The article does make clear that Our Green Mile and the ‘historic village’ signage are separate initiatives taking place at the same time.

The distinctions between villages and hamlets are fascinating (to me!) but judging from social media comment I’ve seen, not to everyone At some point, the Broad Green settlement/hamlet/village grew and was absorbed into the spreading town of Croydon. For me, the details are less important than the creation of a sense of history which I believe can give both local pride and a positive sense of identity – two things Broad Green has critically lacked. I would love to learn more about the area’s heritage.

I wish every success to both initiatives and hope to see real local support on the ground.

The Friends of Broad Green (formerly Broad Green Residents Association) committee would like to highlight that the “Village” road signs project is a completely different project to the organisation’s Our Green Mile project, and we have not been involved with the former. We have not seen any evidence Broad Green ever was a village.

The photo of the planter outside West Croydon Station was taken by our Chair Malcolm Bell

Coleridge-Taylor was very much a dapper Edwardian gentleman. It is reported that on his first trip to the USA travelling from Boston to Washington the train conductor having received a complaint from a white passenger asked Coleridge-Taylor to remove himself from the first class coach to third class as black folk were not permitted in first class. It is reported that Coleridge-Taylor replied “Sir I am Englishman”. Which clealry took precedence ove the colour of his skn. The amazed conductor permitted Coleridge-Taylor to remain in his seat.

Reading reports of his speeches and remarks he seems to have used his status as an English gentleman to great effect in the USA in the promotion of the rights of black folks. In my mid his conritubiton th civil rights in the USA at the start of the twentieth cnetury was in its time as significant as Martin Luther King 60 years later.

We’ve also seen many theaters demolished including The Grand, The Davis, The Theater Royal, The Empire, The Old Palladium Surrey Street, The Croydon Hippodrome, The Scala, the Civic Hall Crown Hill, Davis Picture Theater(Davis House), Savoy Cinema 1933, Eros Cinema, and Odeon Cinema.

Look me in the eye and tell me this is not a cold calculated systematic decimalization of an incredible rich culture rivaling London that had existed in Croydon and tell me that someone didn’t line their pockets doing this ongoing systematic vandalism.

NB The director David Lean saw his first films at the Scala, North End (saw his first film there in 1921- Hound of the Bakervilles). Orpheus. * Surrey Street & Palladium, 1 Surrey Street

Croydon is being turned into a soulless concrete blot on the landscape. Take a look below at the CGI of Croydon which is the vision of Westfield and Hammerson I would call them Westfield and Hammer or Westfield and Frankenstein. http://www.thecroydonpartnership.com/