It’s been through countless incarnations, but it could just be its time has come
Stay ahead of the curve and find out where the cool kids will be heading next...
Croydon gets it in the neck a fair bit. Soulless, drab, 'New York built in Poland', a concrete jungle. The Late Show in 1993 char...
Katherine St.- Town Hall & Central Library.
From Beano's, Allders and the Blue Orchid - which one do you miss the most?
J Arthur Dixon postcard.
In stark contrast to the type of building I blogged about last time, the 50p Building (or to us it's official name 'No.1 Croydon'), is a bold 1970's skyscraper style building at the heart of Croydon. And, despite my love of Victorian, Regency and other traditional and classically beautiful styles of architecture, the 50p Building is one of my favourite landmarks. I'm probably causing some controversy here, as it has been voted one of Britain's worst architectural eyesores, but thousands of people can be wrong. A little history for you: No.1 Croydon (formerly the Noble Lowndes Annuities or NLA Tower) sits right at the centre of Croydon, opposite East Croydon train station. It was designed by R. Seifert & Partners and completed in 1970. It has 24 stories and at 269 feet (82 m) high is Britain's 88th tallest tower. If someone was to convert this into flats, I'd be first in the queue (can you imagine? A lift at the centre, leading to each of the pentagon shaped flats? Genius.) Unfortunately, it is actually office space occupied by AIG (their UK headquarters), Directline Holidays, Pegasus and other companies. The building was refurbished in 2007 including a cleaning of the exterior to rid the smog caused greyness and reveal a gleaming white. As it gets dark, it takes on a new feel - a multicoloured light display illuminates the building as people make their way home or are going out on the tiles. And why do I like it so much? Ugly? Well, kinda - but it depends how you look at it. You can imagine this being the sign of the 'up-and coming commuter town', towering over the Borough. A time when a concrete tower was state of the art and an exciting sign of modernity. I love that, as it's nickname suggests, it really does look like a stack of 50p's left by a giant. It's a unique design, love it or hate it. I like seeing it on the horizon as I commute back from work, so I know I'm nearly home. Whilst I do love the Gherkin, Battersea Power Station, and of course, the Eye, I'm happy for those to be everyone's favourites of landmarks of London, whilst the 50p building, is just one of mine. (many thanks to the Wikipedia entry that educated me so much about this great building)
We talk to Kevin Zuchowski-Morrison of RISE Gallery, Croydon, about his upcoming art projects, from Europe's largest mural to a new underground gallery.
April 1984
Cracking car parks.