Alsop presents his vision for Croydon's future
- Published: 15 November 2007 10:44
- Author: Max Thompson
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- Last Updated: 15 November 2007 10:46
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Will Alsop has laid out his multi-billion-pound masterplan for the south London borough.
Will Alsop tells me that in the '60s and '70s 'Croydon was the English version of Manhattan'.
While today that comparison seems amazing, Alsop is adamant that Croydon's proximity to London – it is 19km from Charing Cross; the planned arrival of the East London Line in 2010; and the burning ambition of Croydon Council will at least make it London's 'third city' after Westminster and the Square Mile.
But before that dream can be realised Alsop sets out a number of prerequisites. The most pressing of which is the creation of greater permeability across the five north-south barriers that currently stifle movement east-west across Croydon.
SMC Alsop project architect Amanda Marshall describes Croydon's Wellesley Road, the four-lane Roman Way, the Croydon Flyover, East Croydon Station's railway tracks, and the imposing mass of the Whitgift Shopping Centre as 'catastrophic'.
She says: 'People cannot reach their parks. They can only cross Wellesley Road in three places and at the moment you can only exit East Croydon Station at its south end.
'The Whitgift Centre,' adds Marshall 'is closed at night, which creates another barrier'.
The masterplan would see the Whitgift Shopping Centre bulldozed to make way for blocks of 'permeable' retail, on top of which will be a 'living layer' of residential towers. However, the Whitgift – a mainstay of Croydon's retail district – could prove to be Alsop's Achilles heel.
The sprawling centre is part-owned by Howard Holdings (HH), and despite Alsop's claim to the AJ that 'they know it has to come down', the firm's investment director, Geoff Sparrow, says HH has no intention of seeing its prize asset turned to dust.
Sparrow says: 'Will Alsop and the council do not own the shopping centre. He may say it as a barrier, but the rent rolled out on the centre is £26 million a year and it is the heart of Croydon's shopping. Its demolition is not an easy commercial argument to make. It will take five years to develop and in the mean time people will go to Bromley and Kingston. Will they come back?'
Alsop's bold vision also includes the bridging of East Croydon railway tracks with a huge pipe-like building and a transparent tower described as a 'vertical Kew Gardens'. And an Alsop commission for New York also makes an appearance on the masterplan, although the architect says the real thing will only be built in Yonkers. 'I don't like to repeat myself,' he says.
Jon Rouse, the chief executive of Croydon Council, accepts that many will scoff at Alsop's vision and is aware of the problems that have beset the architect's previous masterplans for Bradford and Barnsley, the latter of which has almost certainly been sidelined.
But, Rouse says HH cannot predict the future and that forthcoming schemes, including Minerva and Lend Lease's Park Place retail scheme, due to be built next to the Whitgift, will change Croydon's prospect.
He says: 'Alsop's masterplan is a vision. There is nothing wrong with it being ambitious and I do expect that a significant part of it will be developed out over the next 20-25 years.
'Will has created a construct for the urban grid and brought back some green spaces into the town centre; he has also reconnected Croydon to its hinterland in an east–west direction.'
The live/work area on the edge of Croydon's flyover, with Alsop's Yonkers Tower in the foreground
Alsop has called for a tree-lined 'emerald necklace' linking the afore-mentioned parks and will also 'bring water back into Croydon', a feat that will be achieved by the exhumation of the River Wandle in four places. One of those places is the Old Town area next to its St John the Baptist Church, a building Marshall says that at present 'has its face pressed against a pedestrian underpass and a four-lane highway [Roman Way]'. Under the masterplan the Roman Way will be sunk and the Wandle brought to the surface.
The masterplan will form part of the Croydon Metropolitan Centre Area Action Plan, which is due for completion mid 2008 and which will form the basis of Croydon's Development Plan Document. And, with 32 schemes currently in planning – including Make Architect's four-tower scheme for Menta in the east of the town – Croydon is already demonstrating ambition.
That ambition, says Alsop is why Croydon reminds him of Manchester, which he says Croydon should emulate: 'Not visually, but there is a real will among [council] officers and politicians to realise the vision'.
As Sparrow says: 'If it's about profile, there is no better architect than Will Alsop to give you that.
'But is that enough?' he asks. Residents of Barnsley and Bradford may think not.
