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Cherry Orchard Road, CROYDON, CR9 6BE

Not to be confused with the better-known Station Road at West Croydon, this short road off Cherry Orchard Road must be entered by taxis to access the taxi stance and also cars intending to drop off or collect passengers, when a very short wait only is allowed.

Whether this name applies only to the small patch of green with tree and telephone box, or to a wider area, I do not know. This is at the junction of Oval Road with Cherry Orchard Road.

Tucked away on the eastern side of East Croydon station, this pub has been much re-built, and extended, since I played darts here in the late 1970's. Behind the pub is East Croydon Post Office sorting office. In the days of Mail trains, mailbags were conveyed across the bridge (to the right of photograph) into the sorting office.

Since this photo was taken, this 1970s office block has been pulled down in favour of a proposed mixed-use development.

The previous buildings between Cherry Orchard Road and the railway station had been demolished and the rubble was being graded and stockpiled.

Not taken because these flats are of any architectural or historical interest, merely because they were about to be pulled down and I feel that such doomed buildings should be recorded for the sake of posterity. (I may be wrong.) Neighbouring blocks and an office block across the road (Image]) were also going, to be replaced by a mixed-use development.

One of Croydon's best new office blocks in Pevsner's opinion, crisply detailed and well proportioned. By the Austin-Smith/Lord Partnership, 1965-68. The projecting frame is clad in white mosaic, recessed behind which are black mosaic verticals. It has now been split into two blocks, this section being known as Stephenson House (the other section is the far taller slab Image]). Between the 1950s and the 1970s Croydon experienced a burst of commercial development unparalleled anywhere else in the country. The impetus was provided by the Croydon Corporation Act of 1956 which gave Croydon Council powers to develop land in the borough. A combination of improved roads, government incentives to relocate from, and Croydon's proximity to, central London, and lower rents attracted employers in their droves. By 1970 about six million square feet of office space had been provided in central Croydon. Development has continued since, but at a much slower rate. From a distance the skyline is impressive (the nearest this country comes to Manhattan), but the problem is that few of the buildings are of architectural merit.

Taxis queue in a double line, awaiting their turn to be called forward. In the distance is the Porter & Sorter public house, and the picture is framed by the bridge which was used to convey the mailbags from the station into East Croydon Post Office sorting office.