The name

A title of Croydon derives originally from either a Anglo-Saxon croeas deanas, meaning "the valley of the crocuses", indicating that, like Saffron Walden in Essex, it was a centre for the collection of saffron.

A second opinion [http://81.1911encyclopedia.org/C/CR/CROYDON.htm] holds that a title derives from either a Old French croie sand dune, meaning chalk hill. This was because Croydon stands at a northern edge of a chalk hills known as the North Downs.

Status

Croydon was created the municipal borough of Surrey in 1883. Within 1889, through its growing economic importance, it was processed the county borough exempt from county administration. Around 1965 the county borough was abolished & Croydon and Coulsdon and Purley Urban District formed the London Borough of Croydon.

History

There exists grounds to believe of Roman settlement in the arethe and a 5th to 6th century pagan Saxon cemetery.

Archbishops of Canterbury as lord of the manor
In the late Saxon period of time, it was the centre of a big estate belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury. A church & a archbishops' manor occupied a metropolitan area however called a Old Town. A archbishops utilized a manor when an occasional place of home & would prove my point to stand crucial links as Lords of the manor and then as local patrons correct as much as a present day.

Inside 1276, a archbishop acquired the charter for the hebdomadally market, & this probably marks the foundation of Croydon as an urban centre. Croydon developed into one of a independent market towns of north-east Surrey. A market place was placed out on the higher ground to the east of the manor in the triangle at present bounded by High Street, Surrey Street & Crown Hill.

Per 16th century a manor house got get the real palace utilized when the independent summertime page of the archbishops, visited by monarchs & more very important person. A original palace was sold around 1781, by then derelict & encircled by slum arethe & stagnant pool, & a freshly residence, nearby at Addington, purchased in its place. Numerous of the buildings of the original Croydon Palace survive, and come within have now when Old Palace School.

Croydon Parish Church, St John the Baptist

A earliest record of Christian leaders around Croydon is detected withwithin an Anglo-Saxon may processed in astir 960, witnessed by Elfsies, priest of Croydon. A Doomsday Book has the earliest written record of Croydon Church. A earliest date of the title of the church is 6 December 1347, when it was recorded in the might of John de Croydon, fishwife, containing the legacy to "the church of S John de Croydon". A church however bears a arms of Archbishop Courtenay and Archbishop Chicheley, presumed to be its helper.

A Perpendicular-style church was remodelled in 1849 but was destroyed within a great fire in 1867, following which lone a tower, in the south porch & outer bulwarks remained. The freshly church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the greatest designer of the Victorian age, & opened within 1870. His project loosely followed a former layout, by owning knapped flint facing and numbers of of the original features, including the ticket alabaster reredos and several significant grave. Croydon Parish Church is the burial place of captain hicks Archbishops of Canterbury: John Whitgift, Edmund Grindal, Gilbert Sheldon, William Wake, John Potter and Thomas Herring.

Antecedently section of the Diocese of Canterbury, Croydon is now in the Diocese of Southwark. A Vicar of Croydon is an crucial post, additionally to the suffragan Bishop of Croydon.

Whitgift Almshouses

A Elizabethan Whitgift Almshouses, a "Hospital of the Holy Trinity" when it was known as, keep around stood in a centre of Croydon (at the corner of N Prevent & George Street) since it were erected by Archbishop John Whitgift. He experienced petitioned for & experienced standard permission from either Queen Elizabeth I to establish a hospital & school within Croydon for the "poor, needy and impotent people" from either a parishes of Croydon & Lambeth. A foundation stone was put in 1596 and the building was completed within 1599.

the premiss involved a actual Hospital or even Almshouses, providing accommodation for between 28 & 40 men & women, & a nearby school & schoolmaster's home. There was too the Warder inside charge for the easily-wellbeing of the medical social worker. A building is constructed using a chambers of the medical social worker & various agents surrounding an inner court.

Threatened by various reconstruction plans & road-widening schemes within further recent days in the area, it wasn't until 1923 that the Almshouses were economised by intervention of the House of Lords. In 21 June 1983, Queen Elizabeth II visited a almshouses & unveiled the plaque celebrating the recently completed reconstruction of the building. In 22 March each year a egg laying of the foundation stone is commemorated when Founder's Day.

Industrial era
A development of Brighton as a fashionable resort in the 1780s increased Croydon's role as a significant prevent for stage coaches on the road south of London. At a beginning of the 19th century, Croydon became the terminus of 2 pioneering commercial transfer links sustaining London. A foremost, opened inside 1803, was the horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway from Wandsworth which was later around 1805 extended to Merstham, as a Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway. A 2nd, opened inside 1809, was the Croydon Canal, which came from either a Grand Surrey Canal at Deptford. A London & Croydon Railway (an atmospheric and steam-powered railway), opened between London Bridge and West Croydon in 1839 and other connections to London and the south followed, using much of the route of the canal, which had closed in 1836.

A rapid expansion of the town caused per railways in the 19th century led to considerable health problems, especially in the dampness & overcrowded working class district of the Old Town. Inside response to this inside 1849, Croydon became one of the foremost towns in the united states to get the Local Board of Health. the Board constructed public health infrastructure including the reservoir, many miles of pipes & sewers, a pumping station, & sewage disposal works.

A growing town
When a town continued to develop, it became especially popular as a pleasant leafy residential suburb for members of the Victorian middle classes, world health organization may commute to the City of London by fast traaround in Xx transactions. Inside 1883, Croydon was incorporated as a Borough. Around 1889, it became the County Borough, by owning a however greater degree of autonomy. A recently county borough council implemented a Croydon Improvement scheme in the early 1890s, which resulted in a widening of the High Street, and the clearance of good deal of the 'Middle Row' slum. A left slum area were cleared shortly when World War II, with very much of the people resettled to the isolated fresh community at New Addington. Newly places opened & expanded around central Croydon, including Allders, Kennards & Grants, and one of a number 1 Sainsbury's shops.

Per 1950s, with its continuing incubation, a town was becoming engorged, & a Council decided to introduce a second major overhaul scheme. A Croydon Corporation Work was passed within 1956. This, coupled by owning government incentives for professional relocation away from London, led to the building of fresh agents & incidental to road schemes through the late 1950s and 1960s, and a town boomed as an significant business centre in the 1960s, with the building of a big total of multi-multistorey office building, subway, flyovers, & multi-storey parking area.

Modern Croydon

Croydon likewise developed as an significant centre for concidering using a construction of the Whitgift Centre which opened in 1969. In the equivalent cycle, Fairfield Halls arts centre and event venue opened (1962). A Warehouse Theatre opened in 1977. A 1990s saw further changes designed to give the town a additional attractive image. These include a closure of Northerly Prevent to drive traffic around 1989; and a opening of the Croydon Clocktower arts centre, in 1994. Tramlink began operation in May 2000. The freshly center, Centrale, was opened in 2004 and lies opposite a Whitgift Centre. There are at present plans for a big newly plaza, Park Place, the renovation of the Croydon Gateway site and extensions to Tramlink to Purley, Streatham and Crystal Palace.

The Arts
Croydon is typically disparaged for its want of culture & its prototypic suburban atmosphere. A town has born a brunt of numerous jokes aimed at its enthusiastic adoption of urban modernism. It hwhen typically been characterized as dull & inhuman. International exemplary Kate Moss was born & raised inside Croydon. BBCNews, from either 9/21/05, remarks: "Articles about her always mentioned her Croydon roots, although the suspicion in hindsight is that this was probably to sneer, as if her origins made her beauty all the more extraordinary." The calendar entitled Roundabouts of Croydon, by using the picture of the different Croydon roundabout every month, has enjoyed a bit of profits. Other recently a title was typically a subject of parody by comedy duo Mel Giedroyc and Sue Perkins. Yet, there are many high-quality arts venues. First amongst these is the Fairfield Halls, opened in 1962 with a big concert hall oftentimes utilized for BBC recordings, a Ashcroft Theatre & a Arnhem Gallery. A Halls come a page of the London Mozart Players, whose Principal Guest Conductor is flautist Sir James Galway. Several notable faces keep close at hand appeared at a Fairfield Halls, from either the Beatles through Bucks Fizz to Coolio.

A Warehouse Theatre is a studio theatre known for its work in newly playwriting, likewise when comedy & youth theatre. Croydon Clocktower, built by the London Borough of Croydon in the mid-1990s, houses a state-of-a-art library, a David Lean cinema, a performance venue in a old information library & the town museum.

Naturally there are many local & little venues for survive music, comedy & community cases dotted as much as Croydon & its neighbourhoods.

Transport

A town of Croydon is placed touching one of a sources of the Flow of any stream Wandle. Upright in the south occurs as important gap in the North Downs which acts as a route focus for transport from either London south coast.

A old London to Brighton road, a A23, passed through the town when does the main line from either London to Brighton. Now a A23 follows a route to the west of the town called the Purley Way.

Croydon's early transport links

A horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway was Britain's first public railway. It was opened around 1803, had double track, was occasionally 8½ miles yearn & ran from either Wandsworth to Croydon terminating at what is now Reeves Corner. A railway boom of the 1840s brought superior & sooner steam pipe and it closed inside 1846. A route is however followed inside a portion by Croydon's fresh Tramlink system.

A Croydon Canal ran for 9½ miles from what is today West Croydon railway station north along the course of the present railway line to New Cross Gate, where it joined a Surrey canal and went on into a Thames. It was opened inside 1809 and had Xxviii locks. It experienced the heavy rival in the Surrey Iron Railway & was never the fiscal profits. It sold intent on the steam railways within 1836 and the present Croydon to Up to date Cross Gate line follows tremendously of its course. A flow of any stream at South Norwood is the former reservoir for the canal.

Croydon Airport

Croydin Airport on Purley Way used to be a independent airdrome for London before it was superseded by London Heathrow Airport and London Gatwick Airport. Starting retired in the period of World War I as an airfield for protection against Zeppelins, and getting into one of a groovy airdrome of a globe in the period of the 1920s and 1930s, it welcomed the world's pioneer aviators around its bloom. When aviation technology progressed, notwithstanding, & aircraft became larger & extra many, it was recognized within 1952 that a drome would become as well little to match a ever-increasing volume of air traffic. It was decided it would st& to close, and a go scheduled flight departed in 30 September 1959.

the Aerodrome terminal, okay, called Airport Home, has been restored & has the museum open of these day a year.

Railways and trams

Croydon is the hub of the Tramlink service in South London and has mainline rail services to Central London, Gatwick Airport and the South Coast from either East Croydon station. There is a big coach station at West Croydon. There are plans to hyperlink Croydon to the East London Line by way of an extension to West Croydon.

Railway stations
Stations within Croydon: East Croydon South Croydon West Croydon

Tramlink stops
Tramlink blocks touching a centre of Croydon: East Croydon station West Croydon station Wellesley Road George Street Church Street Reeves Corner Lebanon Road