THE CROYDON CITIZEN · 2017-05-19 · THE CROYDON CITIZEN The news magazine where you write the...

THE CROYDON CITIZENThe news magazine where you write the stories

December 2016–January 2017Monthly news magazineFREE

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thecroydoncitizen.com2 December 2016–January 2017

Copyright © 2017 Citizen Newspapers Ltd@CroydonCit

Editor-in-ChiefJames Naylor

Managing EditorRob Mayo

General ManagerTom Black

Head of ContentLiz Sheppard-Jones

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thecroydoncitizen.com 3December 2016–January 2017

Copyright © 2017 Citizen Newspapers Ltd @CroydonCit

The nominations for Croydon’s Best Independent Café award are in! We asked you to tell us about your favourite local independent café – good coffee, tasty cake, good ambiance – and we’ve compiled a shortlist from your

nominations. Now we want you to vote for the winner.

Some old favourites from last year’s shortlist – including the People’s Choice Award winner – have made it back on the list this time, and we welcome some new faces as well.

And so we reveal – drum roll – the shortlist for Croydon’s Best Independent Café award, listed alphabetically:

Byte Café at TMRW, 75-77 High Street, CroydonCafé Adagio, 227 Lower Addiscombe Road, Addiscombe

Coffee Craft, Stanley Halls, South NorwoodI Calabresi Caffé, 227 Chipstead Valley Road, Coulsdon

La Spezia, 12 Ye Market, Selsdon Road, CroydonMatthews Yard, 1 Matthews Yard, Croydon

Priscilla’s Tea Room, 52 Limpsfield Road, SandersteadSmoothbean!, 2-3 Dingwall Road, Croydon

The Bus, Gladstone Road, CroydonThe Tram Stop, 231 Lower Addiscombe Road, Addiscombe

Yeha Noha, 19-21 Station Road, South Norwood

As usual, we will present two awards this year – the People’s Choice Award, which you can vote for, and the Judges’ Award, decided by our panel of judges.

Our panel of judges is a group of Croydon locals who have a penchant for coffee, a love of cake and really like sitting around in cafés for a good chat. We love to welcome new members to our judging panel, so if you’d like to join us

please email [email protected] and let us know.

Voting for both awards will close at midnight on 24th January 2017 and we’ll announce the winners in the February issue of the Croydon Citizen and on the website. So, it’s time to get voting.

We’re delighted to see some old favourites back on the shortlist this year, including last year’s People’s Choice Award winner, Café Adagio. But The Tram Stop was a close runner-up last year – can they pip Adagio to the post this time,

particularly in the face of hot competition from other strong candidates on the list? New faces on the list include The Bus, a quirky café in a – yes, you’ve guessed it – big red bus. Byte Café didn’t even exist this time last year and Il Calabresi is another brand new addition, right on the edge of the borough. Get voting now, people, because the

search to find Croydon’s Best Independent Café is on!

Vote now at thecroydoncitizen.com/cafevote16

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Tram derailmentTram derailment near Sandilands kills sevenShortly after 6am on the morning of Wednesday 9th November, tram number 2551 derailed after leaving the Sandilands tunnel. The tram, which was travelling towards central Croydon from New Addington, overturned completely and fell onto its side. Seven people died in the accident, while fifty-eight more suffered injuries, many extremely serious. The derailment was London’s first tram accident to have involved loss of life since 1959.

Public reaction to accident is sombre and widespreadTributes were immediately paid by civic, religious, and political leaders. The Armistice Day ceremony at Croydon town hall’s war memorial saw tributes led by Mayor of Croydon Wayne Trakas-Lawlor, and featured an additional two minute silence for all those affected by the derailment.

Council leader Tony Newman described the accident as “devastating” and praised the reaction of the Croydon community as it stood “in solidarity with all the victims and their families”. Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, who visited the scene within hours of the accident, described it as his “worst day since becoming mayor”. Members of the public have been invited to sign a book of condolence in the town hall, which remains open to signatures at time of going to press.

Rail Accident Investigation Board interim report released amid allegations of other incidentsShortly after the accident, a video from June 2016 emerged which claims to show a driver falling asleep at the controls of a tram. Other allegations spread over social media included a record of an official complaint that another tram had also sped through the Sandilands tunnel, a week before November’s derailment. These are now being investigated by British Transport Police.

Trade union the RMT also claimed that its drivers had been under increasing pressure to run services faster and with smaller gaps. The Rail Accident Investigation Board visited the site immediately and published an interim report within days of the accident, in preparation for a full report due out in approximately one year. For more on the interim report and its recommendations, see Robert Ward’s article on page 5.

Business & Economics £

Shortage of office space for companies seeking to relocate from central LondonVarious news outlets reported the findings of consultant surveyors Sinclair Clark, which said that “less than 3%” of Croydon’s once-over-abundant office space now lies vacant. While much of the decline is due to employers moving to the town and new businesses opening up, the conversion of office space into residential flats has exacerbated the situation. ‘Permitted Development Rights’ (PDR), introduced by the government in 2013, allow developers to transform vacant offices into residential space without applying for planning permission.

The risk posed by PDR – that Croydon would become a so-called ‘dormitory town’ – was explored at length in the September 2015 edition of the Croydon Citizen. Though the council successfully applied to halt PDR in Croydon town centre during that same month, the dwindling amount of office space is now a serious concern for business, community and political leaders in the town. Whilst more office space is now forthcoming (several of the new developments underway in the town centre feature offices), much of it has already been leased in advance by organisations including HMRC.

Community

‘Made In Croydon’ launches local makers’ fairA new community organisation launched earlier in 2016, which aims to ‘promote, commission and offer retail sales routes for artists and designers in Croydon’, held its first event with a makers’ fair inside Boxpark on 25th November. Sixteen stalls displayed merchandise, with new startups making up 40% of attendees. Work on display ranged from that of established designers and artists to local people who had recently made use of the pop-up shop in the Whitgift Centre to start their businesses. The next fair will take place in Centrale on Saturday 17th December.

Transport

Southern rail problems threaten Body Shop’s future in CroydonThe global cosmetics brand, which moved its UK HQ to the town centre this year under the internal headline ‘Moving to Croydon: Surprisingly awesome’, has admitted that it is concerned staff may quit their jobs because

of the issues surrounding Southern and East Croydon. More than 200 staff work at the HQ in Knollys House on Cherry Orchard Road.

The Croydon Advertiser reported that Alex King, head of internal communications and employee engagement at the L’Oréal-owned company, told a debate at the Develop Croydon conference that “our biggest issue is trains”. Employees have been given compensation for the train issues, but this will end in March 2017. With many employees complaining of not being able to see their children or have an after-work life, King spoke of a real worry that widespread departures from the company may be on the horizon.

A spokesperson for Southern operators Govia Thameslink Railway expressed sympathy and called on the railway unions to call off upcoming strikes. For more on the economic dangers for Croydon posed by the ongoing rail problems, see last month’s edition of the Croydon Citizen or visit our website.

TfL fare freeze on buses and trams announced – but it won’t apply to train faresAs promised in his Croydon Manifesto entry (Croydon Citizen, April 2016) and elsewhere, Mayor of London Sadiq Khan has confirmed a four-year fare freeze on TfL services will come

into force in January 2017. Fares on trams and buses in Croydon will therefore not increase above inflation until 2020 at the earliest. However, the detail of the policy sparked controversy when it became clear that fares on Southern services would not be frozen, as TfL (which is controlled by the mayor) does not set fares for mainline rail services.

Croydon South MP Chris Philp accused Khan of not keeping his promise that “every single Londoner” would have their fares frozen. The Croydon Advertiser reported that a spokesperson for the mayor responded that it is not within the mayor’s power to control the fares set by Southern, but is instead the responsibility of the Department for Transport, which Philp as an MP can lobby directly. Another pledge made by Khan during the mayoral campaign – the ‘hopper’ bus fare which allows passengers unlimited bus changes within an hour of first touching in – has now been launched, and applies to bus services in Croydon, as well as to London Trams.

Entertainment

Christmas lights switched on with help from starsCroydon’s Christmas lights were switched on at a crowded event on North End. Crystal Palace manager Alan Pardew and captain Scott Dann were joined by X-Factor finalists Reggie ’n’ Bollie, while the stars of this year’s pantomime warmed up the crowd before a countdown and a successful switch-on of the lights. Other Christmas lights events around the borough included a switch-on of Boxpark’s Christmas lights by So Solid Crew.

The Fairfield Halls pantomime, unable to take place in its usual home thanks to ongoing refurbishments, will be performed in a specially-converted room at Waddon Leisure Centre from 7th to 31st December.

November in briefThe Citizen team compiles some of the noteworthy

events of last month into a handy page

Photo by Made In Croydon CIC, used with permission.

Photo by Peter Trimming, used under Creative Commons licence.



Eskimo Dance is coming to Croydon – we are now London’s coolest borough

Robert Ward takes a look at the interim report into the Sandilands tram accident

The terrible tram crash that occurred on 9th November at the Sandilands junction is still fresh in the memory. This was a dark day for Croydon. Our thoughts and sympathies at this time must be with those affected.

With the publication of the interim report of the Rail Accident Investigation Board (RAIB), we should start to look at how such an accident can be prevented from happening in the future. The report concludes that the cause of the disaster was excess speed through the sharp ninety-degree bend just before Sandilands station. The maximum permitted speed through this turn is 12.5mph, yet the recording device in the tram showed that it was travelling at 43.5mph – more than three times the limit.

So far there is no indication of why the speed was so high, although no problems have been found with either the track or the tram. We should not speculate as to the cause, which will come out in the final report.

On much of Croydon’s tram network, they operate in conditions more akin to a trainThe 12.5mph limit starts at a reflective warning board just 30 metres from the bend. There is currently no requirement for advanced notice of speed limits. This is similar to the requirements for Croydon road users, who are also not given advanced notice of speed restrictions.

Yet on the road, a speed limit sign is sited to be visible from some distance, on a road where a car may be travelling at 50 or 60mph. A tram is much slower to brake than a car. According to the report, at Sandilands a tram travelling at 50mph needs to brake at its full service rate from 180 metres before the board in order to be travelling at 12.5mph at the board. The mitigating factor for trams is that they travel a very restricted route. The driver is expected to know where he is on the route, to be intimately acquainted with the speed requirements, and to proceed appropriately.

But trams do not only operate on the roadway. On much of Croydon’s network, they operate in conditions more akin to a train. Indeed, the route in from New Addington is in a dedicated corridor much like the railway environment. The tram does not encounter road conditions until after the Sandilands stop.

Additional speed restrictions and associated signage have now been installedWhat is also different about a tram is that paying attention to the route ahead is in one sense less critical than for an ordinary road user because a tram runs on rails. There is no need to steer. In the rail-like environment, there is even less incentive to pay attention as – unless there is a fallen tree or a land slip – there is little chance of encountering an obstruction on the route ahead.

Looked at in this light, the Sandilands bend is a particularly high-risk situation. A long section of high speed track where minimal attention is demanded of the driver is followed by an abrupt transition to a very slow speed section where excess speed has disastrous consequences. Little wonder that the RAIB interim report concluded that the trams could not be brought back into service until ‘measures to reduce the risk of trams approaching Sandilands Junction from the direction of New Addington at an excessive speed’ had been introduced.

Additional speed restrictions and associated signage have now been installed. Similar measures have been implemented at three other locations on the tram network. Essentially, these additional speed restrictions give advanced warning of a very low speed restriction, and an associated hazard, further ahead.

The full report will be published next yearThe fact remains that this all relies on the driver paying visual attention to the environment ahead. Irrespective of what occurred in the Sandilands accident, I would hope that the RAIB is at least considering some kind of audible warning for the rare situations, such as at Sandilands, where a long railway-like high speed section ends abruptly with a section requiring a very low speed manoeuvre.

The audible warning must be part of the safety system, as otherwise the driver would be tempted to rely on it as the trigger to pay attention, increasing the risk of an accident should the horn fail. This may not be cheap or quick to install, but it needs at the very least to be considered.

The full report will be published next year. Until then, we must ensure that the RAIB’s initial recommendations are followed through to the letter, and that all parties involved in the operation of our trams remain vigilant against the risks posed when trams – statistically a very safe means of urban transport – travel at high speeds. Those who have suffered deserve no less.

A book of condolence for victims of the accident is available at the town hall. Donations can be made by searching for ‘JustGiving Croydon tram derailment’.

Robert is an engineer and project manager who after starting work on the railway spent most of his career in oil exploration and production. For the last fifteen years he has specialised in helping

businesses improve their performance. Now semi-retired, he moved with his wife to South Croydon ten years ago. He is a member of the Conservative Party, and tweets as @moguloilman.

Improving safety on our trams



It’s my own fault. “Let’s meet for coffee in Boxpark“, I keep saying. Then comes guilt: I’m taking my coffee spend away from great places and great friends who’ve worked hard both to build up their businesses and to bring a quality product to Croydon. Places like Smoothbean! on Dingwall Road. And this is the reward I give for their loyalty and caffeinated love: to put on a metaphorical (or even an actual) short, tight skirt and trip across the road for foamy flirtation with a business with bigger marketing muscles. It’s hard not to feel a bit trashy.

For me, Boxpark Croydon is complicated – and isn’t that true of all the most exciting relationships? We got off on the wrong foot: it stands smack where I used to work. With five other dedicated people who became some of my closest friends over seven years, I shared laughter and tears – both quite literally – and a great deal of sweat to build up a Croydon Visitor Centre to make the town proud. And it did: a lot of people told us so when they heard in spring 2015 that we’d lost our jobs because Big Money was kicking us out.

I find Boxpark worrying. It’s so bigBecause, well, where’s the profit in a building full of volunteers, choirs, toddler groups, gardening clubs, carers’ networks, small businesses, eco-nappy promotions, advice for seniors, help for those with disabilities, masses of coach tickets sales because so many have been priced off the trains and a friendly welcome exactly where people need it to be? Our customers weren’t important enough: too few movers and shakers, just folk in need of a bit of support and help to live a decent life. That’s community, that is. That’s service. But where was the goddamn profit?

Now let’s look forward. The Visitor Centre is gone, Boxpark has taken its place and the C-word is useable in polite conversation. “I

live in Croydon” is no longer a statement you have to explain after the inevitable questions of why – unless you hate yourself very deeply – you would live in a dump like that. Our move from pariah borough to the trendy end of this-is-a-normal-place-to-come-from will take some getting used to. Boxpark is part of the reason for this positive change, and I am grateful.

And I’m positive about Boxpark itself, ’80s-fabulous in black-and-white-with-a-bolt-of-red and Joan Collins-style diagonal stripes. I love its sound system that makes the floor shake, and its strobes like the flashing freeze-frame lights I danced under as a teenager that made us look so edgy. I love the bad-ass ceiling murals in Meat Liquor, and Boxpark gives good beverage: just check out the Department of Coffee and Social Affairs (right now, I’m even pictured on its website). A beer on a summer’s evening on that raised decking will be a fine thing indeed.

I also find the place a bit worrying. Just food – really? It’s so big – photos don’t do it justice. Not all those venues are going to make it. I know there’s a lot of entertainment planned, but right now it’s still full of day-trippers, checking out the Cool New Thing. Will our footsteps ring hollow in its hangar-ish vastness at 10am on a wet January Wednesday? More importantly:

will it really work with Croydon (or for Croydon, or whatever it was

they wrote on the hoarding at the front) or just for itself,

holding its visitors inside and offering nothing to

a central area minus Fairfield Halls for two more years (if you’re an optimist) and where the bulldozers will soon go to work on the

Westfield construction? RISE Gallery, Theatre

Utopia, the Oval, Matthews Yard and the rest can’t

sustain an entire town centre. Boxpark won’t help if it never lets

anyone leave. It feels like a destination, not like a gateway.

I have more, and deeper, misgivings too. I visited Boxpark Shoreditch one Saturday a few weeks ago, to get a sense of the brand, and

the place stopped me in my tracks: pure deja-new in every last detail. It wasn’t just the vibe: the pouty young people serving you, the self-conscious quirkiness, the tyranny of cool that makes you want to replace everything you own so as to have trendier possessions and a more happening sense of personal style. It was that the actual items on sale could have been the same. It was Camden Market, circa 1985.

But this time around, fashion is darker and meaner.

Of course, the world is invented again and again; it will be as long as new eyes look on it. These days, if I criticise anything, my teenage sons tell me brutally that it’s my age: grumbling everything’s gone to the bad is what old ladies do. I’m seeing something they can’t, though: how since I was young, cool has grown crueller. The style-beast always posed with that hard, blank, cat-walking stare. But now, it has blood on its claws.

In my youth, the full-on Foxton was a decade and a half awayI loved the 1980s because I was young, and hated them because I was left-wing. I thought, when they were over, that the world could never be so savage again: the miners’ strike, the laying of Thatcherite waste to lives and communities with unemployment and the on-yer-bike sneers at anyone who protested this, the poll tax and loadsamoney culture; in the city, dawn of the banksters, in the Commons, the horror of Section 28.

But the 1980s were also full of hope. We believed that the battles we fought would be won, against homophobia, tuition fees, the racism of the National Front. Sometimes, we did win. In our personal lives we were free from fear: we claimed social security while we looked for work, women’s refuges weren’t having their funding taken away and the future return of malnutrition to Britain, or a million emergency food parcels (containing three days’ supplies) being given out by a charity in 2015-16, would have seemed like madness.

Things are very different now. The difference is the land.

House prices are linked to land values. In my youth, these were still connected to ordinary earnings: the full-on Foxton was a decade and a half away. I lived for £35.00 a week in Zone 2. Growing older and less groovy, my friends and I bought homes. We could progress in life: it wasn’t difficult on our middling incomes. Whilst we rented, we could save. We hadn’t graduated many thousands in debt. Around us, those who did not buy had other, affordable options. The culture of winners and losers was less ferociously entrenched; society still enabled.

In our age of pass/fail living, cool has become another form of brutality. The safety net of decency is gone. Some of this is politics: one day, it will change. But the land itself has turned against us. As the value of the earth we walk on soars, like a slope growing steeper and steeper, more and more of us lose our footing and start to fall. The common ground that should sustain us casts us out. It will cast out many Croydonians in the months and years ahead.

Croydon’s casual diners on Boxpark’s black and white decking will lead fashionable lives. They will look like winners. Lots of them, of course, won’t own their beautiful apartments. But they’ll manage the astronomical rents somehow and get everything in return except security. Meanwhile the poor are supplied with tiny pods, or privately rent unhealthy, unsafe, overcrowded accommodation, clinging on precariously until the endless upward ratcheting of prices drives them away.

Alongside East Croydon station, we celebrated community in Croydon Visitor Centre. I don’t think we quite realised that’s what we were doing, with our shelves of what’s-on leaflets and schoolchildren outside singing carols at Christmas. But the land was too perfectly located for that. It was too profitable.

Writer and editor. Represented by MBA Literary and Script Agents. Proud member of the Citizen team. You can follow Liz on Twitter@LizSheppardJone. Views

personal, not representative of editorial policy.

On the land where Boxpark standsLiz Sheppard-Jones has a difficult personal relationship with Boxpark

Photo by CDN_zine, used with permission.

Photo author’s own.

7December 2016–January 2017


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Gentrification, a term coined by Ruth Glass in the ’60s, is about the displacement of low-income families and small businesses due to redevelopment and regeneration in a town or city. The media highlights the development and growth of a city due to new business and housing developments, but omits what this means for those already barely surviving in the area.

Croydon’s future looks pretty damned exciting. There’s Boxpark, Westfield, Tech City, the innovation hubs, the transformation of the town centre… but what does this mean for those who have grown up here and and found it an affordable place to live? And what about the small independent bars and chains?

People who have grown up in Croydon feel nostalgic for the low property prices, five shots for the price of one, and breakfasts for under a fiver. No longer: these days, Croydon’s commercial and residential prices are being pushed up and trendy residential spaces are making us the new hub of business, the ‘Silicon Valley of South London’.

It’s our turn, right?You can now attend a Croydon Tech City networking lunch before you head on over to check out 3D printing at super trendy TMRW hub, and wrap it all up with a burger and beer at Matthews Yard. Croydon needs this. It also deserves it: our town is just eighteen minutes from central London, houses some of the country’s largest corporate organisations and is a lively and creative place which never deserved the negative reputation it had for so long.

This is a truly exciting time, full of innovation and promise, and it’s our turn, right? Young professionals, get ready! The solution is Croydon.

You just might not be able to actually afford it.

Who is protecting our low-income residents?Professionals people have commuted from Croydon for years, basing themselves here because of its affordable housing. Perhaps we should follow in the steps of Boston and Philadelphia, who froze residential and commercial taxes for those who have lived in the cities for ten years before regeneration began. The governments of those cities did so to protect and pay dividends to those who stayed through years of high crime, riots, low property values and untidy streets.

And who is protecting our low-income residents? Let’s not all sit in our boardrooms talking about what we are going to do to support lower income groups in Croydon. Let’s ask them: what do they struggle with? What are they worried about?

I spoke to a young couple renting in Croydon who aren’t sure where to go next if their rent is pushed up during the regeneration. They could move further out, but this would have a huge impact on their commute and their social life. And they already spend 80% of their combined income on rent. When they moved here, Croydon was supposed to be their solution, the answer to working in London. Let’s not send them back to Scotland because they can’t afford our rent. And others have more extreme problems: for them, commuting and social quality of life are the least of their worries. Just affording to survive the week is the problem.

Don’t hire from the city, the talent is hereSo what can we do? We shouldn’t just rely on boardroom-dwellers and local government to sort things out. We can’t afford that risk. So I’ve got some ideas.

Firstly: buy local – this has to be the biggest way to support our local economy. We must be advocates of our local talent, of our budding entrepreneurs and our heart-warming local family businesses. Look to the guys in Surrey Street market if you need catering for an event, or fresh produce for your Sunday roast. Pop into pretty little Maurice Hyde in South Croydon for your flowers.

Secondly, if you run a business, don’t use central London-based suppliers. Don’t hire from the city. The talent is here, and there are hundreds of networks that can put you in touch with the right people.

Thirdly, as the large corporations and networks arrive and set up in Croydon, let’s encourage them also to begin to use our local freelance and small business talent.

Kudos to Croydon Tech City, Sussex Innovation Centre and Shaking Hands, all of whom are promoting local business and trading within our lovely town. The change comes from us, though: from individuals who make the decision on where we buy the goods and services we need, on where we source our web developers, and if we buy our morning paper from the shop on the corner of our street.We must balance our excitement for regeneration with an awareness of our current local community and its needs.

Hannah runs Unicorn Events Ltd, an event management agency in South London and has lived and worked in Croydon her whole life. She has 10 years corporate event

experience and is also a published writer. Her weekends are spent with her puppy, a bag of pink foam shrimps and her notebook. She misses Reflex Croydon terribly.

A gentrification manifesto: making it

work for CroydonThere’s much to celebrate about what’s coming next for our town.

Let’s make it work for all of us, says Hannah Luffman

c

Artwork by Joanna Steele for the Croydon Citizen.



Sponsored article

The Croydon companies doing business with social purpose

13April 2016


Sponsored article

Have You Got the Next Big Idea?

Sussex Innovation Croydon are on the lookout for the next big thing. If you believe you have a high growth

potential idea then we want to make it happen.

Any groundbreaking idea needs support to help it develop. That’s why Sussex Innovation Croydon offers

a full range of business support, from marketing and strategy to providing a team of graduates that

can join your team to lend an extra pair of hands.

All of this plus an entrepreneurial community, professional facilities and an ever expanding events calendar.

Want to find out more?

Visit www.sinc.co.uk or call 0203 828 1300

Welcome to the Sussex Innovation – Croydon community page. This new regular feature in the Citizen is where you can catch up on the latest comment and news from your local business incubator, as well as finding out more about our upcoming events, and profiles of the exciting businesses that we’re working with in Croydon.

Strong community organisations such as the Croydon Citizen and Croydon Tech City are a big part of what is making the borough such a vibrant and exciting place to work right now. Six months on from opening our site at the ‘50p building’, we’re delighted to have built great partnerships with both, and look forward to continuing the upward trajectory of Croydon’s business and tech ecosystem together.

We’re keen to speak with everybody who’s part of that ecosystem, so if you haven’t had a chance to meet with us yet, please come and stop by – either at one of our events, or just for a coffee and a chat with one of our team. The more connections we make, the more we can work together to take Croydon even further.

Mike Herd, Executive Director of Sussex Innovation

The protection of athletes from the risk and effects of concussion is a hot-button issue at the moment, with new safety guidelines and proposed rule changes in children’s rugby having recently made national headlines and been debated in Parliament. Concussion management specialists Return2Play are emerging as industry leaders and authorities on the subject.

Since launching in 2015, Return2Play have developed a software system to help schools and grassroots clubs comply with guidelines for the treatment of suspected concussion, by facilitating access to medical professionals, monitoring players’ recovery, and helping them to return to play safely and efficiently.

The company were recently confirmed as finalists at the prestigious Sports Technology Awards, a celebration of the most exciting and innovative organisations in sport. Return2Play were nominated in the ‘Best New Concept’ category, alongside globally established sports technology businesses including Hawk-Eye and BT.

“The whole team is thrilled,” said CEO and co-founder Nick Somers. “Being nominated in this category, alongside some heavyweight names in the field of technological innovation in sport,

is real proof of the value of what we are doing. It’s important that we all think about how to use technology, not just to change the way in which we play and watch sport, but also to ensure the health and safety of athletes at every level of the game.”

The concept has quickly garnered high profile support, establishing a multidisciplinary advisory board to consult on medical and sports administration issues, and securing Wasps and England rugby union player Elliot Daly as an ambassador for the brand.

Last month, an open letter from a group of sports scholars, academics, doctors and public health professionals was published in The Guardian calling for a ban on tackling in schools rugby. “Improving the safety of sport is high on the agenda for all,” said Dr Sam Barke, Return2Play’s Medical Director, in response. “Radical changes to the very nature of the game, without clear evidence, is not the way forward.

“Governing bodies, including the Rugby Football Union, take player welfare extremely seriously and regularly make improvements to enhance safety. Emerging organisations such as ours ensure that amateur players can access the best care if injuries do occur. We believe that our players are safer than ever.”

Member focus

Events round-upSussex Innovation – Croydon hosts a regular programme of events to share the experiences and insight of its community of entrepreneurs and business support professionals. The monthly ‘Innovation Eat-Up’ sessions are an informal lunchtime seminar series covering a range of different business topics, while quarterly ‘Innovation Conversations’ are a chance for Sussex Innovation’s many alumni to tell their entrepreneurial stories.

Events in recent months have included:

Innovation Eat-Up / Getting Investment Ready: David Porter, Investor Readiness Advisor and organiser of Sussex Innovation’s Lean Investment Panel, gave advice on what the investment community looks for when deciding which businesses to fund. The main takeaways were that investors are more excited by a credible management team than simply a great idea, and that businesses need to be aware of the length of time it usually takes to secure investment – between 9 and 12 months.

Innovation Eat-Up / PR and Content Strategy: Joseph Bradfield, PR and Communications Advisor, and Evadney Campbell, founder of members Shiloh PR, discussed how small businesses can achieve great marketing results in a cost-effective way by marshalling their resources and insight. Joseph stressed the importance of communicating a clear and unique message, and sharing information that audiences are likely to find either interesting, useful or entertaining.

Innovation Eat-Up / How to Grow your Business: Executive Director Mike Herd explored what it takes to scale a business; the systems and operational structures that need to be put in place while growing rapidly. Posing the question “how do you go from £100k per year to £100k per month?” he pointed out that start-ups tend to be intrinsically linked to the personality of their founder, which often causes them to come unstuck as they grow. Instead, entrepreneurs must look to establish a strong company culture and build a complementary management team around themselves. Watch the video at: http://www.sinc.co.uk/event-detail/innovation-eat-how-grow-your-business

Innovation Conversations / Big Data in Healthcare: Sussex Innovation alumnus Mark Bailey explained how he discovered a ‘hidden sector’ in the pharmaceuticals industry and went on to pioneer a global health informatics business using the latest methods of harnessing patient data. His company, Sciensus was able to better inform the development of new products and treatments for patients.

Having started a business after working in the corporate world, Mark noted that establishing robust financial management and processes in the initial stages helped to make his business more credible. Ultimately, he reaped the benefits of this approach when Sciensus was acquired by a large international healthcare company. Watch the video at: http://www.sinc.co.uk/event-detail/innovation-conversations

Thursday 14th April 6-9pm Digital Croydon – networking for Croydon’s developer communityWednesday 20th April 8.30 -10am Supercharge your Application for the Croydon Business Excellence Awards 2016Wednesday 20th April 12-1pm Innovation Eat-Up / Crowdfunding Models and PlatformsThursday 12th May 6-9pm Digital Croydon

Wednesday 18th May 12-1pm Innovation Eat-Up / Academic Collaboration Thursday 26th May 6-9pm Seedrs ‘How to run a Successful Crowdfunding Campaign’Thursday 9th June 6-9pm Digital Croydon Wednesday 15th June 1-2pm Innovation Eat- Up / What is Innovation?

Visit www.sinc.co.uk/events for more information and bookings, and follow us on Periscope @SI_Croydon.

Upcoming events

The reason that our organisation exists is to deliver economic growth and help to create jobs. We also have a responsibility to do what we can to ensure that growth happens in the right way. That means helping to grow sustainable businesses that will have a real positive impact on the region as a whole.

That’s why we were happy recently to have the opportunity to host a London Living Wage event at our hub in No. 1 Croydon, in partnership with the Living Wage Foundation. We’re proud to count ourselves among the companies that committed to paying the London Living Wage, alongside two of our fastest-growing members, Intcas [see bottom right] and Hawk Wargames.

Many people in Greater London have reservations about ‘growth for growth’s sake’, and the unintended consequences that economic regeneration can have on communities. Thankfully, here in Croydon we’re seeing a cohort of start-ups and scale-ups which have a real sense of local pride and are determined to embed social purpose as part of their company culture. It’s a privilege to be able to witness this first-hand by talking to local businesses every day about their growth and aspirations.

Recent figures released by accountancy group UHY Hacker Young have shown Croydon to be experiencing the fastest economic growth in the UK, driven by a £5.25bn programme of investment and a thriving start-up and technology environment. As our partners at Croydon Tech City are telling the world, this is London’s fastest growing tech cluster, with more than 1,500 technology businesses based in the borough, a number that is rising all the time. Croydon saw an annual growth rate of 9.3% in gross value added over the past year, topping the list of 173 regions nationally.

But the best news of all for Croydon is how we are managing that growth, when compared to the regeneration projects that have taken place across many of the boroughs to the north in recent years. Both the local council and many of the companies launched during Croydon’s boom have demonstrated an ongoing commitment to responsible business, with an emphasis on sharing the benefits of economic growth with the wider community.

Company profile: Intcas

Intcas has been identified as Croydon’s first potential ‘unicorn’ – that is, a technology company valued at more than $1bn. Founded by local businessman Zakaria Mahmood, Intcas has built a platform and support infrastructure that allows schools, colleges and universities from across the world to work collaboratively to attract, recruit and manage international students.

The business has built up an enviable global network of education partners, and is poised to launch its platform into some 6,000 institutions worldwide in 2017. Mr Mahmood is passionate about creating a sense of social purpose for his company and its employees.

“Our priority is creating value for society, not just for our shareholders”, he says. “Of course we want our business to be successful, but for the right reasons. In my view, the purpose of all enterprise is to create growth – not just for the few, but for everybody. I was the first in my family to go to university, and the only reason that that could happen was because of someone paying their taxes to afford me that opportunity.

I believe in that system, that’s why our business is responsible about paying its taxes, and also about paying our staff well – because they will then go out into Croydon and have a disposable income to spend in other local businesses. The good wages which we pay will help other businesses grow, create more social and economic activity locally, and ultimately raise even more taxable income.

If I have a vision for Croydon, it’s that we could be a model sustainable ecosystem. An example of how the private, public and third sectors can all work together to make life better for their local communities, and help everyone share in the benefits of economic growth. I want other towns and boroughs to look at Croydon and say ‘that’s the right way to do things, we can do that too’.”

The ‘Good Employer’ initiative

While a high proportion of Croydon’s businesses buy into a vision of regeneration for the good of the community, efforts to do so have been driven by the local council, whose ‘Good Employer’ initiative has helped to create a network around the concept and formalise an approach to responsible business.

Their ‘Good Employer’ Charter, created following a series of listening sessions with local companies, has four key principles:

Pay the London Living Wage – supported by the Living Wage FoundationHire and develop local talent – supported by Croydon Works (Croydon Council’s job brokerage)

Spend local – supported by Value Croydon (Croydon Council’s procurement service)

Include all by implementing equality, diversity and employee support best practice

Ben HoltDirector of Sussex Innovation Croydon

Sussex Innovation Croydon hosted its first special interest group ‘Innovating HR’ on 23rd November. HR professionals from a range of large organisations were in attendance as an expert panel discussed some of the newest trends and emerging innovations at the cutting edge of employee engagement, wellbeing, and learning and development.

The keynote speech was delivered by Clodagh O’Reilly of IBM, who was recently rated the fifth most influential person in the future of HR by Node XL. Clodagh argued that in an evolving workforce with increasing numbers of digital natives, managing and engaging people effectively is becoming more crucial to the success of businesses than ever before.

“Your workforce now expects to have access to better information, they expect greater transparency, and they expect more crossover between their work and their life as a whole. This is why finding meaningful work that suits their abilities and preferences is so important to them. If their company can’t give them that, they’ll go somewhere else.”

The audience also heard presentations from four members of the Sussex Innovation network on the workplace challenges that they are addressing to help organisations attract and retain better skilled and more motivated staff.

Mark Arneill, director of learning transfer and performance improvement software company Lentum, spoke first. He discussed the need for better tools to track employees’ professional development and continuously appraise their skills and strengths. Mark highlighted the statistic that “currently, only 10-20 percent of employees’ formal learning ends up being applied in the workplace”, and spoke about the disconnection between the most common methods of learning transfer and the most successful ones. A body of research demonstrates that the biggest influences in the learning transfer process are line manager engagement, goal setting and motivating both learner and line manager, yet these continue to be the least used methods.

The next innovator to speak was Ravi Daswani, director of GenieTeams, who described his journey from Google and running sales teams at Facebook to co-founding a company dedicated to helping teams work more effectively. Pointing out that “understanding personalities is the most essential component of building successful teams”, Ravi explained how GenieTeams’ platform maps the psychological strengths and weaknesses of individuals onto specific project requirements with tangible data and insights.

Luke Fisher, CEO of ThanksBox, questioned “why our understanding, the experiences that we create and the frequency at which we capture feedback from our customers has advanced so significantly in recent years when compared to the workplace”. Luke passionately expressed that the annual employee engagement survey is no longer enough to help us engage and retain our top talent. Thanksbox is helping organisations to improve levels of employee engagement with real-time insights, no lengthy surveys, and a suite of tools that employees love.

Finally, Frank Mukahanana explained why he has moved on from the successful peer-to-peer lending platform which he founded to launch Savvney, a consultancy delivering workplace personal finance education. Describing personal finance as “the next frontier for workplace wellbeing”, Frank explained that financial stress is something that many people are too embarrassed to bring up at work, but which causes 46% of us to worry, and 1 in 5 to lose sleep.

The event was well received by the HR professionals in attendance, many of whom stayed to participate in a Q&A session and for one-to-one conversations with the innovators who presented. Sussex Innovation will build on the success of this special interest group in 2016 with further events and peer-to-peer knowledge sharing opportunities. Contact [email protected] with the subject line ‘Innovating HR’ if you would like to find out more.

The future of HR debated at Sussex Innovation Croydon



Develop Croydon ostracises the very community that makes Croydon worth developing

Local businessman Devin Stephenson isn’t impressed with what Develop Croydon represents

Every November, hundreds of speculative property developers and investors descend on Croydon for the Develop Croydon conference.

Many delegates arrive looking to buy properties and land, and use them to build luxury apartments that local people can’t afford. With many tickets to the event costing £395, it’s clear that the Croydon general public is unwelcome. As far as I can tell from the descriptions on the website, very few of the speakers at Develop Croydon were from the Croydon community: they don’t live here or shop here or have any ties to the area beyond a profit motive.

Yet these are the people that have been chosen to speak for Croydon – and offer the town up to be built on, demolished or reused as these out-of-towners see fit.

The hundreds of colourful public murals that we all enjoy are a result of the work of locals that live, work and breathe CroydonWhich is a shame, isn’t it? Particularly as nearly everything that’s making Croydon marketable and desirable to people like this has been the result of Croydonians on the ground who have invested their own time, money and efforts to make the borough a better place.

I am a Croydonian born and bred. I spend my days with my videography business and brand Devoland documenting the people of the borough who have invested their lives into making it better for all. People like Kevin of RISE Gallery. These people were not onstage at Develop Croydon.

What about the arts? It’s people like Kevin, and Alice Cretney of TURF Projects, that have worked hard to create a grassroots art scene in Croydon. Those hundreds of colourful public murals that we all enjoy as we walk around each day, those art galleries that make Croydon unique, are not the work of random architects and consultancies, but locals that live, work and breathe Croydon.

I don’t believe that Develop Croydon should suddenly be given over to shouting matches with disgruntled members of publicWhat about the tech scene? Croydon didn’t become ‘the Silicon Valley of South London’ because of the new TMRW workspace on the High Street – it was because of the Croydon Tech City organisation that worked for years to build up a community of hundreds of volunteers from tech professions, relocated startup businesses here, run free events and classes to help educate locals, and has put Croydon in the national papers and the BBC. None of the CTC team was on this year’s tech panel.

I’ve seen how Croydon has changed over the years. I’ve seen it become the UK’s fastest growing economy, I’ve seen it become a centre of street art, and many other good things. But I’ve also seen the rise in food banks, independent businesses being pushed out by rapacious developers and being made homeless.

I don’t believe that Develop Croydon should suddenly be given over to shouting matches with disgruntled members of public. Croydon has learned the hard way that that rarely helps anyone. But it’s not unreasonable to expect some of the day to discuss the impact of their investments. Developers should be considering how they can support people like Bobski’s Kitchen, rather than making life more difficult for them. After all, it’s these very same businesses and business owners that make Croydon a place worth developing in the first place.

The Develop Croydon conference took place in November. It should have been an opportunity for the Croydon community to dialogue with, learn from, and educate the people that are carving up our town for their benefit. Instead, the Develop Croydon conference and the speakers that participate ostracised the long-term community for short-term profit.

Devin Stephenson is a Croydon native and one half of Croydon-based vlogging duo Devoland.



The Develop Croydon conference took place on 22nd November, drawing together council members, developers, architects, investors, occupiers and community interest groups to discuss the town’s regeneration and offer the opportunity for delegates to learn about the finer detail behind the exciting plans for the town’s future.

As is often the case for these type of events on a national and local scale, the conference came in for criticism amongst members of the public, as seen in various articles published on the Citizen website in November. At the extreme end, the group known as ‘Class War’ organised a protest to coincide with the conference lunch at Boxpark, which drew extra resources and time from the police and extra expense from organisers Develop Croydon to provide security for the event.

I attended the conference on behalf of Develop Croydon, which is a client of mine. I’m pleased to report that the day passed peacefully and indeed, successfully.

The forum is open, for a joining fee, to any relevant business located in CroydonThe concerns raised in the Citizen point to a misunderstanding of the intention of the Develop Croydon conference and the principles of the organisation behind it, the Develop Croydon Forum.

Formed in 2011, the Develop Croydon Forum is a not-for-profit Community Interest Company made up of more than 60 interested businesses, community groups and government organisations. The forum is open, for a joining fee, to any relevant business located in Croydon and companies based outside the borough with a significant interest.

The forum runs events throughout the year, including the Develop Croydon conference and represents the borough at MIPIM, the annual international property forum. All events are paid for by the forum members and any extra revenue is put back into the company.

More than half the delegates attended free of charge, with a considerable number of free tickets not taken upThe seventh edition of the Develop Croydon conference was a commercially-run event, and the costs of hosting more than 200 delegates, speakers and support staff across five different locations (with usual venue Fairfield Halls out of action) are understandably considerable. Therefore, the ‘standard ticket’ was priced at £395 + VAT. There were heavily reduced rates (less than one third of the standard price) for attending individual workstreams, and further discounts available above and beyond that. By far the majority of the revenue which paid for the event came from its sponsors, individual forum members and private companies, who between them covered around two thirds of the costs of the event.

Perhaps more importantly, more than half of the delegates attended free of charge, with a considerable number of free tickets available not taken up. Free ticket offers were made to Croydon Chamber of Commerce, Croydon Tech City, the Croydon Citizen and numerous other guests.

Much of the criticism levelled at the conference revolved around the perceived lack of engagement with Croydon residents. With Croydon Council, elected by Croydon residents, being both a member of the Develop Croydon Forum and providing the largest number of guests for a single organisation (and seven speakers), the conference endeavoured to place the council and the community it represents at the heart of the day.

It was abundantly clear that the event revolved around creating a place where people want to live and workMany of the companies and organisations attending the day and speaking at the conference represent community interests or exist solely to serve community needs. Government organisations such as the GLA and TfL provided guests and speakers, and affordable housing developers, housing associations, charities and business groups (for both start-ups and established companies) were all represented.

Devin Stephenson’s article claims that very few of the speakers represent Croydon, but over a third of speakers either live in, work in or hail from the town with several more having a long association which goes far beyond business interests.

Many questions focused upon community interests: particularly in the debate on housing, where Brick by Brick, the development company which has the council as its sole shareholder, presented, and the subsequent panel debate which focused on providing fair and affordable housing achievable for all.

It will never be perfect, and the conference will never be able to invite all 380,000 residents of CroydonWhilst clearly the conference sought to attract developers and investors, it was abundantly clear that the event revolved around creating a place where people want to live and work. As I’ve mentioned in articles numerous times before, property development is very far from a quick and easy way to make a profit. It takes passion, dedication and patience and like the vast majority of us, investors/developers want to do a good job.

A good property development is not one which only makes profit and leaves no legacy. With potential developments subject to thorough investigation via the planning process at (elected) local level and if needed regional (the GLA) and national level, there are built-in mechanisms to secure good quality development, although the process is of course not without flaws. The newly appointed Croydon Place Review Panel, one of the chairs of which spoke at the conference, adds an extra guarantee of quality, especially with regards to the public realm.

Future conferences and indeed the forum will continue to strive to bring together those companies which have the ability and the passion to create a better Croydon for all, including residents and employees. It will never be perfect, and the conference will never be able to invite all 380,000 residents of the borough. What Develop Croydon will continue to do is collectively promote Croydon as the fantastic place to live, work and play that it deserves to be.

Contributing a variety of roles to the Citizen since early 2013, Tom now focuses upon regeneration, urbanism and real estate writing. After three years spent working within the real estate industry, he now works in regeneration and PR following a move back to Croydon.

Not for profit: Develop Croydon has community

at its core

Tom Lickley addresses criticism levelled at the Develop Croydon

Conference



The event

From the beginning, a big part of the Citizen has been about proposing solutions to the town’s problems. So, in July 2014 we launched a unique, long-running campaign to publish actionable suggestions for improving the town. All that readers had to do was tell us what one way they would make Croydon better.

Ideas ranged from the complex to the very simple, but all ideas published through the campaign had to meet our crucial definition of being something that someone could actually do rather than broad-brush manifesto promises or a vague commitment to improve the status quo. Not all of them required someone in a senior position in local government or business. Many could be achieved through collaboration between neighbours, communities or friends.

The need for real, achievable change, steered by the community, has never been greater. Big organisations in the public and private sectors are transforming our town centre and the borough at large. As the front cover says, it’s now up to us – as a community – to make ourselves heard. It’s up to us to do what we can to shape the future and make this a great town for everyone.

So this month we bring that campaign to a conclusion. Now, we’re forming your ideas into a blueprint for a better town, and presenting it to Croydon’s key decision-makers.

In January we will publish a book containing all of these ideas along with details of how they could work. Then on 27th January 2017 we will present copies of the book in person to a group of senior decision-makers in Croydon. Council leader Tony Newman, Croydon Council’s chief executive Jo Negrini and cultural director Paula Murray will be joined by other influential figures from the public, charitable and private sectors. They will receive the book and begin exploring how to put as many ideas into practice as possible. It will also be made available for download as a PDF from the Croydon Citizen website.

As time goes by we will review and report on what progress has been made, both by these influencers and by the wider community, and chronicle how this blueprint becomes a reality.



Read all the submitted ideasRestore the mosaic on the corner of Sydenham Road and Dingwall Road Permit cycling in public parks Clamp down on mobile phone usage by drivers Introduce central London style street signage End the dropping of cigarette butts Make the strip of ground alongside Wellesley Road tramstop a part of the pavement Make spitting unacceptable in Croydon Keep Croydon’s signage and street furniture clean Formalise the collection of reusable dumped items A Croydon Airport-themed café when Fairfield Halls re-opens Litter awareness classes in schools Improve trade waste collections Make East Croydon station safer by design Kit out the new Fairfield Halls for the hard of hearing Zero tolerance for littering Remove signs telling children not to play Provide listings of venues where children can eat free Educate the public about litter caused by free daily newspaper distribution Change East Croydon station to stop people running for trains Employ a town crier Upgrade bus travel information at East Croydon station Remove or change the pedestrian light system at Newgate Roundabout Open an Edwardian tea room Support the campaign for Play Streets in Croydon Introduce community-curated spaces Poetry on the walls Move the advertising board in George Street Install a fountain Guide visitors through the town with painted lines from East Croydon station Outdoor cinema in Exchange Square Transform highrise buildings and go green with vertical gardens Get behind Croydon’s cultural programme Get Croydon on the underground at last Re-invigorate Croydon’s public arts programme and reap the benefits Understand the power of words and use them positively Use hoardings around building sites as artistic canvases Introduce cargo trikes for hire Bacterial handwash Uplift Croydon’s street design spec Make London Road a chefs’ paradise Learn from how other countries’ cycle lanes work to make Croydon greener and safer Bring The Real Junk Food Project to the streets of Croydon Using tram signage to promote Croydon’s history and environment Discounted fares on contra-flow trains between Croydon and Central London Foster friendliness by looking our fellow Croydonians in the eye London Living Wage Advertise ethnic food stores Free reusable nappies Concrete table tennis tables in Exchange Square Bike tours Write our addresses as Croydon, London The Pump Station arts hub Drinking fountains Left luggage at East Croydon Council-sponsored pop-up Culture department Bike hub Upcycling classes Truth serum Use public realm signage to promote our Fairtrade status Build an environmental centre in the defunct pumping house in Exchange Square Establish an urban mushroom farm in a reasonably central location

More details on all the proposals will be published in a Citizen-printed book in January 2017. Check the Croydon Citizen website for more information.



Festiveedition

Christmas time is here and that means it’s time for lots of food. When people think of the big day, they think of turkey first, and we’re surrounded by suggestions on how to get the best

out of our bird. What goes along with it can all get a bit unimaginative.

But for me it’s all about the accompaniments – especially the roast potatoes and (controversially for some) the much-derided sprouts. After all, a turkey’s a turkey: it’s the trimmings that can take it to a whole new level.

For these festive Surrey Street treats, I’m using the market’s potatoes and Brussels sprouts. To try and be helpful, I’ve split each recipe up into what you can do before and what you have to do on the day so you can spend more time out of the kitchen. But I haven’t included amounts because it’ll all depend on how many you need to feed. I’ve also taken inspiration from all the food programmes I watch (perhaps a little obsessively), particularly the festive ones, so these recipes are a mish-mash of tips from some of my favourite TV cooks.

The recipe: prep-ahead roast potatoes

The whole idea of prepping your potatoes the day before is an idea I’ve borrowed from Mary Berry.

Ingredients from the market: potatoes.

Ingredients from the kitchen: vegetable (or sunflower) oil.

A day before

1. Peel and chop your potatoes. I borrow a Nigella suggestion to get maximum surface area for crisping up. I chop them in half long-ways, then take Nigella’s advice and slice them into three sections, as if you were chopping them into 3D triangles.

2. Put them in a big pan of salted water (sometimes, if I fancy it, I might also prick a peeled garlic clove or two and put those in the water too). Then bring the water to the boil.

3. How long you boil your potatoes for will depend on how many you have – either way you’ll need to keep them in until you can put a knife in and out of one easily enough.

4. Now you have to drain them, which doesn’t sound important, but it really is: you need to completely drain them, so there’s no water left in them at all. (I borrowed this from Tom Kerridge.) So that means making the room to spread them out rather than just leaving them in the colander. You could lay them out on wire racks, as if you were cooling cakes. Then leave them until they’re cold.

5. Now you have to store them away. I lay them out on a baking tray and baking paper and leave them uncovered in the fridge until I need them. (My Good Food magazine says you can even put them in the freezer – you’ll just have to let them cook in the oven for 10-15 minutes longer.)

The big day

When?

I usually get my roast potatoes in once I’ve taken the meat out to rest. (If you cover it in some foil and a tea towel, it’ll keep its heat before you carve it.) When they’re ready, you should have everything else ready to take out to the table.

How?

1. If I was being true to Nigella, at this point I’d be telling you to put goose fat into the roasting tray you’re going to use. (And if you like them that way, go for it.) But I just stick to pouring a layer of basic vegetable oil into the tray, then putting that into the already hot oven. (For the potatoes, I usually have it around 220 degrees).

2. After around 10 minutes, once the oil is hot, carefully lay your potatoes (straight from the fridge or freezer) into the oil. But watch out because the combination of cold potato and hot oil can really make the oil spit. Make sure you’re not crowding too many on the tray – spread them out in one layer, then (carefully again) coat them in some of the oil.

3. Put them in the oven for around an hour, or until golden enough for you, remembering to turn them every now and again so you get each side crispy. Then serve.

The recipe: bacon Brussels sprouts

Now, this is pimping up your sprouts in true Nigella style.

Ingredients from the market: Brussels sprouts.

Ingredients from the kitchen: bacon, butter, wine, onion, chestnuts.

A day before

1. Peel your sprouts. Now, lots of people put little crosses into the bottom of them. But on the advice of Mr Ramsay – unless it’s a whopper of a sprout – I don’t. By putting the cross in, you’re just encouraging water to get into the sprout and make it the sort of soggy sprout that people hate.

2. Pop them into a pan of boiling water for five minutes. You’re going to be heating them again on the day, so don’t worry if they still have a little bit of bite. After five minutes, take them out and run them under the cold tap so they stop cooking.

3. Now you’ve got a lot of chopping to do, so getting it all out the way before the heat of the big day makes things much easier. Finely chop some onion, break up some chestnuts and slice bacon into little rectangles. Then store them all separately and stick them in the fridge.

4. Once your sprouts are completely cool, put them in the fridge too.

The big day

When?

This is one of the last things to do because you want the sprouts to come out hot to the table. To help things along, take everything out of the fridge a while before so you’re starting with it at room temperature.

How?

1. Put a pan on the hob and throw in your bacon pieces – keep frying them until they’re crisp enough for you. Once they’re ready tip them out into a bowl.

2. Now you should have meaty flavour stuck to your pan, so while it’s still on the heat pour in a quick slug of either water or wine. It’ll bubble up a bit and you can stir around to scrape any of the meaty bits up off the pan. (If you go for wine, make sure you let it bubble enough to cook the alcohol off.)

3. Once there’s not much liquid left in the pan, add a touch of butter then add your onions. Let them soften for a few minutes.

4. Tip in your sprouts, chestnuts and bacon then stir everything until it’s all hot and coated. Then serve them in a big bowl on the table.

All that’s left to do is eat your Surrey Street treats, enjoy your festive feast and have a very merry Christmas.

Potatoes photo public domain, sprouts photo by sling@flickr, used under Creative Commons licence.



I approached the slow emergence of Boxpark with some scepticism, especially with regard to the ever-shifting opening date. The last minute appearance of a lonely JCB on the site around the end of February this year didn’t help either.

However, since it opened I must have been there more than ten times, and only one or two of those was for a quick pint in the uncompromisingly rough and ready – but endearingly lager-free – Cronx Bar. The latter has become a bit of a favourite, not least because rather like Matthews Yard it’s almost impossible to pop in without bumping into someone you know, or at the very least recognise. Even some of the bar staff seem to have been recycled from other well-known Croydon haunts.

It was a cold evening a little while ago when I found myself in possession of a couple of tickets to the dubstep evening which in the end turned out to be in the Boxbar at the station end of the development. In those early days it was unclear whether entry to the whole enclosed part required tickets, as was the case for the opening festival weekend.

I’d taken in the NME event on the Sunday having passed on the opportunity to pay good money for the Eskimo Dance grime extravaganza. Fortunately Paul Dennis covered that most effectively so that the rest of us didn’t have to, for which we should be grateful. Of the acts I saw on the Sunday, the Nova Twins in particular stood out, think Rage Against The Machine with a female London vibe.

My companion’s choice of grilled corn-fed chicken was reported to be tasty, with its amarillo chilli marinade and served with freekeh pilafHaving arrived in good time and managing to rendezvous with an equally hungry friend, we set about deciding where to eat. It was certainly a bonus to be eating with someone decisive as my fears of having to check more than thirty different menus were unfounded. ‘Fixed’ can hardly be considered a chain, its first and only other branch opened in Northcote Road near Clapham Junction earlier this year. It manages to differentiate itself from the other smaller units at Boxpark by being aimed solely at eat-in diners, managing to provide a cosy environment out of two adjoining shipping containers. ‘Fixed’ is based on the typical French prix fixe principle, although with a slight departure as you are able to choose freely from starters (£5), mains (£10), sides (£4) and desserts (£3), the fixed element being that each of these are priced identically. The starters failed to appeal so we launched straight into the mains.

Even though I was beginning to thaw out from the cold outside, I couldn’t resist flat iron steak on a bed of puy lentils, which was served with garlic and tarragon butter. A side of root vegetable gratin rounded things off nicely; the steak was cooked perfectly in accordance to my requirements. My companion’s choice of grilled corn-fed chicken was reported to be tasty, with its amarillo chilli marinade and served with freekeh pilaf. Her choice of green beans with shallots and mustard also proved to be a sound one. We both elected to have large glasses of house red wine, perfectly palatable and fair value at £6.50 for 250ml. A shared dessert of ‘vertical whipped mango cheesecake’, which turned out to be a cheesecake in a sundae glass, finished things off. The total bill of £44 seems to be pretty good value for what was good quality food, cooked well.

By the time the Sunday arrived I was ready to look at less expensive options, and in the realm of Boxpark there are few choices if you want to satisfy your hunger and get much change from a tenner. Greek on the Street is a new venture from the small The Real Greek chain and is also outside of the main Boxpark arena, facing onto Dingwall Road.

I’m sure that this will make it a good option for local office workers especially as their standard offering of Greek flatbread served with a variety of options starts at £4.95. I opted for a healthy falafel but perhaps undermined it with a side of chips with feta, which added £2 to the total. All delicious, and washed down with a pint of the Alpha Omega lager which is brewed specially for the group by Shepherd Neame.

Meat options are freshly prepared to order and offer a far wider variety, there being a choice of four fillings once you have decided which meat or sausage you want. Their focus is on authenticity and fresh ingredients, and larger meals are available either to eat on the premises or as a Greek Box to take away. I’m looking forward to returning soon to try the rest of the menu.

By the way, the dubstep in the Boxbar turned out to be pretty good.

Ian is a product designer who moved to the borough in 2003. His interests in all things Croydon stretch from being on the committee of the Constructing Excellence

Croydon Club to active membership of the Croydon Clandestine Cake Club. During the day he works on his interior lighting businesses which are also based in Croydon. In the unlikely event that he has any leisure time, he enjoys creating ceramic pieces and playing bass guitar. Any opinions expressed here are personal.

Culinary discovery in the early days of

Boxpark Ian Marvin went hunting in Croydon’s newest smorgasbord

and came away satisfied

Cycling Made Easy ad



Jess Bashford’s Surrey Street Treats recipe series brings Citizen readers fresh, foodie suggestions using

ingredients from Croydon’s famous market, a medieval treasure that’s served our community since it gained

its Royal Charter in 1276.

The recipe Healthy January saladI know that salads normally make you think of fresh greens and summer, but there are ways to eat fresh and raw and still keep warm in winter. If you’re looking to get healthier after a surfeit of rich Christmas food, but still want to fill up on cold wintry days, Surrey Street’s fresh ingredients are a great place to start.

I’ve used sweet potatoes from Surrey Street as the main part of my healthy January salad, and I’ve added lots of my other favourite ingredients. But if I’ve used something you’re not too keen on, just swap it out for something else. (I know that not everyone likes the pong of goat’s cheese.)

Ingredients from the market:

two large-ish sweet potatoes.

Ingredients from the kitchen:

two rashers of bacon, a drained tin of butter beans, two or three handfuls of spinach, 50g goat’s cheese.

Method1) To get ahead, bake your sweet potatoes in the oven for around an hour at 220 (or until they’re soft). I stick them in when I have the oven on for something else, so that I have time to let them cool before I use them.

2) You can do this ahead, too: grill your bacon, let it cool, then slice it into thin, small pieces.

3) Before you throw it all together, you just need to prep a couple more things. Cut your sweet potato into bitesize chunks, and chop and crumble your cheese.

4) Now you’re ready to put it all together. Tumble your beans, potatoes, spinach, bacon

and cheese into a large bowl and toss them all together.

5) Then you can season it how you like. I don’t add salt because of the bacon, but I do add a splash of olive oil mixed with a bit of garlic paste and a scattering of chilli flakes.

6) That should make enough for two or three servings (depending how hungry you are). You can have it as it is or you can zap it in the microwave for a minute or so if you want it warm. Then all that’s left is to eat your healthy and delicious Surrey Street treat. Happy New Year!

Jess Bashford is a writer at a brand language consultancy and an English literature and creative writing graduate. She’s passionate about

showing that Croydon is a great place to live and excited to delve into Croydon’s cultural side. She loves all things wordy and foody.

Photo by Jeremy Keith, used under Creative Commons licence.



Born in 1926, Tony Collins was Crystal Palace’s first black player, joining the club in the 1957/8 season, and scoring 15 goals in 55 appearances – a decent return for a left winger.

To be honest to Palace fans, Tony Collins’ appearances for the Eagles are only a small part of a fascinating story which saw him become the first black manager in the football league.

As well as being an outstanding player, Collins was a shrewd tactician, and it was his knowledge of the game and astute assessment of players’ abilities that led him to be in demand as a football scout until he retired at the age of 80.

His views on Don Revie, Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough are worth the entrance fee aloneThe book is not only a document of a life in football, it is a historical record of the extreme racism prevalent during much on the 20th century. To put it into context, for much of Tony Collins’ career, as a player in particular,

he would have had to put up with the use of ‘the N word’, both on the pitch and off it.

He was born in the era when William Ralph ‘Dixie’ Dean was in his goal scoring pomp for Everton. An era when the swarthy Dean would regularly be called ‘a black bastard’ by opposition players and supporters. Dean was white.

The book is a fascinating read, jointly authored by Quentin Cope and Tony’s daughter Sarita Collins, and as well as covering Tony’s career in football, it includes his opinions on many of the famous managers he was involved with, and scouting reports on individual players and on opposing teams.

His views on Don Revie, Sir Alex Ferguson and Brian Clough are worth the entrance fee alone. Add to these his scouting assessments on Gary Lineker, David Seaman and Chris Waddle to name but three, plus dossiers on opposing teams in the form of match reports.

It was for this attention to detail that Tony Collins became known as ‘the master spy’. In this, as in his football career, he was years ahead of his time.

Book review: Tony Collins: Football Master Spy

Paul Dennis was thrilled by the amazing story of Crystal Palace’s first black player

Paul Dennis is the editor of Total Sea Fishing magazine, and moved to Croydon in 2011. An award-winning journalist, he has worked on angling titles for much of his career, including 16 years as deputy editor of Angler's Mail. A regular freelance contributor for a wide array of non-angling-related titles, author of two books on angling and a widely-followed authority on the subject, he's enjoying life as an adoptive Croydonian.

Give your park a heartJoin Friends of Park Hill Park Recreation Ground

and help create a city centre park for Croydon

Help the park community join the fabulous historyof this 16 acres of green with the new face of Croydon

to ensure it helps us; Croydon’s community.

Join us and meet new friends, gain experience & connect with what’s happening in Croydon.

Volunteering opportunities include:Refurbishment of Buildings, Sports & Play FacilitiesCommunity Gardening in the Victorian Walled Garden, Family Fest 2017Fundraising, Mural Design and Creation, Forest School,Marketing and Website Content

Contact: [email protected] Website: http://parkhillpark.org.ukFollow us on facebook & twitter

18 December 2016–January 2017


thecroydoncitizen.com

Croydon is the most haunted borough in London. So Amy Foster and friends got on their bikes and went on a ghost-hunt

Croydon’s ghostly cycle ride

Croydon is, apparently, stiff with ghosts. And with this spurious piece of data, we were off. Where exactly in Croydon do these phantoms live? Who are these poor lost souls, doomed to wander our streets in eternal sorrow? How could we share these fantastical stories with our fellow townspeople in a fun, yet terrifying, way?

Or rather, I was off, dragging the rest of the Croydon Cyclists behind me. But what a delicious opportunity to get people out on their bikes! And when some of your best friends are professional storytellers, how could it not be anything other than a fantastical adventure!

The inaugural CR Ghost Tour took place on Sunday 20th November. We found some of our borough’s most haunted parks, started researching our tales, got the route together and perhaps most importantly, found a suitable venue to warm-up again in at the end of the ride (the gorgeous Coffee Craft in Stanley Halls). Actors from Theatre Utopia joined us to complete the illusion, and Hackney storytelling legend Miranda Roszkowski debuted an original piece of writing in homage to Croydon’s ghostly heritage. As we stood in Addiscombe Railway Park with darkness fading, we may even have glimpsed an eerie figure wandering ahead as a shrill whistle ripped through the air... But we cycled with tongues firmly in cheek, disbelief suspended and sense of humour engaged... and all had grand old time.

We certainly don’t want this to be a one-off. Our aim as Croydon Cyclists is to get bums on saddles, so we very much hope that adventures on wheels like this this one will appeal to less confident cyclists and families. We want to do all we can to make cycling fun in Croydon, no matter your skill level.

We want to share ways to make our bike rides calmer and saferBack in July, I was delighted when forty cyclists joined us for our Freecycle feeder ride, and I loved talking to a couple of cyclists who told me who they were representing the Home Office. They said they’d signed up for the ride the day registration opened and would do the same again for Freecycle 2017. But they also reported that they didn’t cycle normally, as they didn’t feel it was safe enough.

Our routes are all designed to find quieter streets and off-road paths, and hence to share some of the ways we can make our bike journeys calmer and safer. We’re taking our inspiration from groups such as the Lambeth Cyclists, whose collaborations with Clapham’s Omnibus Theatre include last June’s Midsummer Cycle Ride and a Festive Light Ride, and Penge Cycle Club whose annual Tour de Penge goes from strength to strength. We hope to have a few

more themed rides, like the ghosts, lined up ready for the new year, perhaps building on the foundations of the National Trust’s Edge City Croydon architecture tour (pun entirely intended), with growing numbers of local riders discovering Croydon by bike.

Amy Foster is a trustee of the London Cycling Campaign and works with Croydon Cyclists to improve cycling for all across the borough. She’s a primary school teacher and is based in

South Norwood. Find her on Twitter @amyecoates.

Photo author’s own.

[email protected] 681 1279



South London Export Club celebrates a member who climbed highSouth London Export Club is an energetic international group working with businesses in Croydon which want to access overseas markets. The club invites speakers from all over the world to address members on trading opportunities and runs visits to both established and emerging markets with the hands-on support of its experienced mentors. The club also offers monthly networking meet-ups with other local business-people in a friendly and relaxed environment.

Our club’s welcoming environment helps to create a thriving entrepreneurial culture, accessible to newcomers and creating the confidence for business-people to step up to an international level.

SLEC has been particularly excited to learn in recent months of the adventures of club member Derek Galloway, who recently trekked

all the way to Everest Base Camp to raise money for The Children’s Trust. As the happy dad of two fortunately healthy children, he’s very much aware that not everyone is so lucky, and feels compassion for families struck down by unexpected tragedy.

“It’s all about the skills it takes to reach maximum potential”As Derek says:

“It could be a car knocking a child off their bicycle, an awkward fall or the effects of a virus which robs them of consciousness: brain damage and the awful consequences are the result. Each year the Children’s Trust provides treatment to a few hundred of these children and through gentle but intensive therapy seeks whatever recovery may be possible. There are some miracles performed, but the work of the TCT is not about miracles. Instead it’s about gaining as much recovery as may be possible and learning the skills to reach their maximum potential”.

The Children’s Trust also provides advice and support to families devastated by tragedy, along with respite care and access to a network of experience and support.

Derek related his adventures on Everest to his fellow SLEC members:

“Our eight days up the mountain and three back were amongst the most memorable of my life. Stretched physically every day, I was grateful for the time spent training and preparing”.

“Altitude presented no particular difficulties; the climb was steep but steady with sufficient time to acclimatise. Thinning air also brought challenges during the later stages of the ascent, and I felt rather pleased with myself when Base Camp was reached”.

“Theresa May visited us for her first appointment as Prime Minister”

Congratulations to Derek from all of his colleagues and friends at SLEC on raising more than £10,000 for this wonderful cause.

Another recent highlight was a visit to Martek Croydon from Prime Minister Theresa May and the Minister for London, Croydon Central MP Gavin Barwell. Mrs May’s first UK engagement as PM was to Croydon powerhouse and SLEC member Martek, part of an initiative to visit manufacturing businesses which she quite rightly acknowledges are a cornerstone of the Croydon and UK economy and an essential part of the future for economic growth and employment expansion.

For advice on importing and exporting, finding agents and distributors, organising trade missions and more, call 0203 747 4700, contact Bryan Treherne directly on 07779 717326 or visit www.southlondonexport.org.uk.

We would like to wish all of our friends a very happy Christmas and a successful importing and/or exporting new year!

Sponsored article



Bernadette Fallon, on a commuter service full to bursting, has had a troubling thought

Photo by Jakob Spriestersbach for We Made That, used with permission.

Pizza Express on South End: that’s where I became an adult. I was there with one of my oldest friends, on a wet Wednesday in October, and she told me she was divorcing her husband. Wow, I thought. This is where it begins. We’re grown-ups now. The cars whizzed by outside, heading down to Brighton Road. The street lights fizzed. My friend put her head on Pizza Express’ faux marble table and wept. I always remember that moment when I pass Pizza Express on my way up to town, past the funny pub with its gabled roof, and the music shop, and that office building with the windy car park. The psychogeography of your hometown.

South End does that to a person. It shows you all of your sides – good, bad, indifferent – and reflects them back to you, all wrapped up in glittery neon, rainy pavements, traffic lights and too-close parked cars. On Saturday nights, the street heaves, people out for fun, good times, good food. We walk the streets, memories raining down from each doorway: happy, sad, indifferent.

Mai Ping, where we went on our first night back from travelling in south-east Asia, tired and jetlagged, longing to be back in Thailand, eating mussaman curry and saying “do you remember..?”. The

Treehouse, cocktails and cigarettes in hand, deciding in the pub garden to buy a house in Croydon (you were priced out of the market long before that moment, my dears). Osushi, where my father and I ate every Tuesday for a year after my mum died, the kind waitresses and delicious teriyaki don bowls a balm for our grieving souls. The formica-clad fish and chip shop down by the dry cleaners, where we went on the night of the riots in 2011, and they served us our steamy parcels of wrapped chips while hooded youths ran by and we looked out at them, wondering where they were going, not seeing the smoke from the Reeves’ Corner haunting the sky until later.

The flyover is the border betwixt the two states of CroydonSouth End is the go-to place for all of the detritus of life that worries you when you don’t have it direct to hand. I need picture hooks, nails, tweezers, a tin of tomatoes: I know, let’s go to South End. I want my dress for the wedding dry-cleaned. I need a cake for tea. Can you get me a copy of Vogue, please? South End.

It’s tatty in places (always the curse of Croydon streets) but when the night comes down and the lights go up, South End glitters like a mini Times Square… okay, a mini Blackpool, maybe. Kids crowd into the ice-cream parlour, gorging on sundaes, staggering out on a sugar high, stumbling into the long-married couples heading into Bagatti’s for their Italian supper and a few glasses of a nice chianti. The rock kids flood the Scream Lounge, passing the Topshop-pretty girls heading into the Apatura for drinks before making their way up to Croydon proper for their big nights out. The flyover is the border betwixt the two states of Croydon: we don’t need your big bars, East C, we’ve got Bar TXT and the Crown & Pepper right here, thanks very much.

It’s kind of done up down in South End now. It’s a restaurant quarter; it has a brilliant food festival in the summer (thanks for introducing me to gin and ting, Street Cocktails); it’s busy and bright and brash. But it’ll always be the place where I grew up and realised that this place – this funny, noisy, scruffy street – would shape my life and my world for years to come.

Cassie has lived in and around Croydon since 1988. She's a digital project manager and editor with a passion for welsh rarebit, cats and Rotherham United (in that order).

South of the flyoverCassie Whittell reflects on memories and meaning in South End

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THE CROYDON CITIZEN · 2017-05-19 · THE CROYDON CITIZEN The news magazine where you write the...

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