As I hope will become evident as this blog unfolds and I become better at being an architectural spy, Croydon is more like a brick house than a concrete one and by that I mean it should be considered by its many parts and not as one big slab. At least at this scale you can get a greater sense of the many faces and facades that allow Croydon to function as a fascinating multi-cultural town in South London.
The Wine Vaults was by all accounts a cosy cellaresque drinking hole sandwiched rather uncomfortably in the belly of M&S on the west end of Croydon high street. I never had the pleasure of visiting the Wine Vaults myself but heard many a good review of the place and how underrated and unnoticed it had become. The Vault has closed now, not long after I took this photo around a year ago, subtracting from Croydon another invaluable independent business with the void left behind undoubtedly destined to become yet another storage room for the all consuming M&S machine. The worrying issue for the urban environment is this decrease in smaller businesses, for when large busnisses and their respective architectures meet ugly things occur as companies battle for attention and flex their muscle. Although we do not always notice these smaller businesses they are much more personal on a social level and fill the urban voids wonderfully with their unique aesthetics. We need these small hideaways and I can assure anyone that Croydon would be an incredibly uniform looking place without them, and besides would it not have been amazing to have casually had a large glass of red amongst the vaults only to then surface like a boozy caterpillar in the middle of a giant advertising salad. I certainly would have loved it!
tW
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