Macbeth (The Warehouse Theatre)

Like a needle in a haystack, occasionally in the world of architecture amid modern societies relentless development one has to look almost beyond the realm of human capability to find a piece of construction worthy of examining and appreciating properly. Similar to that of a train enthusiast Croydon plays with this dilemma with amazing efficiency. Beginning from the towns oppressive East Croydon business district with the Wellesley Road tar covered no-mans-land between it and the town centre, many examples of intriguing and strangely interesting architecture exist within this area of high-rise office blocks and cheap hotels. The friendly warmth of The Warehouse Theatre happens to be just one of these examples.

Chances are you have passed this building many times either on your way to the train station or maybe just getting a coffee at the nearby Cafe Nero or Pret a Manger or Starbucks (the discussion on coffee shop invasions is for another day!), yet its physical existence has simply dissolved into the blurry void of your peripheral vision to become nothing more than another set of bricks in Croydon. This situation should not however be blamed solely on the architecture, its unfortunate location between empty development land and what can only be described as a ripe example of a peculiar 1950's office building does not make for a comfortable situation. However, venture inside The Warehouse Theatre on a cold afternoon when all those coffee shops are like sardine tins and you will be pleasantly surprised to find a cafe inside, which just so happens to be greatly more affordable and one cosy little mother.

Beyond the warmth of the cafe the future for the theatre appears extremely positive on paper with the new East Croydon development incorporating a fresh new space for the theatre to replace the neglected existing building, but I can only see a loss of history. The beauty of The Warehouse Theatre is that the architecture matters none and that it is about the theatrical productions and eccentric characters that are created and portrayed within the space created by the architecture that is of the most importance, perhaps the only importance. Nevertheless it cannot be ignored that the buildings structural and material integrity is obviously as reliable as a investment bankers promise and requires a great deal of attention, but this could easily be achieved with the help of local skills and labour and with some time and coordination a fully revived and Macbeth like architecture would have been created, no, saved.

From previous observation it can safely be assumed that the theatre will nonetheless full into the bloodied hands of the East Croydon development and all we can do is hope that the theatre receives its deserved share of attention and respect. The fear is small but greatly appreciated existing architectures like that of The Warehouse Theatre are often swallowed up and regurgitated somewhere in the forgotten darkness of modern developments, or built last when the money has run dry and never rebuilt at all. If this were to happen to The Warehouse Theatre a daylight urban tragedy would have occurred before our very eyes, and Croydon will at best be left with a bronze plaque stating 'Here lies The Warehouse Theatre'.

tW

Doctor Foster & Partners

It has been a while now, in fact it has been a long while now since I spotted the words 'Foster & Partners' delicately painted on the black site boarding next to East Croydon train station. This large site perched directly next to the railway line has been idle for some time now and the residents of Croydon have seen plenty in the way of poetic master-plans desperately attempting to raise the areas architectural glory to that of Dubai. But only when I was confronted by the name Foster did I become concerned, not even the ridiculous idea of including good old french brasseries to the master-plan could have prepared me for this immense disappointment.

Norman Foster, probably the single most famous living British architect, has found success around the world designing buildings ranging from London's very own phallic giant that is the Swiss RE building to the sensitive Reichstag dome project in Berlin. So the real question, to be thoroughly honest, is what is an architect of Foster's stance and influence, who is currently gunning for permission to design and construct a new London airport in the Thames estuary doing proposing a master-plan for a locally confined area in South London?

It is hard to say for sure, but my guess is experimenting or simply an opportunity to gain more work. With Foster & Partners slaving away night and day on projects like London's new airport, which in reality is a master-plan of East & South-East London, can the practice really apply their best to this redevelopment of just East Croydon? Regrettably I do not think they can. I do not say this simply because Fosters' is a practice of large nature and influence and so is frequently critisised for its proposals of seemingly massive scale and aggressive impact, but more because unfortunately I believe the practice has out-grown this scale of project and consequently can no longer effectively communicate with the local community and social networks, which is so vital in designing a master-plan like that required at East Croydon.

tW

The Cronx

Recently I have discovered a new name being used for Croydon, The Cronx.


The Bronx, one of the boroughs of New York, is undoubtedly where this new name for Croydon has derived from and it is truly brilliant. The Bronx just so happens to be an urban area of New York notoriously associated with a poor quality of life as well as being grossly over populated, the latter arguably leading to the former as is thoroughly explained in Jane Jacobs The Death and Life of Great American Cities, a must read for even the non-architect. So it would seem some what fitting for Croydon to become the Cronx with its reputation as being a poorer place to live and the architectural dumping ground of London. Although I am certain the name Cronx was dreamt up more through the aesthetics of literature rather than due to the similarities with the Bronx, I still think the name is genius and I shall be using this new title on a regular basis as I hope will others. All we can hope for is that the urban situation in the Cronx wont get as desperate as it did in the Bronx.

tW

The Long Walk Home

About two years ago the Walkabout club in Croydon shut its doors and pumps to the public for the last time in what had been a long and confident history. I remember just turning eighteen and going there with friends to experience the legal drinking scene for the first time and falling straight away for the vodka a redbull deals, which inevitably left you waking up at half past five in the morning with a heart like that of a car battery and a headache to match. Needless to say as youth of the early twenty-first century we punished our health and continued this routine for another three years.

But enough with a the drink, what can actually be done about a piece of architecture like Walkabout that had such a specific layout and had spent years spatially evolving like a ninety year old war veteran set in his ways and routine? Furthermore, how can one confidently say they have the answer to the next stage in this architectures life without a second thought for the urban communities need rather than what can simply fit inside the existing space?

As it happens it has been decided that Walkabout has finally matured and the time has come for the space left behind to become victim, like so many of its Croydon brethren, to the blitzkrieg of Poundland architecture. What the bloody hell is going on? The space left behind by Walkabout was one full of character and variation (an aspect generally rarely seen in a Walkabout), with a set of stairs here, a lowered platform and a raised platform there and a room full or railings and columns at the back, a remarkably complete antithesis of Poundland. With its reliance on ninety-degree angles, white-wash walls and the endless aisles of Chinese child-labour filth Poundland will no doubt have the appearance of a silk purse made of a pigs ear. Until Croydon's urban community begins to observe and then deal with this issue of architecture for architectures sake we are going to continue witnessing our urban environment evolving with no soul.

More than what architecture can replace, it is how architecture replaces it.

tW

Photograph / David Cook

Black Sheep

In most peoples everyday blackbook of London, Croydon is known first and foremost for a few simple things; knife-crime, Allders and the Black Sheep bar. Crime, money and alcohol, quite an amazing Achilles heel combination of modern society when you take a step back from it. The knife-crime and Allders part however is ultimately down to ones personal opinion and mine being that I have yet to be stabbed, especially whilst in the death-maze that is the fragrance section of Allders, it is too big. However the Black Sheep bar nestled between corporate offices and a newsagent on the High St is well known by the propane fueled youth of South London and many travel throughout the week by train and the various night buses to soak their teenage angst in snake-bite and jagermeister.

We begin from the entrance doors, there is a bar at the front, three structural columns dividing the following space, then another bar and finally the toilets with trimmings of seating all up the left side and a raised platform with DJ booth on the right. The architecture of the Black Sheep is no doubt fascinating and when one begins to seriously consider the internal spaces and therefore the patterns of movement that are created one can begin to observe this as a reflection of the Black Sheep's elongated yet elementary layout. Flowering from this is a social Eden with each architectural aspect working together to allow for hubs of activity throughout the bar that in turn connect and flourish as the quantity of patrons increases. Almost everywhere in the Black Sheep has purpose you can stand anywhere and you will not feel disorientated, it is an amazing thing to have achieved, even if possibly by accident.

I strongly believe the Black Sheep would be a fascinating experience during the day with all its saucy lights on, a Mies van der Rohe Barcelona chair and a cup of coffee, because I am sure the space dictates differently during the vibrancy of the night. Perhaps the dark corners and crowds though is part and parcel of what makes the Black Sheep appealing, the fact that your spacial judgement and perspective is shrouded by these things and what lies in the depths is up to you alone. So maybe the whole ideology behind the Black Sheep both socially and architecturally is poetic and not prosaic, the idea that anything can be is the mystery and life of the space within.

A great deal of social and architectural changes have infected the Black Sheep bar over the years with many issues being bridged but just as many issues created, which makes guessing the future direction of the bar very difficult. Alas, like a limb being ripped off a movie villain the only suitable way I can see the bar finishing its life in Croydon would be reminiscent of a J.G.Ballard inspired chaotic blowout, the people as Vaughan and the architecture as the car.

tW