Five-a-day

Recently whilst strolling down to the bus stop at the bottom of Church St functioning solely on a caffeine and photoshop diet on the journey home from yet another gruelling studio interim crit at university, I noticed this small green box structure near the Warehouse Theatre that I shamefully must confess I missed on the previous visit. Slap in the face. It was the fruit and veg stall that I had in fact observed a select few times on the way to East Croydon station but had always assumed it was a temporary structure smuggled into this location in the early morning hours to supply the working populace with their five-a-day on the daily pilgrimage to work. As it turns out the Croydon Fruit and Vegetables box is in fact a permanent architectural feature of Dingwall Rd and has been for some time.

I guess the best way to describe this rather juxtaposed green box is like an earring lost within the bedlam of a bedroom, patiently resting in the same lonesome spot amongst the chaos until one day it is found again, like a diamond in the rough. Especially if one considers the future development of the area, which as it stands mainly consists of new glass facade addicted office blocks and housing, Croydon Fruit and Vegetables little addition of playful yet dignified architecture will surely perish. Maybe it could stay? Maybe it could become a glass cube too?

I whole heartily recommend a visit to Croydon Fruit and Vegetables not only for your health but for the opportunity to pause, interact and experience a space that is if anything usually treated as a pedestrian highway with coffee shop service stations. Croydon could really benefit from this type of urban approach by allowing more of these boxes to exist throughout the town, by applying the same structure and perhaps changing the colour of each you can create a theme that eventually becomes opaque in existence and trusted by the community. Would it not be fantastic and exciting to have the pace of life and interaction that exists on Surrey St Market throughout more of Croydon?

The opportunity to promote a healthier lifestyle whilst generating fresh and vibrant urban activity at street level is at hand, and clearly this direction of urban solution is far more important than new office blocks, shopping malls and car parks. Until then this little green box will remain an earring, surrounded by Croydon.


tW