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Focus Autumn 2001 - Menu - Index - Previous - Next


Membership News

On behalf of the Society, our Chair May Johnson wrote in support of Croydon's Bid for City Status ­ you can find out more information and other letters of support from http://www.CroydonCity.org


May Johnson
Chairperson
The Croydon Society

I write to support the application of Croydon Borough Council to become a city.

Croydon nestles in a valley guarded by hills of archaeological antiquity like Farthing Downs, Addington Hills and Croham Hurst. Royal Kings and Queens, Bishops, Lords and Ladies have graced our soil. So, too, have the modern day men and women. They have left us a wonderful legacy of commercial achievements - Marconi, Mullard, Lindberg, Amy Johnson, Ruskin, Muggeridge, Jessop, Joseph Fairbank and Cicely Mary Barker, to name but a few.

We have inherited buildings, some of which today house schools of excellence, teaching today's youngsters to have pride in themselves as well as their surroundings. Advertisements for the multicultural jobs today require many languages and a school has been set up to cater for multi lingual children and adults, it could teach as many as 60 languages.

Libraries are centres of learning with IT in use everywhere. The Fairfield Halls, opened by the Queen Mother, has famous orchestras and visiting Pop Stars and Ice Shows and pantomime.

Croydon is a busy commercial centre and a bustling shopping area with a daily market in the open air and caters for every kind of shopper and is a cosmopolitan town where many many languages are spoken and a wonderful variety of foods and drinks can be bought.
With easy access to Europe - Eurostar, Coach to Gatwick - Thameslink to other places. Banks and Firms with world-wide links have chosen to have a base here.

We have not forgotten the examples set by Archbishop Whitgift and other philanthropists to help the less able and there is a vast network of organisations, (this is mostly a voluntary area) where they are encouraged to help themselves to become self-supporting.

Croydon is circled with green areas of parks and open spaces and one is never very far from a wooded glade or a patch of wild flowers or the sound of birds. It is this which gives it a pastoral pleasant countrified atmosphere. There is a feeling of well-being and with its many many churches, public houses and even a Mosque which to my mind makes it a city. It has it all.

Yours sincerely

May Johnson
Chairperson
The Croydon Society