Croydon has welcomed six new kiosks to the town centre since October with the last shop, Meltin’ Memories, opening its doors in late December.
The retail strip known as the Allders Parade, was developed by Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) on the facade of the defunct Allders department store which closed in 2013.
This comes after URW scrapped plans to build a shopping centre rivalling its branches in Shepherd’s Bush and Stratford.
Speaking outside the new development, Anne Constable, 68, who has lived in Croydon for 40 years, said: “I think it’s really nice. I used to work in Allders and sadly it’s now closed, but these shops have brightened up Croydon quite a bit.
“I think it’s lost a lot of shops, which is very sad – Croydon was buzzing back in the 70s and 80s.”
Mr Atkinson, 63, who had worked in Allders for 12 years, said: “I think it’s a good thing to keep people coming.
“We need to keep the streets open and the internet, as much as it’s very good, is killing the high-street.”
He added that for people like him who sit at home most of the time, the shops give them a reason to get out and talk to people.
Sarah, 34, said: “You can see people’s businesses closed to make way for Westfield, and it never materialised.
“I would like to see the spark back, the light back into Croydon the way it used to be – it would bring back so much to the community.”
Emmanuel, 36, who moved to central Croydon on the Westfield promise, said: “We were waiting for this for some time and we didn’t know what was going to happen, so it’s good.”
He added that he was disappointed with the wait for only six shops and the promise of a large-scale Westfield that never happened.
Cynthia Arighore, 60, who had lived in the area for over 20 years, said: “I think it’s absolutely shambles and the shops that are open are not equivalent to what was there originally.
“We need something much better and help the communities so people don’t go too far for shopping.”
A departure from the original plan, URW proposed a smaller mixed-use development that combines retail, social spaces, and housing.
However, according to Inside Croydon, planning applications that were supposed to be submitted by 2024 have been pushed back to the middle of 2026.
If they could deliver, Arighore said: “That would be far much better than just a flower shop, cake shop and all of that.”
URW were contacted for comment.
Featured image credit: Rume Otuguor
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