Alsop reveals plans for £3.5bn regeneration of Croydon (London)

[wyliepoon]

Alsop's talent is not limited to buildings on stilts and Cor-Ten steel. He also does town centres.

Mississauga, North York and Scarborough city planners should think about giving him a call sometime about their city centres.

Link to article

Alsop reveals plans for £3.5bn regeneration of Croydon

14 November, 2007

By Dan Stewart, Olivia Boyd

Will Alsop's masterplan for the transformation of Croydon will feature a 30-storey 'vertical Eden Project'

Will Alsop has unveiled his twenty-year vision for Croydon.

The scheme, entitled Third City, boasts as its centrepiece a 30-storey ‘vertical Eden Project’ with rainforest vegetation, intended as a major tourist destination for the South London suburb.

The plan will also bring the River Wandle, long buried underground, to the surface as a series of waterways and lagoons. Tree-lined walkways will link glass apartment blocks on the main street, Wellesley Road, and the new centre will be ringed by a “green link†of parks, squares and pathways.

The scheme includes 20,000 homes as well as dozens of public squares and miniature parks. It is thought the project could boost the town centre’s population from 5,000 to 50,000.

The project will kick off with a £450m urban regeneration scheme set up by the local council. Around £3.5bn from private investors is intended to pay for additional projects including an arena and a 44-storey residential tower

Speaking at the launch, Alsop said: “There is an extraordinary spirit in Croydon. The notion of experience here is very powerful, and intense and entertaining. The people here love Croydon, but they also recognise it could be better.â€

Tim Pollard, Croydon councillor for regeneration and economic development, said: “Even in their formative stages, Will Alsop’s concepts appear to have already captured enthusiasm among developers, investors, businesses and stakeholders.â€

Croydon Council want to make their town London’s third city after Westminster and the City of London.

Alsop's vision for the Gardiner!

 

[Zephyr]

I am often ambivalent about Will Alsop's buildings, and this is yet another that I must register this same reaction.

But the idea of a vertical Eden Project with green link raises a certain interest of mine a few notches, at least until I see more detail. That 'rainforest' concept seems exciting, but it also invites suspicion of the grand hype. Finally, increasing population by 10 times at the centre of this particular South London suburb, will inevitably change its look and possibly its ambiance - I trust it will all be for the better.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Great news! When I was a queenlet in the 1960's I used to see plays and pop concerts at Croydon's Ashcroft Theatre, a typical Modernist building which had just opened. There wasn't much else to recommend the town in those days, as far as I can recall.

 

[Zephyr]

... There wasn't much else to recommend the town in those days, as far as I can recall.

Interesting take which I do not share. But maybe this will result in something bigger and better - the elements of the plan are there, my question is in the detail and all that grandiose rhetoric on the fringes.

 

[Urban Shocker]

Why, did you also visit Croydon in the 1960's?

 

[Zephyr]

Why, did you also visit Croydon in the 1960's?

In the 1960s I was mostly in California, my impressions of Croydon were taken from one year of living nearby in the 1980s. Perhaps it reminded me of places I like and still do. A bit of urban sprawl, close to transportation, and an interesting mix of people.

 

[Urban Shocker]

I haven't been there since 1970. The shops were okay but let's just say that, as teenagers, we wouldn't stop off at Croydon as we headed north by train from Horley to go shopping on Carnaby Street in London. The Fairfield Halls, with the Ashcroft Theatre ( named after Dame Peggy ) is the only building there that I can recall with any fondness, so it's nice to see Will Alsop giving the town a few more attractions.

 

[Zephyr]

Will Alsop in Croydon. Still sounds strange to me. But let's see how it turns out.

As support for your view I will quote the Guardian:

"As one of Britain's bleakest urban jungles, it might seem an unlikely site for a green utopia of hanging gardens, flowing rivers and rolling parks. But Croydon will not be deterred."

 

[Urban Shocker]

Alsop seems to be trying to corner the market in a certain type of Regeneration Industry makeover project for large towns that wanna be contenders with larger cities. I like the variety of buildings -their sculptural quality - that he's created for this particular one. The building with the kink in it reminds me of a guy I once knew.

 

[adma]

As so-called "bleak urban jungles" go, would Croydon be suffering any dystopic social blight as well?

Other than a possible nocturnal bus-through with grandparents many moons ago, I don't know Croydon, really--seems from my distant perspective like London's answer to Downtown North York...

 

[Zephyr]

Well adma, I don't want to compare Croydon to downtown North York, although I am sure someone will.

I guess I will have to come clean with you, and previously with Urban Schocker, because there is a dual level to what I was reacting to in this thread, and perhaps I took this too far.

Croydon is actually a far more unpleasant place - and underneath my genuine support is a great deal of dripping sarcasm that many here will likely not understand.

Croydon has been overloaded with problems. They had a problem with knife gangs back in the 1980s, and I hear these type gangs have had a comeback. There were rodent problems - small armies spilling out into the streets at twilight. Unemployed are omnipresent in the area. The police presence has been ongoing - and they have adopted a "stop-and-search programme" more recently, that is utterly degrading. And there was and is crumbling infrastructure - hence the "bit of urban sprawl" understatement that is drawn from someone describing the area to me when I went into a local shoppe. Shall we just say the ambiance is not that of a 'Penny Lane'?

There is a reason that a town this size is so hollow at its core, I can only hope that these somewhat unusual plans can work - amusements and/or attractions are not what this borough/suburb need at this juncture - rather something more akin to a rescue.