please empty your brain below
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I went to school just down the road in Shirley. No trams in those days, just a bus service to Croydon four or five miles away.
Tens of thousands of people in urban overspill with three pubs and a swimming pool for entertainment. The place was a no-go area.
A mate of mine who studied town planning at university was unsurprised to find it used as an example of how not to do it. One picture actually showing his parked car!
Chris | 18.08.17 - 8:12 a.m. | #
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Very interesting, the mopeds look like an art installation!
Kevin | 18.08.17 - 8:48 a.m. | #
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Given the amount of two-wheeled vehicle theft in London, it's probable that said vehicles were not left by their owners.
Jamesthegill | 18.08.17 - 8:56 a.m. | #
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As a child we looked forward to our trips to New Addington from boring middle-class suburbia as it had a swimming pool.
Also as a child, even then the contrast between the scout camp and the estate beyond it was apparent to me. Somehow it wasn't escaping to the countryside because you knew what was beyond.
Our rural hikes via Fickeshole just showed how close to suburban London you could get without being aware of it.
Pedantic of Purley | 18.08.17 - 9:36 a.m. | #
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I was going to say what James said. Aren't they stolen and then used to commit crimes and then possibly burnt to destroy the evidence, as it were?
Antipodean | 18.08.17 - 9:56 a.m. | #
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Having stayed at the Scout camp several times and walked up and down that hill regularly (fortunately carrying the shopping down rather than up), I'm intrigued by how you found it; it's not obvious even on the 1:25000 maps.
New Addington was the first place I ever encountered a vandal-resistant telephone kiosk (basically a phone on a stick), back in the late 70s. It felt rather intimidating making a call and pushing money into the slot exposed to every passer-by. It started to dawn on me (but apparently not the town planners) that if you dump a load of people in the middle of nowhere with not much to do then some of them will get up to no good.
Andrew S | 18.08.17 - 11:20 a.m. | #
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The burnt out mopeds are odd, if they were set on fire in situ, why is there nothing on the ground - if they were burnt elsewhere, why bother moving all five somewhere else?
Unless they were set on fire ages ago and you were the first 'outsider' to find them.
New Addington does show that versions of social cleansing have always been around - think how inaccessible Thamesmead is.
Still anon | 18.08.17 - 12:16 p.m. | #
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New Addington (or just Addo to many of the locals) is one of those great planning tragedies where the authority attempted to do something good, but got too many things wrong.
There's the obvious lack of public transport connectivity (somewhat improved by the tram, but still lacking for such a big neighbourhood). The lack of facilities is another problem, there are shops and a few pubs but not enough, and all that green space between New Addington and the surrounding population centres really adds to the sense of isolation.
On the other hand the houses are for the most part of decent proportion, solidly built with large gardens, drives and often garages. There's plenty of off- and on-street parking and the roads tend to be wide. Just a few tweaks to the masterplan would have made the whole place so much better.
Incidentally the leisure centre was still going strong until very recently. Although the reception was refurbished and a gym added, the pools themselves are largely unchanged from the day they were built. My occasional visit evokes strong memories of municipal pools of my youth. Demolition and replacement are imminent though (and may have started already).
Matt | 18.08.17 - 12:35 p.m. | #
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I don't understand still anon's "why is there nothing on the ground?". Just what would you expect to find on the ground near 5 burnt-out mopeds?
Malcolm | 18.08.17 - 1:52 p.m. | #
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Malcolm - it must have been a very nice tidy fire then, so intense that it even burnt all paint off the frames of the bike on the right (what is there to burn on that bike?) - yet in spite of all that energy, the vegetation underneath it isn't even scorched.
Still anon | 18.08.17 - 2:04 p.m. | #
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Yes, I see now what you mean. Rather strange.
Malcolm | 18.08.17 - 3:18 p.m. | #
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I've used the tram terminus as the start of a few walks south, to Edenbridge and the like, and as you demonstrate it is possible to escape New Addington if you know where to look. Thanks for the write-up DG.
THC | 18.08.17 - 5:55 p.m. | #
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I've led a couple of walks for North West London Ramblers using the Tramlink terminus and the steep path up from Featherbed Lane. My favourite was from Knockholt station via Halstead, Cudham, lunch stop at the Old Jail, Leaves Green and Fickleshole.
Stephen Bird | 18.08.17 - 8:01 p.m. | #
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As a kid i used to love going on the tram down to New Addington(it really picks up speed on those less built up sections) On some occasions my dad and i would walk down through Frylands wood and across into Selsdon woods then getting the bus home, i found those woods really enchanting and as you wrote the lack of other people really adds to the wild feeling there.
Oliver Elkington | 18.08.17 - 11:58 p.m. | #
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"As a kid".... Gosh, showing my age, but I think of the tram a new thing, but it has been there since 2000 and by now many younger people will not know what it was like before.
Andrew | 19.08.17 - 9:34 a.m. | #
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" I don't think I've ever been closer in the wild, and felt like I was having my own proper wildlife adventure."
You might consider a trip to Yellowstone, where it's commonplace to encounter the wild, which is a uniquely enriching experience indeed. On my trips to Yellowstone I've been trapped between a Moose and a Buffalo, chased by a brown bear and once I even got to run with a herd of bison. All experiences never to be forgotten or things I'd ever have believed possible.
John | Homepage | 20.08.17 - 3:17 a.m. | #
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As one who was born and bred in north Croydon, and a Cub and a Scout until I was 16, I "enjoyed" many pack and troop camps at the Featherbed Lane camp site.
In those days (the 60s), it seemed to be in the middle of nowhere and a long way by car / ex-army lorry.
For those who remember such experiences, I earned my Backswoodman badge there!
John Simmons | 20.08.17 - 11:44 p.m. | #
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There is a path that leaves New Addington to the west. It's steep climb up from Featherbed Lane opposite the end of the path that drops down through Frith Wood. It's not marked on OS with the telltale green footpath symbol but it is there.
I've used it when walking from East Croydon to Downe House, a glorious walk that is unexpectedly beautiful for large swathes.
Mark | 21.08.17 - 12:19 p.m. | #
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