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Photo: Christopher Hilton, CC BY-SA 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons
London's former main airport, now disused and is now a tourist attraction.
Croydon Airport was the United Kingdom's main international airport during the interwar period. It opened in 1920, located near Croydon, then part of Surrey, using a temporary terminal, hangars and offices on Plough Lane. A new permanent terminal in a Neoclassical style opened in 1928 on the 1925-built Purley Way. The airport handled more cargo, mail, and passengers than any other UK airport at the time. Innovations at the site included the world's first air traffic control, the first airport terminal and the world's first airport hotel. It was home to Britain's first national airline, Imperial Airways, founded through a government sponsored four-airline merger in 1924. During the Second World War the airport was named RAF Croydon as its role changed to that of a fighter airfield during the Battle of Britain; and in 1943 RAF Transport Command was founded at the site, which used the airport to transport thousands of troops into and out of Europe.
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A museum highlighting Croydon in the past and present includes the Riesco Gallery. Also exhibitions on the gifted black composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875-1912) who lived most of his life in Croydon. His works include The Song of Hiawatha, a great favourite (before World War II) at the Royal Albert Hall conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent. The impressive Town Hall is adjacent.
Entertainment Venue. Includes a large 11-screen Vue Cinema, The Milan Bar (a Wetherspoons chain pub), Reflex 80s Bar and Disco, Nando's and Tiger Tiger restaurant and nightclub.
Form a fine Tudor courtyard. The almshouses now provide sheltered flats for elderly locals.
Theatre / Arts centre.
Historic Anglican church with a very ancient history. The church's website states that the church's tower in all likelihood dates from before the Norman conquest, and the first nave was probably built around 1150, though most of the present-day church was built in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
Performing Arts and Technology school owned by the BRIT Trust (known for the BRIT Awards).