art
7 May 2026
On Tuesday we marked our 10th birthday with the launch of our exhibition ‘Concrete Creativity – ten years of Croydonist artists’ where we had a small gathering with the exhibiting artists and friends to celebrate....
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30 April 2026
Earlier this week, I headed to the Town Hall, with all its ornate Victorian grandeur, to hear the final lecture in the series exploring the hidden histories behind masterpieces from The National Gallery. This...
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23 April 2026
It’s always a pleasure visiting Croydon Art Space, the gallery that’s tucked behind a bright blue shop front on Lower Addiscombe Road, just five minutes walk north of East Croydon Station. On Wednesday I...
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9 April 2026
Get out the party hats and light those candles, because this May we’re celebrating ten years of championing our borough’s cultural, quirky and creative life (yes, a whole decade of the Croydonist). To mark...
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5 March 2026
Over the last month you may have walked past the ‘Art On Your Doorstep’ hoarding opposite Grants on the High Street, which on one side promotes the new Museum of Croydon exhibition ‘Croydon Art...
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19 February 2026
This year’s International Women’s Day, celebrated annually on 8 March, is just a couple of weeks away. Here in the Cronx, Culture Croydon has partnered with Idle Women – an arts, environment and social...
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29 January 2026
This week we caught up with local illustrator and surface pattern designer Diana Phiri-Witty. Diana’s designs are inspired by architecture and place, and by her Southern African heritage. With a collaborative approach rooted in...
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22 January 2026
As you’ll probably know by now, we, at the Croydonist, are rather big fans of public art. So we’re particularly excited about what’s coming around the corner, as soon, Croydon will be hosting national...
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15 January 2026
Last week we had the pleasure of meeting Angela and Ellie – two of the team members who are behind the Billinton Hill mural project – for a tour of the work-in-progress artwork currently...
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6 November 2025
Have you looked up while you’ve been walking around the town centre this week? The fourth edition of the Creative Croydon exhibition hit our streets on Sunday. In case you’re new to Croydon, this...
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4 September 2025
In case you missed it, earlier this week we launched a competition to find local artists for the fourth instalment of the Creative Croydon outdoor exhibition. Partnering with Croydon BID and our alter ego...
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21 August 2025
Romantic? Croydon? It’s not a combination of words we usually (ever?) put together. We all know Croydon has a reputation; let’s not waste time on the same old tropes. Instead, what if I said...
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31 July 2025
This August, a season of cultural events launches to celebrate 150 years since the birth of Croydon’s very own Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (born on 15 August 1875). There’s probably not many of our regular readers...
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24 July 2025
This week we chat with local artist Stathis Dimitriadis about his artistic practice as well as his upcoming group exhibition Clay in vivo, which celebrates the transformative power of unfired clay. Clay in vivo...
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19 June 2025
A team from local neurodivergent-led arts social enterprise A Collective have been commissioned to create an artwork for a new development in Factory Lane, and they want to collaborate with Croydon residents. Interested in...
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5 June 2025
Yesterday lunchtime, I popped by the Clocktower to see the Museum of Croydon’s latest exhibition, Art & Joy. The exhibition showcases work by people affected by dementia, which was created at a series of...
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22 May 2025
In the heart of Addiscombe, a moment’s walk from the tram stop, is a dry cleaners, and hidden above it is the Blue Door Gallery Space. Georgie, a local artist, has her gallery and...
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23 April 2025
I have lived in Croydon all my life and I have yet to visit Hutchinson’s Bank Nature Reserve, in New Addington. I have heard its name mentioned before, but I didn’t quite realise how...
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17 April 2025
It’s not often you get a chance to chat with four artists in one day, but that’s exactly what happened earlier this week when I attended an evening viewing of the latest show in...
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20 February 2025
This year’s International Women’s Day is just a couple of week’s away, on Saturday 8 March. The 2025 theme is #AccelerateAction for gender equality. Depressingly, stats show that at the current rate of progress,...
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6 February 2025
Wiggle Wonderland is coming to the Whitgift Centre… ‘What are all these ‘W’ words’ I hear you cry. Co-founders Lucy Grainge and Beau McCarthy describe Wiggle Wonderland as ‘a timber-framed, open-air gallery that can...
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3 October 2024
A couple of weeks ago I spent my Friday evening holding a paintbrush and sipping prosecco at Hive – the new arts space on the edge of the leafy rec in the heart of...
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12 September 2024
Earlier this week I went to a charming photography exhibition about Croydon architecture at Stanley Arts. ‘Framing Croydon: The Buildings that Shape us’ is a community-based exhibition that explores the buildings and places which...
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28 August 2024
It seems fittingly summery, to finish August immersed in nature. So this week we chat with our current social media artist and Croydon resident Mirri Rowland who runs Drawn to Nature. A watercolour artist...
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25 July 2024
This year the Creative Croydon exhibition took on a bit of a different format. We teamed up again with Croydon BID and our alter ego 31% Wool (aka our day job) to curate the...
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18 July 2024
I’m sure most people have collected something at some point in their lives: I used to collect badges and keyrings; Angela, Beanie Babies; my parents, teapots… Why am I telling you this? Well a...
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6 June 2024
This week our guest writer Shehrazade Zafar-Arif reviews the new exhibition at Croydon Art Space, on until 10 August. I almost walked right past Croydon Art Space, tucked inconspicuously as it is between grocery...
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14 March 2024
Croydon’s London Borough of Culture year is coming to a close, and to celebrate, This Is Croydon has curated a series of eclectic music events called Croydon Remix for the closing weekend, which runs...
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29 February 2024
Autistic Youth Hub is a relatively new local collective, which launched last summer as a supported space for young adults who self-identify as autistic or similarly neurodivergent. As part of This is Croydon, the...
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14 February 2024
Last week we visited the Little Manhattan exhibition, at the Croydon Clocktower, which celebrates Croydon’s striking skyline, and captures the memories of those who lived through the regeneration of the area between the 1950s...
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9 November 2023
Who doesn’t enjoy some outdoor art to brighten our streets? We were delighted when Croydon BID asked us to curate a second season of the Creative Croydon exhibition, after we brought the work of...
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1 November 2023
I recently visited local artist Kate Marsden in her studio at ASC Grafton Road. For those of you who don’t know ASC Grafton Road, it is home to over 100 studios for artists and...
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26 October 2023
This week we catch up with our current social media header artist, Divya Sharma – a multi-disciplinary artist whose current work leads with the medium of textiles and threads, she has a studio in...
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24 August 2023
The next London Borough of Culture festival on our radar is Liberty. The free arts festival celebrating the work of deaf, disabled and neurodivergent artists hits our town for three days from Friday 1...
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17 August 2023
You may remember back in February us talking about giraffes covered in art roaming our streets. No? Well if not see here. Since then Croydon BID and Wild in Art (who are the organisations...
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6 July 2023
Earlier this week we headed to Thornton Heath Library for the launch of the Rural Croydon exhibition by artist, photographer and writer Ameena Rojee. Commissioned by This Is Croydon in partnership with The National...
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29 June 2023
Last week I headed to a new art gallery in town – well a new gallery to me anyway, because actually Croydon Art Space has been just a short walk from East Croydon Station, on...
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25 May 2023
This week we chat with Croydon-based artist Melanie Russell whose art we showcased on our social media headers earlier this year. A Streatham resident, Melanie works in a studio at ASC Art House, Grafton...
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23 February 2023
Last October we went along to Croydon’s LSBU (aka Electric House) for the launch of the Croydon Stands Tall project, delivered by Croydon BID in collaboration with Wild in Art. Croydon Stands Tall is...
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2 February 2023
Earlier this week I headed to the edge of Shirley to visit Bethlem gallery and museum. The listed deco building that the two organisations share sits within the sizable grounds of Bethlem Royal Hospital...
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30 November 2022
If you’ve been out walking in Croydon over the last couple of days, you may have noticed some new art springing up around the town centre. Through the Croydonist, one of my passions is...
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10 November 2022
This week we chat with our current social media cover artist, the South Norwood based Jonny Kemp. He’s been having a very busy 2022, so you may recognise his work from South Drawood – his exhibition...
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6 September 2022
This week we chat with local artist and curator Rosie Crane Eckmire ahead of her Pill packet pottery workshop this Saturday, 10 September, which explores the therapeutic properties of clay. The workshop at Turf...
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14 August 2022
What does a huge paint brush, gargantuan tentacles, a floating pencil and a destructive beanstalk have in common? Well if you’ve been walking around the centre of Croydon over the last couple of days...
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6 July 2022
This Sunday (10 July) the South London Comic & Zine Fair lands at Stanley Arts. Organised by a team of three Croydon locals, Hannah Lee Miller, Rebecca Jones, and Pete Morey, the fair promises...
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12 May 2022
This week we catch up with our current social media header artist Cordelia Peacock on how she became a mixed media artist, her intuitive creative process, inspirations in nature and art, and more. Croydonist:...
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21 April 2022
This week we chat to South London visual artist ELNO who has recently worked with local teenage girls and non-binary teens to create a new mural in South Norwood, organised by the Croydon Living...
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5 April 2022
This week a new group art exhibition opens in the Whitgift Centre, at the Project Space, upstairs at Turf Projects. Named ‘Never Mind The Concrete’, it’s been curated by well-known Croydon artist and photographer...
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24 March 2022
If you’re a regular reader you’ll know we are running a series of Croydonist features on the climate, where we look at some of the things businesses and individuals do in Croydon to help...
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20 January 2022
The start of the year always seems a bit drab and dreary. January blues, followed by the biting chill of February. However, this year there’s the sparkle of balls, screenings, Q&As galore, storytelling and...
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13 January 2022
For our first chat of 2022 we catch up with the multi-talented Salihah Agbaje. From arts practitioner, children’s author, and podcaster, to passionate educationalist, and founder of Theatre in Education organisation Spoken World Productions,...
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21 December 2021
Croydon is jam packed with creative talent and it’s a pool that is ever expanding. On a recent trip to the Clock Tower Market in South Norwood I was pleasantly surprised by how many...
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17 November 2021
This week we catch up with arts organisation Drunken Chorus, as their free-to-attend inclusive festival of theatre, dance and cabaret, A Bit Of A Do returns to Stanley Arts. We chat to joint directors Chris Williams...
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22 September 2021
This week we chat with our current social media cover artist, Miguel Sopena. Miguel is an artist and photographer originally from Valencia, Spain, who works out of Turf’s artist studios. He trained as a...
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12 August 2021
This week we catch up with our recent social media header artist Jason Chow. Jason is a self taught illustrator who runs Prints Jason. During the second lockdown he had lots of spare time...
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30 July 2021
This week we catch up with Croydon’s first Poet Laureate, Shaniqua Benjamin, ahead of her online exhibition launching at the Museum of Croydon on Monday (2 August). The exhibition called ‘Voices of Croydon’ is...
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21 July 2021
Last week I popped by the new Conditions Shop to meet artist, educator and Conditions Studio co-founder Matthew Noel-Tod. Haven’t heard of Conditions? Read on… Conditions Shop is a new store which opened earlier...
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13 May 2021
Last autumn Centrale & Whitgift put out a call for local artists and collectives to submit ideas to be included in an art trail stretching across their shopping centres with the theme of ‘Croydon...
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22 April 2021
In recent years Croydon town centre has been synonymous with street art, and the art has gradually expanded north, to West Croydon and up – indeed Thornton Heath has a pretty awesome street art trail...
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1 April 2021
What better way to kick off a (fingers crossed) sunny but also (according to my weather app) snowy Easter weekend, than by hearing about a Croydon illustrator who creates some very joyful and Spring-like...
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25 March 2021
Whilst I was reading about architect Jane Drew, who we featured last month, I happened upon a friend of hers and fellow Croydon-born creative, Barbara Mildred Jones. Despite being a rather influential post-war artist,...
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7 January 2021
For our first creative chat of 2021 we speak to local maker Rosie Naismith, who I discovered last summer when I purchased one of her awesome Frida Kahlo fabric face masks. Better known by...
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12 November 2020
A few weeks ago we met the lovely lady behind Love a Lemon Ceramics at a workshop for local creatives at Croydon Clocktower. As soon as we saw Lemon’s beautiful and quirky bespoke ceramics...
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22 October 2020
In June this year when we met Croydon community arts company SDS we were also introduced to visual artist Tatenda Michael Manyarara who regularly works on commissions for the organisation. We were immediately taken...
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3 September 2020
This week we discovered a beautiful set of photos by local photographic artist Carole Evans, that she is turning into a photobook via Kickstarter, to document the history of her community during lockdown. Titled...
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27 August 2020
One of the events we particularly missed because of Covid this summer was Croydon Pride. It’s become a firm fixture in our calendar since 2016 and we love it for its celebratory feel, where...
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20 August 2020
Now we do like a zine at the Croydonist. An independent publication is always a labour of love, and when we saw ‘A Love Letter to Croydon’ by Waddon-based photographer Ameena Rojee we knew...
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13 August 2020
There’s so much more to brutalist architecture than grey concrete, but seeing the buildings photographed in vibrant colours is definitely unusual. Croydon-based photographer Christopher Hope-Fitch does just this with his personal project ‘Brutalism in...
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15 July 2020
This week one of our favourite Croydon-based creatives – free embroidery artist Tina Crawford – joins us as guest writer to talk about her rather extraordinary art piece she created during lockdown. ‘Connected by...
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30 April 2020
The creative work of Eleanor Suess is hard to categorise as her practice straddles the disciplines of both architecture and art. Eleanor describes herself as an architect, artist, and educator. As well as working...
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16 April 2020
I didn’t realise until recently that tucked behind Factory Lane and a stone’s throw from Ikea, there are over a hundred studios for creatives in a development called Art House Studios in Grafton Quarter....
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26 March 2020
As we adjust to our new life indoors, we are running a series of ‘Croydon at home’ articles to help us all to still fly the flag for Croydon from our sofas. This week...
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12 March 2020
As you’ll all well know by now, one of the things we love about Croydon is its iconic 60s architecture – we’ve talked about it here, quite a bit over the last few years. Imagine...
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29 January 2020
If I say the name Rich Simmons most of you will think of some of our most iconic Croydon street art. Rich’s art is sometimes political, sometimes controversial, and always stunning – he has...
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8 January 2020
What better way to start the new year than with some new art? We’ve been quite taken by some new artworks we’ve seen around town (digitally and physically) created by design duo Samantha Warren...
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18 December 2019
If you are like me and are rather disorganised when it comes to Christmas, and still have gifts to buy for friends who like art, then this is definitely for you. Turf Projects have...
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20 November 2019
I very much look forward to posts from Angela Crow on Instagram. The vibrant diversity of her art often combining pattern, landscape and the human figure (with the occasional animal) lights up my feed,...
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9 October 2019
As part of our Croydonist climate series we catch up with one of our favourite Croydon artists, Tina Crawford ahead of her exhibition at the Museum of Croydon. As a free embroidery artist Tina...
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12 September 2019
The Croydon art scene is getting a whole lot more interesting from the end of the month, as a new series of art events come to Nexus Creative Hub. Croydon native and founder of...
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21 August 2019
SimOne is an artist in demand – recently exhibiting in a collective show in New Cross and working on pop-ups all over London, from Peckham to Google’s HQ. You’ll probably recognise her vibrant work from...
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13 June 2019
A couple of weeks ago we were invited to a brunch to celebrate the official unveiling of the new art by Gavin Kinch, set over three floors of AMP House on Dingwall Road –...
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15 May 2019
Liv Healey is an artist with a fascinating and unusual muse – the orchid. Describing the flower as ‘diverse and detailed’, she creates exquisite and unexpected paintings and drawings centred around this exotic plant....
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7 March 2019
It’s International Women’s Day, and there are various fantastic celebrations taking place in and around Croydon today, this weekend, and beyond. One such celebration is a new photography exhibition called Ladies First. Which gallery,...
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21 February 2019
Like us you may have noticed striking black and white posters mysteriously popping up around town recently. Or like us, you may have started following an uber cool new instagram feed with censored faces...
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24 January 2019
Croydon’s creative community is thriving, and many local organisations are putting on awesome events for our enjoyment. Most weekends (and weekdays too) we’re spoilt for choice on events to attend, whether it be a...
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17 January 2019
Last year we saw the celebrations of a 100 years since the first women in the UK got the vote. Croydon held various events to mark the occasion. 1918 was really just the start...
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3 January 2019
First up this year we talk to Croydon stencil artist The 3rd Man, whose vivid paintings focus on the human form. His work is predominantly canvas-based but you may have spotted a few of...
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