Croydon and the Postmodern 2

Nestled amongst the towering forest of office blocks and hotels along the leafy path that is the Wellesley Rd you can find some of the most venturesome architecture in Croydon, limbs of the urban environment that have taken on an appearance and aesthetic of their own accord. The monstrous authoritative twins that are Lunar House and Apollo House directly on the Wellesley Rd, which operate as the headquarters of the UK Border Agency, house such an example of Postmodern architectural experimentation.

For the most part architectural inspiration is not plucked out of the air at random but is found through local contextual influence whether it be materiality, traditions or history, however when the decision was made in the late nineteen-sixties to construct Lunar House and Apollo House the primary source of inspiration happened to be the Apollo 11 moon landing. An incredibly bold and unquestionably peculiar direction to take considering the whole 'Space Race' was a cold war playground game between the US and USSR that clearly had nothing to do with Croydon. Nevertheless during this rather ruthless sixties development period, Croydon quite literally was to have a mesmerising architectural experiment crash-land in the middle of town.

Hovering above the ground on what appears to be a concrete cake-stand is a three-story hexagonal extension to the main office building of Apollo House. In what could be seen as a deliberate juxtaposition to the towering right-angled verticality of the office tower this little piece of architecture delicately hovers above street level mimicking what can only be the presence of a UFO. Yet even with this architectures odd shape and position to its context it merges into its urban business landscape with majestic efficiency, hardly noticed as the public go about hopelessly attempting the pass over Wellesley Rd or weave their way through the confusing back streets of East Croydon. So another architecture and another fade to black, but with this example I can not help but feel this is the actual goal all along, not commonly observed, but a lovely piece of architecture to look at.



tW

Croydon and the Postmodern

A few days ago I found myself in that common situation we all find ourselves in at some point during our lives when the title of a song escapes the mind leaving one completely useless for a few moments whilst desperately trying to escape the subconscious cycle of attempted recollection. Which is exactly what unfolded whilst I was trying to remember where I had once seen what could only be described as a provocative postmodern car-park facade in Croydon, a fairly challenging task for one primary reason;

1. There are seven independent multi-story car-parks in central Croydon alone.

As luck and persistence would have it I did manage to stumble my way across this particular facade again, latched onto the side of the AMP Building near East Croydon station. Here the traditional almost endless horizontal elevation of the car-park has been gagged by an edgy and visually distorting moulded concrete element. The acute-angled 'v' shaped elements help generate an alternating opaque and then transparent appearance that is unique and playful, externally one can wonder of the activities and movements that the facade is hiding and internally a secure viewing platform over Croydon's everyday happenings is accessed. I thoroughly enjoy the postmodern interventions that exist throughout Croydon, they create a richness through architectural experimentation that is rarely seen in the awakening new architecture.


tW

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

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