Council-run Norwood Grove placed on heritage at risk register

CROYDON IN CRISIS: A listed building, and surrounding parkland that was bought by public subscription 100 years ago, has been declared by government agency Historic England to be at risk of neglect, decay or inappropriate development. By STEVEN DOWNES

Tory MP Chris Philp and his podgy pal, Jason Perry, were telling a park friends group last night how “protecting and maintaining our green spaces and parks is vital”.

Yet just hours earlier, government agency Historic England had announced that another of Croydon’s parks and open spaces, and the grand Victorian house that stands within it, had been placed on their “Heritage At Risk” register.

It is Croydon Council – where the Mayor is Jason Perry – that owns and is responsible for Norwood Grove, which was once described as the most beautiful park in south London.

Historic England’s register describes the state of Norwood Grove as “declining”, and under condition says that it is “Generally unsatisfactory with major localised problems”.

The 200-year-old Grade II-listed house and public gardens have, as with most of the borough’s parks under Mayor Perry, been badly neglected.

“Heritage at Risk sites come in many forms – from grand to simple buildings and structures, to large visible earthworks and to less visible buried remains,” Historic England says. “Many issues threaten these sites, from environmental to human impact.

“Assessing sites for Heritage at Risk helps us understand the overall state of England’s historic sites. The process identifies sites that are most at risk of being lost as a result of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.”

Norwood Grove sits on our side of the Croydon-Lambeth borough boundary, next to Streatham Common and the Rookery. The contrast between the efforts that have been made, between the community and the council, on either side of the borough boundary tells you all you need to know about where Mayor Perry’s priorities really lie.

One resident had cause to report a water mains leak from Norwood Grove earlier this year. It took Croydon Council almost six months to act on the reports of the resident and their local councillor before anything was done to stop the leak.

It may, in some small part, be reporting by Inside Croydon over the past couple of years that helped to raise the alarm over Norwood Grove.

The house, known as the White House was, from 1847, the home of Arthur Anderson, the Scot who founded the Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company – or P&O.

After Anderson died in 1862, ownership passed to the Nettlefolds, the family behind the engineering firm which later became Guest, Keen and Nettlefolds – or GKN. There’s a blue plaque on one side of the house to commemorate Frederick and Mary Nettlefold’s charitable works.

Following Frederick’s death in 1913, Nettlefold’s family sold the house to Croydon Corporation.

But when the parkland around Norwood Grove was under threat of sale and redevelopment, 100 years ago, a very right and proper public committee was formed, whose members included the Archbishop of Canterbury, two earls, a baron and a couple of MPs. The land was bought by public subscription.

Norwood Grove was opened to the public on November 16, 1926, by the Prince of Wales (later to become Edward VIII, the abdicating king).

But in recent years, the building and its outhouses – old stables, most recently used by the council’s parks and gardens department – have been abandoned and left to rot, and damaged by fire.

Locals fears that it is all a deliberate attempt at malign neglect by the cash-strapped council, to give them the excuse to flog off the site as being beyond repair and restoration.

In its listing of Norwood Grove, Historic England says, “A 19the Century estate developed as an early 20th Century public park following purchase by an acquisition committee set up by local residents concerned about the site’s loss to development; opened by the Prince of Wales in 1926.

“Numerous surviving C19 and early C20 features reflect both private and public development phases. Reduced maintenance has accelerated deterioration [and] multiple distinctive elements of the designed landscape are in very poor condition, including the fire-damaged stables/outbuildings.

“A strategy is needed for investment to conserve and restore key features and ensure improved maintenance.”

Mayor Perry has been silent on any plans to protect and maintain this particular green space. The local MP, Steve Reed OBE, has also been silent about the sorry goings-on in Norwood Grove.

Croydon Council can’t even be bothered to maintain the public toilets at the site, despite multiple and repeat requests: the men’s toilets are used by the lawn bowls club which still manages to operate there; the women’s toilets remain unopened, even for the use of the volunteers who do their best to keep the Grove’s grounds in some kind of order.

Norwood Grove was one of 26 sites across London to be added to Historic England’s at-risk register this year. There are now 599 sites across the capital deemed to be at risk of neglect, decay or inappropriate development.

According to the Historic England register, there are at least 15 buildings or sites in Croydon that are “at risk”, not all of them council-owned.

They include several churches, such as St Augustine’s in South Croydon and St Andrew’s on Southbridge Road, as well as Segas House on Park Lane, and the Pumping Station off Surrey Street, both of which are owned by property developers, and even a disused branch of Kennedy’s in South Norwood.

Being on the at risk register could have a silver lining for Norwood Grove, as it could bring additional funds for conservation work. Historic England said it had awarded more than £1million in grants for repairs to 11 sites in London during the last year.

Duncan Wilson, the chief executive of Historic England, said: “Heritage is so important to London.

“It’s inspirational to see how we can harness the power of our heritage to benefit local people across London.

“Together, we can save our places and find new ways to enjoy the heritage that people value so much.”

Croydon Council was asked to comment on the placing of Norwood Grove on the Historic England heritage at risk register, but failed to respond by the time of publication.

Read the CPRE London’s report on the capital’s under-threat parks, including Norwood Grove

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