Croydon’s brutalist architecture to be showcased by the National Trust in walking tours

Usually known for its magnificent stately homes, rolling country parks and quaint tearooms, the National Trust’s latest offering for people looking for a truly British day trip is a little different to what you might expect.

Croydon: an example of post war ambition to build a new society. Image by Matt Brown / CC BY 2.0

This month it is inviting people to embark on a series of events taking place in the town of Croydon, south London, which it describes as one of the country’s “most important examples of the post-war ambition to build a new society”.   Croydon is known for being an example of brutalist concrete architecture.

One of the main events is a walking tour around the key architectural features of the town’s 1960s building boom, including an opportunity to visit Fairfield Halls, which has hosted the likes of The Beatles, The Who and Morrissey, before it closes for a two-year refurbishment.

If theatre seats could talks… (National Trust/PA)

But it isn’t just a case of walking around buildings, as other events include a Routemaster bus tour and films using 1960s footage of the town screened from top of a multi-storey car park.

Personal touches you might not know about. Image by: Steve Parsons/PA

The big idea is to transform Croydon’s “crap town” reputation and bring out its real spirit as it undergoes a new wave of regeneration. These special events – taking place between July 15-24 – aim to spark debate about what parts are to be truly cherished.

Croydon expert John Grindrod, who wrote Concretopia and a Croydonian, said: “There are millions of people like me in Britain, who don’t recognise the village green, country cottage or Georgian square as the epitome of our nation, but whose identities have instead been moulded by ‘concrete monstrosities’ or ‘bad planning’ – or rather, the post‐war optimism that sought to build a better future.”

Can you guess where this is? Image by:  National Trust/PA

And Croydon isn’t the only town set to receive the star treatment as the National Trust is making plans to delve deep into other “ordinary” places where people live, work, and play, discovering how they took their current form, what people love about them, and what can be done to keep them at their best for future generations.