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Bedford Park
Some 19th houses
Luna House 1967, entrance motifs identical yet larger, of four wings in the four main directions. By Denis Crump & Partners.
Sunley House 1965/8, large and utilitarian by Fitzroy Robinson & Partners
Bedford Lodge
Cherry Orchard road
Halls depot at Victoria wharff
Cross Road
Remnants of an older area, with a small group of artisan cottages:
57 'Cobden Place 1865',
67 etc., an earlier and simple terrace,
66-72 opposite, pre-Victorian in origin - see the pantiled roof at the back
St.Matthew's Mission church 1911. Battered Arts and Crafts former chapel with shell porch and dormers.
Croydon common
White horse farm where the gypsies camped
Croydon grand theatre tiled with German interlocking concrete tiles
Croydon. Was it Noviomagus
Croydon/Penge border. There was a bank of a ditch called 'Bishops Ditch' running in a south east direction
Dingwall Road
Villas a few large mid c 19 villas still survive
Churchill House. 1965. At the corner of Sydenham Road, is one of the more daring designs of the time, faced with vertically set black tiles. 1965-7 by D. Rowswell & Partners. Its snub-nosed comer still marks the northern limit of New Croydon here
42 Melrose House
56 Wettern House 1962/3. By Ian Fraser & Associates, 1962-3
Gloucester Road.
44-50, 56-62, 72-78. Other simpler examples of Lascelles' concrete cottages
railway lines between them is the retaining wall of the old Canal bridge. It curves round onto an old footpath and the towpath that went back to Junction cottages.
Canal from here was in a cutting and crossed by three brick road bridges
Rail line to the south is the 1862 Windmill Bridge Junction to Balham Line. St James Junction connecting to it was below the bridge, but has now been moved
Site of two locks on the canal to cross Norbury Brook.
On the eastside just before the bridge will be found the retaining wall, part ofthe canal bridge, shown here. It also curves round onto the old footpathand former towpath, now closed that led in later years to a footbridgeand paths to the cottages between the lines mentioned above.
The canal, being in a cutting for the next mile or so, wascrossed by three road bridges, brick affairs. Looking east from therailway bridge, the view has altered again over the last few years witha further flyover and segregation of different rail routes
The line tothe left is the 1862 Windmill Bridge Junction to Balham line, through toVictoria. Below us is the site of St.James' Junction, which gave a connection to it, now relocated to the east. Beyond, and stretching someway north was Selhurst Wood, shown in 1800 as Willow Wood, and 1843 asDagnall's Wood, and in due course nearly obliterated by the new maintenance works of about 1910 for the Brighton's new electrified lines.Just below us is the site of one of the two locks, a systeminstalled to cross the Norbury Brook.
South of therailway, follow a footpath that must owe itsorigins to the canal towpath.
7 Drum and Monkey pub.
London Road
Zodiac House, shopping plus offices and flats 1964. Large development by William H. Robbins, 1964-7.
1 Fox and Hounds
179 Cartoon pub
303 Half Moon
482 Castle Tavern
Oakfield Road
Canal was in a cutting alongside this, alongside the rear gardens of the south side.
2 Royal Oak
Poplar Walk
St.Michael and All Angels Built 1881 to the rules of medieval gothic. A vaulted gothic cathedral with Lots of long lasting vicars. Designed By J. L. Pearson, in 1876 and built in 1880-3 and the interior is one of his finest. It is brick-vaulted throughout; a harmonious interaction of verticals and horizontals in the tradition of medieval Gothic. The most interesting part is the south chapel, which opens from the chancel aisle and has itself a nave and aisles, of equal height, separated by the slimmest shafts. There is a pulpit with a canopy, 1898, and a richly gilded, splendid, almost Baroque gothic organ case, for a Willis organ, 1901, all by Bodley. Font with a cover by Frank Pearson. Hanging rood and lectern by Cecil Hare. Stalls by Temple Moore. Lady Chapel fittings by Comper. Stained glass windows by Clayton & Bell; aisle windows by Lavers & Barraud; others by Kempe, 1895 and after.
Vicarage. Incompetent neo-Wren
St.James's Road
169. A flint-faced Gothic villa, mid c 19. The former vicarage.
Canal towpath. St.James's Road/ Gloucester Road
On the south side of St. James's Road, west of the bridge, the garden of the public house allows a good view of the south side of Brick Bridge.
St James, A Commissioners' church: 1827-9 by Robert Wallace. Yellow brick with thin lancets and a lean tower. In the tower odd triplet openings. The more robust stone chancel is of 1881 by Charles Henman Jun. – Font late c18 design, marble, a fluted bowl on a baluster. - Original galleries with Gothic cusping beneath; the rest of the seating of 1871. – Reredos, marble, 1884 by Earp, designed by Henman. Pulpit 1882. - Good brass eagle lectern 1884. - Stained Glass. E window 1881; de signed by Henman, made by H. W. Lonsdale.
St.Michael's Road
Built by the canal co.
Station Road
West Croydon Station. Between Centrale and Wellesley Road on Croydon Tramlink. Between Waddon and Norwood Junction and also Selhurst on Southern Rail. The entrance is between shops in London Road and the Present building date from the 1930s. It was Originally built on the canal terminus site and some buildings were retained - warehouse, smithery, etc. The ‘Allparts’ building is the actual old station at the London end of the down platform. It was originally called ‘Croydon Station’, renamed ‘Croydon Town’ in 1847, and has been ‘West Croydon’ since 1851. It was Croydon's first passenger station, opened 1839 as the terminus of the London and Croydon Railway. All the original buildings are demolished. In 1847 the G.P.Bidder’s Croydon and Epsom Railway opened tand the station was rebuilt on a new alignment. When the line was extended to Epsom in 1847. a branch from the remaining short bay platform at the country end was put in for the Mitcham Junction and Wimbledon in 1855 Croydon and Wimbledon Railway in 1853. A single terminal platform remains to remind us of the station's first status. The present station buildings date from 1933-34. East side buildings are the oldest part.
St Mary's RC church, nearby, is beside a still recognisable old and extensive gravel pit.
Bus Station. the tram stop is at approximately the location of the Croydon Canal terminal basin - opened 1809, closed 1836 to make way for the London and Croydon Railway. Last century this was a nodal point for trolleybus routes.
Station House on London Road remained.
Station Road itself built during the canal co ownership
Canal Basin "alarge square piece of deep water for the loading and unloading of barges,into extensive warehouses and alongside its spacious wharves".It is onto this wharf also that the canal company had built itstramway to connect with the iron railways at Pitlake, having the effectof diverting much trade from that other route to the Thames, the SurreyIron Railway.Once the canal had beenpurchased by the London & Croydon Railway in 1836, it was closed on 22nd August. The layout of the first station was very much designed around the land and buildings of the canal, with the addition of booking office and other passenger facilities in one block. The largest warehouse was kept, and a range of buildings on London Road looks to have been suitably used as a lodge for conductors and brakesmen, and a range of cottages for some of the police and conductors. Another canal building was retained as a blacksmith's shop.The canal basin remained, and a fairly formal and wide set ofsteps were built down into it. The bottom of the basin, as with the canalitself, approximated to the new rail eve. A small building was putup to house the locomotive engines, and nearby a steam pump house with acistern on top for water supply. Sidings, obviously must have run into, andterminated in, the canal basin.One major range of buildings was added for this first station,that of booking office, waiting room, passenger and carriage shed, withabove the first mentioned "a residence for one of the officers of thecompany". The plan also shows the two lines of rails coming into theplatforms along the canal bed, which would eve in with the sidings intothe base of the basin. The carriage shed is in line with the canal westbank. Basin itself kept and steps built down into it. Bottom was the rail level, sidings ran into it and some buildings put up. Retaining wall to the west of the station is the line of the west bank of the canal and stone blocks were there until recently, it is shaped round the turntable site.
Canal co tramway to connect to iron railway at Pitlake.
Car park - furthest point is the site of the train shed
Sydenham Road
Used to be called Middle Heath Lane
16 Bedford Tavern
34 good example of quiet Italianate villas. Especially grand, with six pedimented first-floor windows.
56 has windows within giant brick arches, an earlier c19 type
209 Duke of Gloucester Pub
237-239 two pairs of cottages with projecting end gables. Designed by Norman Shaw, or possible largely by his pupils, for the contractor W. H. Lascelles. The construction, which uses Lascelles' patent concrete slabs, is heavily disguised in both cases. 1878 has prettier surfaces of tile- hanging in the Surrey vernacular tradition. Genuine tiles in front, simulated ones at the back the picturesque effect enhanced by the careful grouping of roofs of different height;
226-228 1881-2 is roughcast with ornamental panels. Concrete panelled ceilings inside
237-239, prettier Surrey tradition.
293 Bird in Hand pub. 1825 it dates back to about 1825 and is thought to be named after thetrade of selling caged birds to boat borne picnic parties. In 1865 it wasnoted as the 'Bird-in-Hand Beer Shop'. Pre-dates the railway and said to stand on the bank of the canal.
Four cottages just behind the pub are reputed to have floor joists made of oak from canal barges.
No canal ancientbridge brickwork to admire
Towpath can be followed to Spurgeon's bridge
Between these last two bridges, and stretching to WhitehorseRoad, the canal company owned a stretch of land. Thepurpose is unclear, but they may have been intending to use it for gravelextraction. Gravel is mentioned in later years as an export along thecanal, and in the early railway years numerous water field workings areshown in this vicinity, near West Croydon, and to the north a large setof workings near Bologne Road. This small stretch was probably excavatedaround 1840, and in 1847 a pond covered over half of the area.
Immediatelyto the west of the pond area it, and also on the north bank, the canal in its finalyears is shown widened, as it would be for a wharf, across the land ofHenry Dance.
Between the railway and St.James's Road, was St.James's Ironworks, and a steam flour mill. A pond was used in conjunctionwith the iron works, part of one of the earlier gravel workings.
Canterbury House 1963. By T. P. Bennett & Sons.
Wellesley Road
Our Lady of Reparation (R.C.), 1883 F. A. Walters, incorporating parts of Pugin’s church of 1864.
Pembroke House, 19 floors, quieter style. 1963/7., by Vincent & Wynn, a nearly square tower the top excrescences hidden by vertical concrete slabs.
Randolph House 1963. The northernmost building of the 1960s, by William J. Harvey, 1963-9, with wild concrete reliefs redevlped alkoing with oembrike hiuse
Whitehorse Road
111 Gloucester Pub
323 Crescent Arms
Gillett and Johnson Bell Foundry
West Croydon Baptist Church was built in 1873, just north ofthe Whitehorse Road Bridge, at that time known as Brick Bridge. Itwas soon known as Spurgeon’s Tabernacle by Croydonians, after its builders,and the name was applied tothe bridge also. Even in canal days this was a major cross roads. Most bridges would only have to cross about 10' of water, enough for a singe barge, plus the towpath, but here a span of 30' or more was made. This has led to the bridge we see today being attributed to the canal. In coming through thispoint the canal had something of a kink near the bridge, on the southside. By moving the route some 30' to the east under a new bridge, thedesired easier line for the rails was achieved. Since then more substantialretaining walls have obscured much of the bridge's very pleasing design.
Spurgeon's Bridge north of West Croydon station. Was the canal bridge called 'Brick Bridge'
Pub garden lets you look at the Brick Bridge. Had to cross a 30' span of water plus the towpath. But the railway bridge was south of the canal. Canal was north of this.
West Croydon Baptist Church Spurgeon Tabernacle. 1873 by J. T. Barker. Brick and stone classical front with quadrant colonnades to recessed wings. Founded by James Spurgeon
W.Whitehorse had a stud farm for Edward III 1368.
Windmill Road.
GC HQ of bus and lorry business of J.Thompson garage for the shop. Used coaches etc. Access from Queens Road. Regal bus fleet also buses owned by Mrs.Brailey,
78 Fishermen’s Friend
Fleur de Lys route. Premises empty in 1977. Fuller Smith and Turner tied house in 1970s.