Old Town is a neighbourhood in the

London Borough of Croydon The London Borough of Croydon () is a London borough in south London, part of Outer London. It covers an area of . It is the southernmost borough of London. At its centre is the historic town of Croydon from which the borough takes its name; ...

, lying immediately to the west of

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 ...

town centre. It is centred on

Croydon Minster Croydon Minster is the parish and civic church of the London Borough of Croydon. There are currently more than 35 churches in the borough, with Croydon Minster being the most prominent. It is Grade I and II* listed buildings in Croydon, Grade I l ...

and the Old Palace, and is the location of the original early medieval settlement of Croydon. As defined for modern planning purposes, the neighbourhood includes

Surrey Street Market Surrey Street Market (also known as Croydon Market) is a street market located in Surrey Street, Croydon, south London. Records of a market on the site date back to the 13th century. It operates six days a week, Monday to Saturday, and mainly ...

to the east, and extends west as far as the boundaries of Wandle Park, and south to

Croydon Flyover The Croydon Flyover is an overpass located in Croydon, London, England. It is part of the A232 road which connects Orpington with Ewell. The flyover connects Park Lane and the Croydon Underpass, on the A212 road with Duppas Hill Road. It cro ...

(part of the east–west

A232 List of A roads in zone 2 in Great Britain starting south of the River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest r ...

road). It is bisected by the

dual-carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

north–south A236, known along this stretch as Roman Way. It is in the CR0 postcode area.

History

Roman road Roman roads ( la, viae Romanae ; singular: ; meaning "Roman way") were physical infrastructure vital to the maintenance and development of the Roman state, and were built from about 300 BC through the expansion and consolidation of the Roman Re ...

, the London to Portslade Way, is known to have passed through what is now Croydon, but its precise route is debated. One suggestion is that it ran through Old Town, and it is in acknowledgement of this theory that the local section of the A236

dual carriageway A dual carriageway ( BE) or divided highway ( AE) is a class of highway with carriageways for traffic travelling in opposite directions separated by a central reservation (BrE) or median (AmE). Roads with two or more carriageways which are ...

was named Roman Way in the 1960s. The argument is by no means universally accepted, however, and it is equally possible that the Roman road was situated on the higher ground to the east, running along what is now North End, High Street and South End in central Croydon. A settlement developed at Croydon in the mid-to-late

Anglo-Saxon period Anglo-Saxon England or Early Medieval England, existing from the 5th to the 11th centuries from the end of Roman Britain until the Norman conquest in 1066, consisted of various Anglo-Saxon kingdoms until 927, when it was united as the Kingdom of ...

, around the parish church (now

) and the

manor house A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...

of the

Archbishops of Canterbury The archbishop of Canterbury is the senior bishop and a principal leader of the Church of England, the ceremonial head of the worldwide Anglican Communion and the diocesan bishop of the Diocese of Canterbury. The current archbishop is Justi ...

(

Croydon Palace Croydon Palace, in Croydon, now part of south London, was the summer residence of the Archbishop of Canterbury for over 500 years. Regular visitors included Henry III and Queen Elizabeth I. Now known as "Old Palace", the buildings are still in us ...

, now occupied by

Old Palace School The Old Palace of John Whitgift School is a selective independent school for girls in Croydon, London. The Old Palace is protected as a Grade I listed building. It consists of a pre-school for the ages of 3-4, a preparatory department for the ag ...

). However, in 1276 Archbishop

Robert Kilwardby Robert Kilwardby ( c. 1215 – 11 September 1279) was an Archbishop of Canterbury in England and a cardinal. Kilwardby was the first member of a mendicant order to attain a high ecclesiastical office in the English Church. Life Kilwardby s ...

acquired a

charter A charter is the grant of authority or rights, stating that the granter formally recognizes the prerogative of the recipient to exercise the rights specified. It is implicit that the granter retains superiority (or sovereignty), and that the rec ...

for a weekly market, and, probably in association with this charter, laid out a new market place on the higher ground to the east, in the triangle now bounded by High Street, Surrey Street and Crown Hill. Croydon's commercial and social focus therefore also shifted east, leaving Old Town on its periphery. The earliest occurrences of the name "Old Town" ("" or "") date from the 1280s, implying that the locality was already seen as subsidiary to the "new town" around the market and High Street. The area was also prone to flooding from the

River Wandle The River Wandle is a right-bank tributary of the River Thames in south London, England. With a total length of about , the river passes through the London boroughs of London Borough of Croydon, Croydon, London Borough of Sutton, Sutton, Londo ...

, and in the early modern period declined further into a partial

slum A slum is a highly populated urban residential area consisting of densely packed housing units of weak build quality and often associated with poverty. The infrastructure in slums is often deteriorated or incomplete, and they are primarily inh ...

area. The archbishops sold the palace in 1781, purchasing instead a new residence at

Addington Addington may refer to: Places In Australia: * Addington, Victoria In Canada: * Addington, Ontario * Addington County, Ontario (now Lennox and Addington County, Ontario) * Addington Highlands, Ontario * Addington Parish, New Brunswick * Adding ...

Present day

The Old Town area now has a large residential and business community. There are two secondary schools in the locality:

and The Write Time School, which occupies the buildings of the former

St Andrew's Church of England High School St Andrew's Church of England High School was a Church of England voluntary aided school in Central Croydon, Greater London. First opened in 1862, The school was part of the educational provision of the Anglican Diocese of Southwark, Diocese of ...

. Old Town is also home to Croydon town centre's main fire station. The area partially overlaps with three

conservation area Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...

s: the Croydon Minster Conservation Area, the Church Street Conservation Area, and the Central Croydon Conservation Area. A prominent local business is the

House of Reeves House of Reeves is an independent family-run furniture store in Croydon, southern Greater London, England, founded in 1867. It is located in the Old Town area, and gives its name to Reeves Corner, a road intersection between Church Street and Ro ...

, an independent furniture store founded in 1867, which gives its name to the road intersection of Reeves Corner, between Church Street and Roman Way. The company came to widespread national public attention in August 2011, when one of its buildings was destroyed in an arson attack during the

2011 England riots The 2011 England riots, more widely known as the London riots, were a series of riots between 6 and 11 August 2011. Thousands of people rioted in cities and towns across England, which saw looting, arson, as well as mass deployment of police ...

. In 2017 the area was the site of a council-funded tech incubator scheme, with several companies relocating from central London.

Nearest stations

* Reeves Corner tram stop *

Church Street tram stop Church Street is a tram stop for westbound Tramlink trams in central 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 ...

* Wandle Park tram stop *

West Croydon station West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some R ...

Waddon railway station Waddon railway station is in the London Borough of Croydon in south London. The station and all trains serving it are operated by Southern. It is in Travelcard Zone 5, between and , and is down the line from measured via Forest Hill. Accid ...

References

External links

LondonTown
{{coord, 51.373, -0.105, type:city_region:GB-CRY, display=title Districts of the London Borough of Croydon