Croydon Archives - Brockley SE4

Featured local business - Clubtek

Forest

SE23

Hill

I was already a regular visitor to Clubtek’s DJ shop when it was in Penge, but now they're even handier in Stanstead Road, just a few doors down from Shannon’s Garden Centre - another old favourite. It’s by no means just for DJs and bands...

Music Monday: Ewan MacColl, Peggy Seeger and the Critics Group in Beckenham

Jan

2024

In musical terms the folk singer Ewan MacColl (1915-1989) is associated in most people's minds with the Salford where he was raised (the subject of his song Dirty Old Town) and the Scotland of his parents with which he so strongly identified. But many of his most creative years were actually spent in the outer ...

Kick Out Cars in Croydon (1973) and the Croydon Libertarians

Aug

2023

'Croydon Libertarians' were an anarchistic radical left group in the early 1970s. In 1973 they planned a 'Kick Out Cars in Croydon' action involving closing Church Street to Traffic (this was more than 20 years before Reclaim the Streets tried similar tactics in Camden, Islington, Brixton and elsewhere).The action was advertised in the anarchist paper ...

Croydon racist protest outnumbered

Sep

2021

A small far right anti-refugee protest in Croydon was outnumbered by opposition on 4th September. Only around 20 racists got it together to turn up at Lunar House (Home Office UK Visas and Immigration HQ), where they complained about being let down by the no shows and being surrounded by anti-fascists numbering between 150-200.Far right ...

Music Monday: Mott the Hoople ‘Then we went to Croydon’

Mar

2014

I spent Sunday morning running a half marathon round Croydon, or to be more precise the Sandilands/Shirley suburbs of said borough, which got me re-reading Les Back's great appreciation 'So... Fuckin' Croydon', which made me think of 'The Saturday Gigs' by Mott the Hoople...The glam rock band's 1974 single, like their biggest hit 'All the ...

White Panther Party 1972 – ‘hassled by the pigs’ in Abbey Wood and beyond

Feb

2014

The White Panther Party was a radical and anti-racist organisation originally established in the Detroit area in 1968 with the aim of bringing together white radicals to act alongside the Black Panther Party. It had its roots in the counter-culture, with one of its founders being John Sinclair - manager of the proto-punk band the ...

Croydon Westfield shopping centre approved

Nov

2013

Plans to create a new Westfield shopping centre in Croydon, replacing the rather tired Whitgift Centre, have been approved by Croydon Council. It means there will be a new shopping destination at the southern end of the East London Line, but Stratford's already within fairly easy (and cheaper) reach, meaning it's of dubious benefit for ...

EDL splinter group in South London on Saturday

Jul

2013

The English Volunteer Force is a far right splinter group from the English Defence League. Charmingly it takes its name from the murderous Ulster Volunteer Force, responsible for numerous killings during the Irish conflict.On Saturday 27th July 2013 they are planning an anti-immigration protest outside Lunar House (40 Wellesley Rd), the immigration office in Croydon. ...

May Day 2013 – what happened?

May

2013

The Shard shines through the May Day blossom in St Johns Churchyard SE1So how was May Day and the holiday weekend for you? On May Day itself the Fowlers Troop made their way through Deptford and Greenwich with the Jack in the Green - pictured here outside the Rose and Crown in Greenwich.Photo from Diana ...

‘Mad Tracey from Croydon’

Apr

2013

I used to love Tracey Emin. Her breakthrough exhibition at the South London Gallery in Camberwell 'I need Art like I need God' (way back in 1997) really blew me away, and I still think that she has brought some material into the art world boys club that has rarely found expression there before - young ...