People

Living Streets, Local art

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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Croydon’s iconic urban explorer

8 March 2022

We last spoke to John Grindrod as his book ‘How To Love Brutalism’ was published back in 2018. Of course a lot has happened globally since then, but the New Addington raised author and...
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Children, centre stage

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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Local 22

6 January 2022

And just like that, we’re in the first week of 2022! If you’re a regular reader you’ll know by now that we invariably start the year with a group post where we ask Croydonist...
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Shades of creation

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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250 years of black innovation and success

25 November 2021

This week we chat to the author of Black Enterprize, D. A. Miller. I first came across Dwayne’s work when Black Enterprize, which tells the stories of successful black innovators through history, was turned...
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Ghosts, ghouls, dragons and badgers

21 October 2021

You may have heard recent murmurings of dragons in South Norwood Country Park or ghosts in Stanley Halls. We wanted to find out more about the local arts organisation behind these events, so we...
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From portraits to abstraction

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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Location, location, location

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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The infinite possibilities of theatre

5 August 2021

This week we catch up with Jamal Chong who is artistic director of Croydon-based theatre company Misprint. You may remember Jamal’s name from his days as artistic director and venue manager at Theatre Utopia...
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Shaniqua’s Voices of Croydon

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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Pioneering Purley

15 July 2021

I have recently been seeking out blue plaques and creating my own running trails connecting them together (see here and here). I’ve been doing this in various locations but at the request of some...
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From Croydon to Calais

17 June 2021

This week we caught up with the lovely Joanna Scanlan to talk about her new film as well as all things Croydon. And yes I do mean the Joanna Scanlan who you’ll probably know...
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London’s taste of Barbados

10 June 2021

Croydon you are spoiling us with the extremely scrumptious taste bud teasers available at the one, the only, Big Mike’s Calypso Kitchen. Bringing flavours of the Caribbean to Croydon’s Boxpark, Big Mike’s is refreshingly...
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Addiscombe blue green run

20 May 2021

Welcome to the second in our series of blue plaque runs. Ok this one isn’t 100% blue plaque as it features a green plaque too, but it’s an optional stop, so if you want...
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Painting the town with music

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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A life from two sides

29 April 2021

Now that my days lack a train commute and I have an energetic three-year-old to tire me out, I don’t have time to read as much as I used to. However when I heard...
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Norwood’s blue plaque run

8 April 2021

Lockdown has sucked hasn’t it, but I have tried to look at the positives throughout, like not having to commute, getting chores done during the week rather than taking up my whole weekend, and...
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Croydon’s Skye

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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Croydon’s original mural artist

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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