So many Lewesians are refugees from South London. I was born in Croydon and grew up in Purley, famous for Jaqueline du Pre and IKEA. Native sons of Croydon include David Lean and Malcolm Muggeridge. The theatre is named for Peggy Ashcroft, born in Croydon one hundred years ago this December. Camille Pissarro married at the Registery office. D H Lawrence taught in the town.
Croydon today seems all government immigration offices, reintroduced trams and Kate Moss. Hanif Kureishi wrote recently, “I think every writer needs a picture of Kate Moss in their room”. But then, Kureishi's girlfriend is from Croydon. By contrast, executives at exclusive New York store, Barneys, criticising her Topshop fashion range, referred to Kate Moss as “a working class slag from a crap town”.
This seems hard on Croydon. A recent visit started unpromisingly. The Croydon Advertiser headline read, “West Croydon Man beaten to death in street”. Oddbins had ceased trading on 15th April.
Once ensconced in the Dog and Bull however, listening to the shouts of the traders in the Surrey Street Market outside, I was happy if not, perhaps, to the extent of wondering why I ever left. Certainly the fruit and veg prices make our farmers' market look pretty silly. Ruskin's maternal grandmother ran the Old King's Head in Market Street. Childhood visits to his Aunt Bridget afforded such a respite from the 'Great Wen' that Ruskin refers to Croydon as 'The Rivers of Paradise'. My favourite upbeat quotation comes in Phiz and Dickens (1913), Edgar Browne's account of his father, Dickens principal illustrator: “We moved to Croydon on account of my mother's health”.
And yet Hablot K. Browne is buried in Brighton.