A belated Happy New Year Croydon! It’s not yet the end of January so we can just about squeeze in a New Year greeting.
It was good to be out on our first patrol of the year on Friday night/Saturday morning and luckily temperatures were not as low as they have been of late, as during a cold snap in recent weeks we’ve experienced -5°C during daylight hours! 🧊🥶 Our patrol on this occasion took us as far north as the junction of London Road and Elmwood Road and south to Fun House on the High Street.
Have you seen the fabulous new hoarding in North End outside the Allders building? If not, you really do need to go down and have a look. This is not just any hoarding – it’s designer hoarding! The hoarding is the latest instalment of the Let’s Do London Better campaign in Croydon town centre, which has partnered with Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield to transform the exterior of the Allders building whilst essential works take place inside.
The Let’s Do London Better campaign allows local artists to showcase their original work in celebration of Croydon and its culture. The hoarding features work by artists Alec Saunders, Bareface, Rich Simmons, Tim Easley, and Curtiscreationz. A QR code by each work allows you to see the work animated, and if you click on each of the images below it will link you to the animation on the Let’s Do London Better website and/or more detail about the featured artist. The work also features some well-known Croydon people and locations, see if you can recognise any!
Of course, we had to take the opportunity to take some selfies and pictures in front of the new hoarding! Thank you to the Let’s Do London Better campaign and Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield for brightening this part of our town centre!
We also noticed that the entrance to Centrale opposite the Allders building is currently topped by an image of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875 – 1912), the Black British composer and conductor who lived in the borough. Culture has long been a part of our borough and Croydon has certainly got talent!
As part of our patrol, we routinely stop to pray outside the Harris Invictus Academy and Croydon Voluntary Action (CVA) to offer up prayer for the school and the work being done by the various groups working with as part of the My Ends consortium of local partners who have worked together since 2020 on tackling violence in Croydon – from 2021 to April 2023 with funding from the Mayor of London’s Violence Reduction Unit. We continue to pray and support the work being done by the My Ends partners as we do not doubt that it has made a difference in Croydon.
On our patrol, we noticed some changes, like the reopening of the tyre centre on the corner of London Road and Montague Road, with the removal of the hoarding that had been there along with the debris that had accumulated behind it. Small changes like this add to the improved environment in our town centre and every little bit counts.
Did you know that Street Pastors collect glass bottles where possible as part of our patrols ❓ This is to prevent any injury from broken glass and to avoid the potential for bottles being used as weapons.
Croydon we hope to see you again in February – typically the coldest month for patrolling,🥶🧊 but we’re here for you, so look out for us around Valentine’s weekend.
We love you Croydon, see you again soon ❤️
Numbers:
43 bottles 🍾
8 conversations 💬🗨️
2 bottles of water 💦
2 space blankets 🥶
1 personal alarm🔊
8,266 steps 👣