New Addington
New Addington
New Addington is a misunderstood part of Croydon. True, it is a massive council estate cut off from the rest of civilisation by miles of fields and golf courses but the reality of life on New Addington is far more vibrant and rich than that. Big houses on big plots of land, a strong sense of community, a young population and a bubbly high street is what is on offer and with the promise of regeneration, could New Addington be about to turn an important corner?
New Addington is surrounded by countryside. Areas nearby include Selsdon (south Croydon), West Wickham and Biggin Hill. Frequent hang-outs of New Addington residents range as far as central Croydon to Tatsfield. New Addington is made up of three council estates, the newest of which is called Fieldway. The Fieldway estate has an air of independence from the rest of New Addington.
New Addington is an acquired taste and a great place to start to explore New Addington is Central Parade. It houses a popular shopping area and is the center and heart of the area. It has a mixture of shops ranging from the small independent traders to chain supermarkets such as Co-Op and Iceland. There are all the usual fast food takeaways but a distinct lack of sit-down restaurants. Central Parade has its own Library which is handy to browse but doesn’t contain much by way of variety. There is a very popular local street market that is known throughout Croydon as a good quality Farmer’s Market, this attracts visitors whilst the rest market is also known as the best place to pick up cheap “designer” clothing. New Addington has a leisure center located on Central Parade which includes a 25 meter swimming pool, teaching pool and a gym. Like the other public leisure centers in Croydon it is run by Croydon Council in partnership with Fusion. The center has long opening hours Monday to Wednesday ( 6.30am- 10pm), and is reasonably well priced.
Is New Addington a viable commuter town? New Addington is served by Trams. There are three stops: New Addington Tram Stop, King Henry’s Drive Tram Stop and Fieldway Tram Stop. Coming to New Addington on the Tram from Croydon requires the use of Tramlink Route 3, the first of the Tram Stops is Fieldway, it serves the “Fieldway” area of New Addington. King Henry’s Drive is on Tramlink route 3 too and is primarily used by residents of the Becchworth Way Area.
The New Addington Tram Stop is also on Tramlink Route 3 which starts in Wimbeldon, goes to central Croydon and ends in New Addington. This Tram Stop is close to several bus stops, where you can get the following connections:
Bus Route: 64 – New Addington – Croydon – Thornton Heath; 130 – New Addington – Norwood Junction; 314 – New Addington – Bromley – Eltham; 464 – New Addington – Biggin Hill – Tatsfield; T31 – Forestdale – New Addington (Homestead Way); T32 – New Addington – Addington Village
The commute: from one of the tram stops head to central Croydon (approx 20 mins)
Get off of Tram by East Croydon Station, board train to Central London. London Victoria in (19 mins), Blackfriars in (20mins)
Total commute time is just over 40 mins, with a two-leg journey. This isn’t too bad for a commute and you certainly get more property for your money in New Addington than almost anywhere else within a potential commute zone. Further good news is that since the Tram service was installed in 2000 the area has begun to challenge its negative image. Before 2000 New Addington was seen as extremely isolated from the rest of Croydon, with a very insular feel disguised as “community”.
An interesting fact about New Addington is that although the rest of Croydon, in fact most of Greater London uses the telephone area code 020(8), yet most of New Addington was never switched over to this system- therefore with the exception of newly installed telephone lines, the area still uses the 01689 code.
