Join John Grindrod, author of Iconicon and Concretopia, on a walk around the endless rebuilding of Croydon town centre. On the eve of the millennium John Grindrod took polaroids to capture the postwar buildings of the town where he’d been born, and felt sure were soon to disappear. That walk forms the basis of one of the chapters from his new book, Iconicon: A Journey Around the Landmark Buildings of Contemporary Britain. This walking tour retraces his steps on a fun and informative architectural exploration of an overlooked suburban centre, and tells the story of the last few decades of Britain through the urban design, pop culture and social history of a town caught on the cusp of sitcom punchline and hipster cool.
The route will take in the celebrated Threepenny Bit building, the ghosts of modern towers, traces of Medieval, Victorian and Art Deco Croydon, long-disappeared theatres and cinemas, the Fairfield Halls arts centre and all sorts of extraordinary new landmarks and pop-ups.
The duration of the walk will be two and a half hours. There will be two walks on the Sunday, one starting at 10:30am, and one at 2pm. Walk in conjunction with London Open House and Turf Projects. Book tickets here.