The Unexpected Beauty of Croydon

There are easier places to go looking for wildlife, but I like seeing it in unexpected environments. All these photos were taken on the same hot day in July 2026.  Small white butterfly on buddleia outside St George's House The facade of the ends of St George's House will probably be familiar to people who frequent Croydon. The former home of Nestle UK, this 24-storey tower has sadly been empty since 2012. There have been plans to convert it to housing, most recently by using the existing structure as part of three towers of different heights. The interior was gutted and many windows removed, while a number of surrounding buildings were demolished, but the work stalled when the Chinese-owned development company went bust. It is unclear what the future is of this area. There's more detail and photos on this thread on the Skyscraper City forum .  SEGAS House Croydon Neighbouring SEGAS House was originally Croydon's gas showroom, a short distance from the former electricit...

Today it snowed! Sadly it then sleeted, so the snow didn't stick around long. It brought back memories of other times it's snowed here.  2008 The oldest snow photos I have in Croydon are from April 2008. I remember that I'd been in Bristol the previous day sitting in the sun and then when I got back to Croydon, it snowed. The photo below is from Park Hill Park, in the walled garden which is now run by the Friends of Park Hill. You can see Taberner House, since demolished, left of centre behind the trees. 2010 In November 2010, it snowed more heavily and I went out with a friend to take photos. The photo below shows traffic in the town centre heading towards the Flyover, with Taberner House on the right.  East Croydon bus station Snow falling on North End Police station looking unusually picturesque Taberner House from Fairfield Halls forecourt Snowy Almshouses Looking down Barclay Road towards Taberner House Barclay Road crossing by Fairfield Halls Looking up George St towa...

I've been slipping, sliding and squelching my way through Croydon's green spaces recently. Every time I come home, I bring souvenirs with me, in the form of mud. My trouser legs look like Jackson Pollock has had a go at them with some brown paint.  This time of year, there's water everywhere and many of our parks are flooded. I've seen people concerned about this, particularly as parks are especially important at the moment. However, their tendency to flood is a key reason why some of these sites remain public land.  Ashburton Park, Jan 2021 Croydon's green spaces used to have more ponds and lakes than they currently do.  The current "flooding" in Ashburton Park pretty much exactly matches the location of the lake on this map from 1898 ( available on the National Library of Scotland website here ).  Wandle Park was the site of Croydon's first sewage treatment works, however this was short-lived, being replaced by an abbatoir. Despite this insalubrious ...