Station Road
Selhurst Road
South Norwood Hill
High Street
Portland Road
Issue 3 | April 2022
Cover: Croydon Archives
CONTENTS 3
Using the Past to Frame the Future
4
Let’s Talk about Conservation Public Consultation Event
5
‘What is a CAAMP?’ Webinar Road Testing the New Heritage Walk
6
Meet John Hickman, South Norwood’s Resident Local Historian
7
Stanley Arts Leads the HSHAZ Cultural Programme
8
Capturing the Voices of the High Street
9
Free Business School For Local Residents Shopping Local During the Christmas Holidays
10
1-2-1 Mentorship for Portland Road Businesses Discover Your High Street: Love South Norwood App
11
Coming Up
12
Enhancing Community Spaces
13
South Norwood Regeneration Programme Focus Area
14
Our Funders
15
Get in Touch
2
3 USING THE PAST TO FRAME THE FUTURE We have had an eye trained firmly on the past over the last three months of the Regeneration Programme. We took a walk back into the past with John Hickman, found out how a document can help to preserve heritage character and began to capture stories of a more recent high street. Heritage is an important part of South Norwood’s character and there is a tangible passion in the community to preserve it for future generations. We have included some interesting snippets from the draft Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan in this edition. We hope they tempt you to track down the hard copies we have distributed around South Norwood to find out more about our little corner of South London. Meanwhile, Socco Cheta moves closer to re-opening in its new incarnation and Stanley Arts’ works are underway to create new daytime co-working space in the space Gallery at the Halls. As John Hickman says in our interview, building on what we have is what is going to make South Norwood a place for everyone. The Regeneration Programme is funded by the Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund and Historic England’s High Streets Heritage Action Zone. The programme aims to deliver improvements to buildings and public spaces, to support local businesses to adapt to life post-lockdown and to strengthen the community infrastructure.
FIND OUT MORE
croydon.gov.uk/southnorwood
St Mark’s Church, Albert Road
CAAMP Public Consultation event at no.241 Norwood
LET’S TALK ABOUT CONSERVATION One of the compulsory projects for every new High Street Heritage Action Zone is to refresh their Conservation Area Appraisal and Management Plan, or CAAMP. All Conservation Areas have a version of this document which describes the area, its history and sets out guidelines and strategies for its future management. The public consultation period was extended to six weeks for our CAAMP to allow as many people to get involved as possible. Copies were shared with residents’ associations and left in key locations on South Norwood high street for the public to read. There were three accompanying public events: a consultation event; an online look at the CAAMP and how it is used; and a heritage walk.
PUBLIC CONSULTATION EVENT Over fifty residents, business and property owners joined us at No.241 Norwood café on Selhurst Road for our main public event in January 2022. Our Conservation team, conservation specialists Place Services and programme funders Historic England were on hand to answer questions and talk through the proposals in the draft document.
DID YOU KNOW...?
4
South Norwood Recreation Ground was bought by the Council in 1889 to provide space for a growing community. Most of its original layout is gone, but some original trees remain.
‘WHAT IS A CAAMP?’ WEBINAR In February, Maria and Nicola from Place Services shed light on conservation areas and how CAAMPs are used by home and property owners, developers and planners. The High Streets Heritage Action Zone funding allowed them to spend more time researching and gathering local stories. They shared their experience of meeting the residents and groups actively keeping heritage alive. William Stanley has a significant presence in the document, however thanks to John Hickman, many other stories have been included to make it a fascinating read.
ROAD TESTING THE NEW HERITAGE WALK On a cold, wet day during the February half term, Maria from Place Services and local historian John Hickman led a group of residents on this new walking route commissioned alongside the CAAMP. You will be able to print out your own copy of the self-guided South Norwood heritage walk map soon when it is added to the Neighbourhood and Heritage Walks page at croydon.gov.uk/heritagewalks. The South Norwood guided heritage tour was an excellent way to explore my neighbourhood. As someone who's recently moved to the area, I was very keen to learn more about the history of South Norwood, its buildings and its people. I learnt so much on the tour and would certainly recommend it to anyone, who is interested in this little gem of an area in South London.' – Aijan.
South Norwood Guided Hertiage Walk
5
MEET JOHN HICKMAN, SOUTH NORWOOD’S RESIDENT LOCAL HISTORIAN It is probably safe to say that there are few things about the history of South Norwood that John Hickman does not know. Unsurprisingly, he has been the first port of call for many of our Regeneration Programme projects. John was a founder member of People for Portland Road, a member of The Norwood Society, and a former president of Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society. When he is not organising exhibitions, researching new People for Portland Road plaques or working with the Brutalist Library team, he juggles a hectic schedule of talks and walking tours. “I have lived in South Norwood for a quite a long time and there is a tremendous story here for somewhere so young. There are layers upon layers packed into a very short period from the arrival of the canal and the very beginnings of the area. You can see the physical artefacts, but you don’t get the stories, how people and families shaped the area.” John has a series of talks on South Norwood and coming up on Tuesday 3 May, he will be hosting a new talk where you’ll have the chance to hear about some of these people. From composers to inventors, suffragettes to suffragists, and swimmers to divers, it is a fascinating look backwards which he hopes will inspire South Norwood’s 21st century residents. So far, John has helped us to make the CAAMP a fascinating read and made it very difficult to whittle the new heritage walk down to a manageable size. He is currently working with Turf Projects on our High Street Histories project and is on the steering group for Stanley Art’s High Streets HAZ Cultural Programme.
Local historian, John Hickman
“For me, it’s important to understand that we do not want to remake South Norwood as it was through the work that we are doing. It is about using what we have, the buildings, the stories, to make it better. This was the passion for so many of the characters of our past. We can continue that today.”
6
STANLEY ARTS LEADS THE HSHAZ CULTURAL PROGRAMME Inventing South Norwood is South Norwood’s HSHAZ Cultural Programme led by Stanley Arts. It runs in parallel with the main programme until March 2024 and features exciting, heritage-focussed activities celebrating the area’s history of invention and creativity.
Credit: Stanley Arts
Since its launching last year, the programme has held four creative workshops led by local artists at the monthly Clock Tower Market. The first round of their mini grants for invention themed community activities has been awarded. They are also currently collecting submissions for an online Invention Archive which will be launched later this year. The archive will highlight the history of local people and the role of invention in their daily lives.
Artist: Martin Eden
Inventing South Norwood also has a brand-new member of the team, zine artist Martin Eden who won the commission to develop the South Norwood Story of Invention. Martin was selected from a shortlist of local artists which was shared at the Invention Point at the Clock Tower market in March. Inspired in part by real-life stories from the soon to be launched online Invention Archive, Martin will be creating eight zines which will build over two years into a magical and inventive story. Martin created this illustration (see left) after an afternoon spent people-watching on South Norwood high street.
For more information, visit stanleyarts.org/community-arts/inventing-south-norwood or contact inventingsouthnorwood@stanleyarts.org.
7
CAPTURING THE VOICES OF THE HIGH STREET
8
The first phase of our Placemaking project is underway with High Street Histories, an oral history project which we are delivering in collaboration with Croydon-based arts collective Turf Projects. Turf have been interviewing South Norwood locals to capture their favourite memories or historical facts about our high streets - Selhurst Road, Station Road, High Street, South Norwood Hill (up to Stanley Arts) and Portland Road, to the junction of Coventry and Doyle Road.
DID YOU KNOW...? Neolithic evidence of human occupation has been identified to the north and west of the Conservation Area where flint tools including axes have been found.
FREE BUSINESS SCHOOL FOR LOCAL RESIDENTS The pandemic saw a rise in the number of people starting their own businesses and passion projects. Rebel Business School’s three-week online programme begins in May for South Norwood’s growing community of entrepreneurs. Good Growth is funding this comprehensive course which will cover topics including social media marketing, finding your target customers and starting a business with a limited budget. South Norwood Library is providing a small number of places for those without access to their own computer or Wi-Fi. If you know of other spaces to host participants, get in contact at SouthNorwoodRegen@croydon.gov.uk.
SOUTH NORWOOD BUSINESS NETWORK: SHOP LOCAL South Norwood Business Network’s Shop Local campaign in December focused on promoting high street businesses in South Norwood in the run up to Christmas, encouraging more residents to spend time on the high street during the holidays. We appointed Croydon marketing consultancy 31% Wool to help us launch a five-week campaign leading up to Christmas Eve. We visited businesses and spoke to members of the Business Network to promote the campaign. As a result, South Norwood Business Network have seen a boost in their membership, and plan to continue with new campaigns later this year.
9
1-2-1 MENTORSHIP FOR PORTLAND ROAD BUSINESSES Starting this Spring, we will be offering ten Portland Road businesses outside of the programme’s main focus area (see map on page 12) 1-2-1 mentorship from high street retail specialists. The mentorship, which is funded by the Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund, aims to support sustainable growth by addressing common barriers faced by small retail businesses and those challenges specific to Portland Road and South Norwood.
DISCOVER YOUR HIGH STREET: LOVE SOUTH NORWOOD The Love South Norwood app is a South London Partnership’s InnOvaTe project which is supporting many of the Regeneration Programme’s objectives. Our colleagues in Croydon Digital Service is leading this project. The app allows residents to discover local businesses and get alerts on offers, rewards and events. Footfall sensors have also been installed for participating high street shops, allowing businesses to use real-time insights to create a better customer experience. To find out more about installing footfall sensors in your shop, contact the Love South Norwood team at hello@loqiva.com or call 0207 422 8272.
DID YOU KNOW...? The Royal Mail delivery office on Holmesdale Road was first shown on the 1898 Ordnance Survey map.
LOVE SOUTH NORWOOD APP Get all the latest local news direct to your phone Find local community events Get access to exclusive offers from local businesses Keep your data safe within your local community Support your local independent businesses
lovesouthnorwood.app
1O
COMING UP Date Your House Taking inspiration from the CAAMP document, South Norwood residents will have the opportunity to research the date of their house in a special workshop hosted at the Croydon Archives. The workshop is expected to take place during the daytime on a weekday. For further details, keep an eye on our events page: southnorwoodregen.eventbrite.com. Launching Summer 2022 Free
DID YOU KNOW...? The original Norwood Junction Station, formerly called the Jolly Sailor after the local public house, was located to the north of Portland Road Railway Bridge when it opened in 1839. The station was relocated to its present site in the 1850s and later renamed. Its original location has since been demolished.
DID YOU KNOW...? From the Victorian times until around the mid-1980s, South Norwood’s police station was located on the High Street. It is thought this was the police station mentioned in the Sherlock Holmes novel The Sign of the Four.
11
Credit: Stanley Arts
ENHANCING COMMUNITY SPACES WORKS AT STANLEY ARTS Stanley Arts’ contractors began works in mid-January on the first phase of development of the South Norwood heritage treasure. Unsurprisingly, the works have unearthed more of William Stanley’s unconventional building techniques, which has kept the design and construction team on their toes. The Regeneration Programme is funding new co-working space in the Gallery, accessibility improvements to the Gallery and main hall and works to protect and reinstate heritage features in the Assembly Hall. We’ll look more closely at this project in our next edition and look forward to the plans for external works later in 2022.
SOCCO CHETA It is the final furlong for the Socco Cheta project. The hub will have more energy demands than its previous incarnation with a community café, cinema and activities in the revamped main hall. We are waiting for UK Power Networks to upgrade the power supply before the Council’s contractors complete their final tasks. Meanwhile, the new windows and doors have transformed the space. The design aimed to minimise the separation between the inside and outside space by maximising their size and reinstating windows which had been blocked up previously. Socco Cheta Community Hub CIC have been busy installing the kitchen in the café space and new flooring funded by London Marathon Charitable Trust. We are looking forward to handing over the site officially in late April and finalising plans for the opening.
12
SOUTH NORWOOD REGENERATION PROGRAMME FOCUS AREA The Heritage Action Zone (HAZ) boundary marks the area for the placemaking and grants programmes. It includes Station Road, Selhurst Road from the Clocktower to Samuel Coleridge Taylor Centre, South Norwood Hill up to Stanley Arts, High Street from South Norwood Clocktower to Goathouse Bridge and Portland Road starting from the junction with the High Street to the junction with Coventry Road.
DID YOU KNOW...? The Jolly Sailor at the junction of the High Street with Portland Road is South Norwood’s oldest establishment, first appearing in the Croydon Rate books in 1810. It was built to serve those using and working on the canal and was rebuilt in the 1870s. Unfortunately, the present establishment contains no traces of the original building.
High Street Heritage Action Zone Boundary. Credit: Historic England
13
OUR FUNDERS MAYOR OF LONDON’S GOOD GROWTH FUND The Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund is dedicated to supporting the regeneration and improvement of high streets across London, creating thriving businesses and empowering local people to shape the changes in their area. In South Norwood, this fund is delivering public realm improvements, creation of workspaces and creative hubs, improving the look of shop units, supporting resilient, sustainable businesses and growing the community network.
SOUTH NORWOOD HIGH STREET HERITAGE ACTION ZONE South Norwood is one of Historic England’s 68 new High Street Heritage Action Zones. £1.1 million has been awarded to unlock the potential of South Norwood’s high streets, fuelling economic, social and cultural recovery and breathe new life into the area for future generations. South Norwood boomed in the 19th century with the arrival of the railway, and its centre is predominantly composed of original buildings, dating from the 1840s to 1910, many of which retain their original features. South Norwood’s conservation area is currently on Historic England’s Heritage at Risk Register and the aim of the programme is to restore it to its original vibrancy and remove it from the register.
DID YOU KNOW...? The subway on Station Road, opened in 1912, was the first subway in the world to be made of reinforced concrete, a revolutionary engineering technique at the time.
14
GET IN TOUCH SOUTH NORWOOD REGENERATION TEAM Michelle Normanly Regeneration Manager Tamara Amarquaye Business Engagement Officer E: SouthNorwoodRegen@croydon.gov.uk Website: croydon.gov.uk/southnorwood
South Norwood Country Park Lake