No. 1 Croydon (formerly the NLA Tower, and colloquially the 50p Building, the Weddingcake or the Threepenny bit building) is a tall building at 12–16 Addiscombe Road,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

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, next to

East Croydon station East Croydon is a railway station and tram stop in Croydon, Greater London, England, and is located in Travelcard Zone 5. At from , it is one of the busiest non-terminal stations in London, and in the United Kingdom as a whole. It is one of th ...

. It was designed by Richard Seifert & Partners and completed in 1970. It has 24 storeys and is high. 'NLA' stood for 'Noble Lowndes Annuities'. It was one of many new buildings constructed in the growing town of Croydon in the 1960s. The development of

tall buildings A skyscraper is a tall continuously habitable building having multiple floors. Modern sources currently define skyscrapers as being at least or in height, though there is no universally accepted definition. Skyscrapers are very tall high-ri ...

was later encouraged in the 2004

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, which led to the erection of new skyscrapers as Greater London went through a high-rise boom.

Restoration project

A refurbishment programme costing over £3.5 million was completed in early 2007. It included a six-month exterior cleaning project, new lobby, landscaping and common areas, and refurbishment of the top ten floors to provide of high spec, air-conditioned office accommodation. A substantial amount of work had already been done to improve the façade of the tower. It was identified in a

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programme as one of the UK's top eyesores. A spokesman for building restoration firm Triton said: "Work is running to schedule and within budget."

Occupiers

No. 1 Croydon is occupied by a number of companies and organisations, including

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, HotGen,

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, Natterbox and Global Resourcing.

In November 2014, a branch of

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was opened in part of the former courtyard on the north side of the building, effectively forming a part of the structure. The new building attracted criticism on aesthetic grounds and also in respect of safety due to its proximity to the

Tramlink London Trams, previously Tramlink and Croydon Tramlink, is a light rail tram system serving Croydon and surrounding areas in South London, England. It began operation in 2000, the first tram system in the London region since 1952. It is manage ...

track bed.

Other names

No. 1 Croydon was originally known colloquially as the ''Threepenny Bit Building'', due to its resemblance to a number of threepence coins stacked on top of each other. After the coins stopped being used following

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the building eventually gained the alternative nickname the ''50p Building'', as it also resembles a stack of the now more familiar 50p pieces; and it is also referred to as ''The Wedding Cake''. The resemblance to threepenny and 50p coins is approximate, as the building's floors are octagonal (8 sides) whereas threepenny coins were dodecagonal (12 sides) and 50p coins are heptagonal (7 sides).

In popular culture

The building was used as part of an

establishing shot An establishing shot in filmmaking and television production sets up, or establishes, the context for a scene by showing the relationship between its important figures and objects. It is generally a long or extreme-long shot at the beginning of ...

in Croydon in the opening credits of the 1980s British

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Terry and June ''Terry and June'' is a BBC television sitcom, which was broadcast on BBC1 from 1979 to 1987. The show was largely a reworking of '' Happy Ever After'', and starred Terry Scott and June Whitfield as a middle-aged, middle-class suburban couple, Te ...

''. It also appeared in the ''

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, ''

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'', as housing the offices of fictional game software developer Tuckersoft.

Listing

The campaign for listing No.1 Croydon is supported by the Twentieth Century Society but this was turned down by English Heritage in 2013.

References

External links

NLA Tower
{{Croydon B&S Buildings and structures completed in 1970 Croydon 2020 Skyscrapers in the London Borough of Croydon