Gudrun Nielsen lives in South Croydon and her location nearby
makes it easier to arrange for spending her time and sharing
her skills with the girls and the school.
Some
expenditure has been redirected into the further plan to make
the clock, installed on the Library wall, a working one, keeping
the clock as a functional part of the school, marking the hours
of its life on our wall.
During
the autumn and in the course of the next year, we hope for expansions
of the project from its art base.
Teachers in the school have been interested in using the
project as their Millennium focus, and have suggested thoughtful
links.
We
intend to make further applications for funding which depend
on community involvement and a wider range of interests.
I have asked for advice from the Croydon Arts Service
and the Leisure Department, and there are several grant aiding
bodies we would like to approach, as well as looking for support
and money from local sources. A part of the project where we
would especially like local contacts is to make connections with
former staff of Gillett and Johnston, especially some of the
women who worked there in its long residence in Thornton Heath.
We have also promised that the final art work will be accessible
to the public as it will be made with public funding. We will
open the school so that others may share in the work - especially
on the Heritage Open Days in September each year.
Chair
of Governors - Westwood High School
London
Suburbs - Introduction by Andrew Saint
Merrell Holberton Publishers Ltd in
association with English Heritage. Price £25 (£22.50
for London Forum members). This handsome, well-illustrated 240
page hardback surveys the history of London's suburbs from the
seventeenth to the twentieth century and considers how they can
best be conserved. The authors and photographer all work or have
worked for English Heritage and Philip Davies, the Director of
its London Region, contributes a short foreword.
Andrew Saint's opening essay, The
Quality of the London Suburb, makes a stimulating introduction.
It is followed by four historical chapters. From Aristocratic
Ideal to Middle-Class Idyll tells how City merchants first
retired to favoured country areas like Croydon in order to infiltrate
the aristocracy and marry off their daughters. By the Georgian
period, Epsom was the furthest one could feasibly commute (on
horseback) to the City, a perimeter now more clearly marked
by the M25.
By the early 1800s, herds of lumbering
omnibuses carried the humbler residents, mostly clerks and shopkeepers,
of a ring of suburbs which included the proverbial Clapham. Infinite
Variety in Bricks and Stucco chronicles the subsequent growth
of these early Victorian suburbs. A photograph of St Valery,
Beulah Hill is used to illustrate the more ambitious designs
of a minority of architect-builders, whilst examples of architect
designed cottage estates for artisans can be found in Battersea
and Queen's Park. But the main contribution from the Architectural
profession came with the garden suburbs in Bedford Park and Hampstead
at the turn of the century, which strongly influenced the first
Town Planning Act of 1909.
Between
the Wars describes the parallel expansion in the early twentieth
century of municipal Arts and Crafts-inspired cottage estates
(Homes fit for Heroes) and owner-occupied semis (Metroland) covering
vast tracts of countryside, the fake-traditional design of the
housing estates perhaps seeking to compensate for the destruction
of the natural environment they replaced. A brief account is
given of the growth of the electric railways and arterial roads
which served them and of the first moves to establish a Green
Belt. For a more detailed description of the development of these
inter-war suburbs with their transport networks, shopping parades
and cinema we are urged to turn to Jackson's celebrated study,
Semi-Detached London.
The
Road to Subtopia takes us onto more familiar ground. It discusses
the successes and failures of post-war planning, the rise and
fall of municipal housing, the New Towns, described as ‘the
ultimate experiment in state planning in Britain, albeit founded
on the most libertarian principles, Docklands, which in contrast
could be said to epitomise the spirit of Thatcherism, and the
pioneering private developments by Span and Wates, of which more
below.
The final chapter on The Place of Conservation
outlines the growth of the amenity movement, from William Morris’s
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings established in
l877 to the Civic Amenities Act of 1967 and subsequent planning
guidance. The problems of designating and protecting Conservation
Areas are briefly discussed, including clear explanations of
such esoteric matters as Article 4 Directions, Conservation Area
Partnerships and Advisory committees and even the mind-boggling
implications of the House of Lords Shimizu Judgement of 1997.
The book ends with a 60 page illustrated
Gazetteer with accompanying maps, which details borough-by-borough
the most significant groups of buildings. In Croydon’s case,
most of these are Conservation Areas and Areas of Special Character,
but they also include Park Hill, where the Wates Park Hill Village
of the 60s and 70s repeated many of the ideas - simple massed
housing with rich landscaping - first explored by the Span developments
of the 50s in Blackheath and Richmond. So Park Hill residents
were right after all to seek Conservation Area status at the
UDP Inquiry four years ago. No wonder so many of us are members
of the Croydon Society.
Particular merit is seen in Turnpike Link and St Bernard’s, but the large photographs of these two estates on facing pages (diagrams 144 and 145) have accidentally been transposed. Furthermore, the tower block (Maybourne Grange) at the centre of Turnpike Link is described as “short,” though it seems to be of similar height and design to one illustrated at Lakeside, Ealing, which is described as “tall.”
But these small slips do not seriously
detract from the value of an excellent, if rather expensive book,
containing a wealth of ideas which I have only been able to hint
at here. Perhaps we may look forward to a corrected paperback
edition.
George Parish
Cicely Mary Barker Memorial
Garden
Bulbs:
Scilla, Snowdrop, Crocus, Tulip, Narcissus, Daffodil,
Muscari Hyacinth.
Plants:
Violet, Cowslip, Primrose, Polyanthus, Forgetmenot, Pansy, Wallflower,
Thrift, Pinks, Fox Glove, Zinnia, Heliotrope, Acquilegia (columbine),
Scabious, Geranium, little red and white Daisies, Marigold, Red
Poppies and the Shirley
Poppy, and fuchsia. (we may get a cutting from her garden
at the Waldrons which still survives). Michaelmas daisies. There
were also some climbers such as clematis (wild), White Jasmine
and Winter Jasmine, Honeysuckle and roses (to go along the wall
beside the plot).
We
can involve Rev. Wilkes - Shirley Poppy creator and we can involve
the Horniman family - whose estate the Park Hill Park once was.
If
we do get Lottery money and we go ahead with the statue this
will be a bonus, but we would need to get the statue in the middle
of the garden and that would mean most of the soil would have
to come out, alternatively we could put the statue elsewhere
- more safely - inside.
Decisions!
Decisions!
I
am sure that we can sort it out.
The
Clocktower Shop, Katharine Street, has lots of memorabilia of
flower fairies and also some of her books - suitable for birthdays
and Christmas.
May Johnson
Secretary
Amenities Sub
In view of Croydon’s recent bid
for city status and its proposed regeneration strategy, the following
brief extracts from a recent Civic Trust study, Sustainable
Renewal of Suburban Areas, may be of interest.
The report classifies suburbs as follows:
Type
Example
Historic Inner Suburb
Clapham
Planned Suburb
Bourneville
Social Housing Suburb
St Helier
Suburban
Town
Croydon
Public Transport Suburb
Ruislip
Car Suburb
Bushey Heath
The main report concentrates on public
transport and car suburbs, with Gants Hill in Redbridge (where
I grew up) as its only London case study. For comments on Croydon
as an example of a suburban town one must turn to an appendix,
from which I quote the following paragraphs.
“A suburban town which has a level
of subordination to a major city often becomes the focus of a
commuter suburb. It is a satellite locality within a major urban
conurbation with some level of self-containment and external
attractiveness in terms of employment, services, commerce and
leisure. This diversification of functions is often the result
of a process of metropolitan expansion and decentralisation of
jobs. Many suburban centres have originated from old villages
and small towns which have been absorbed within the metropolitan
growth.” (Abercrombie is cited here).
“Suburban towns and village centres
have different problems compared to the other types of suburbs.
Their mix of uses and social mix are important potentials for
improving urban sustainability. In many cases, these suburban
agglomerations are performing well economically. Hence, there
is no need for an external push for renewal. However, it may
be necessary to manage growth, especially in terms of the balance
of residential/non residential uses, environmental quality
and house and land prices. As highlighted recently, traffic congestion
is a problem which is no longer concentrated in inner city areas,
but is becoming more and more relevant in major suburban areas
and edge of cities. In other cases, suburban centres may be declining,
especially in terms of shopping facilities, because of competition
from out of town shopping centres. Active land use policies,
environmental and public transport improvements, and other types
of initiatives can help to reverse this trend.”
“The specific opportunities related
to suburban towns have meant that they have been excluded from
the study .” This is a pity, as these few lines show far
more understanding of Croydon’s character and problems than
most of the bulky documents produced closer to home.
George Parish
Look
here for news on the redevelopment one of South London’s
treasures.
London
Wildlife Trust 
click image
Information
on Hutchinson's Bank and other facts relating to Croydon.
Norwood
Grove 
click image
An
unofficial page on Norwood Grove, with excellent, if a little
out-of-date
information
on ‘the White House’ and grounds.
Croydon Regeneration Strategy:
our
reply to Croydon Planning Department, copied to the Leader of
the Council
The
Croydon Society recognises that unless Croydon prospers our objectives
in the environmental and conservation fields are unlikely to
be achieved but quality in the urban environment should not be
simply an optional extra. To achieve and retain the status envisaged
for the prospective city in the Regeneration Strategy the better
quality of the environment for businesses and shoppers alike
is vital. Our shopping outlets have much the same as any of the
national centres. Their competitiveness depends upon physical
and visual comforts.
Seats,
tress, green spaces, pedestrian accessibility need to be provided.
The environment everywhere must be attractive to the commercial
organisations and their clients as well as to the shoppers. Croydon
must look and feel better than other competing centres. It must
aspire to a high level of civic dignity and pleasantness and
cleanliness which is squeaky clean. Other centres do it and people
will go elsewhere if we present a sloppy, slovenly street scene.
Much stress is placed on litter and run down buildings as a bad
impression.
Heritage
is an important element in the quality of the environment and
Croydon is fortunate in having a number of buildings and streets
of heritage value in the town centre, the conservation of which
is a must. Historical links are important in promoting the impression
of quality and these must be fostered and publicised.
To
further these objectives a high quality of civic design is a
must. Regeneration schemes must be prominent in raising Croydon’s
profile. More areas of local character need to be presented.
This will lead to further upgrading of lesser property and will
encourage more improvements elsewhere.
Croydon
had another exhibition in 1990 and our then Chairman, Robin Redsull,
helped produce it. It was in a tented building on the front of
the spare land of the Croydon College. It had some good ideas
some of which have been implemented and some of which are now
being picked up again. Croydon is in fact a success story and
it is right that time should be taken to keep it successful as
all around us systems and modes of living change.
The Way Forward