Borough in London, England
Croydon
Before Heathrow, London's main airport was in Croydon, where Amy Johnson set off for Australia and a slang term for a tight ponytail still carries the name.
Key information
- County
- Greater London
- Nation
- England
- Population
- about 390,700 (2021 Census)
- Area
- about 87 square km
- Known for
- Croydon Airport, the birth of dubstep, Surrey Street Market, Tramlink and 1960s tower blocks
- What locals are called
- Croydonians
- Famous people
- Kate Moss, Stormzy, Skream, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor
- Football clubs
- Crystal Palace (Selhurst Park)
About Croydon
The airport that was London's front door
Long before Heathrow, Croydon was London's main international airport. The airfield opened in 1920 and quickly became the capital's busiest gateway, home to Imperial Airways and its flights to Paris, Amsterdam and further afield. Its 1928 Airport House, with its control tower, is regarded as a pioneer of air traffic control. In May 1930 Amy Johnson took off from Croydon on her solo flight to Australia. The airport closed in 1959 because planes had outgrown it and Gatwick and Heathrow took over. Airport House survives as a business centre and houses the Croydon Airport Visitor Centre, which opens on selected days. The former airport hotel is a separate neighbouring building.
A pioneering railway ran here
The Surrey Iron Railway opened in 1803 between Wandsworth and Croydon, and it was an early public, horse-drawn goods railway. Horses pulled wagons along iron rails, and anyone who paid the toll could use it. Croydon kept trying new rail ideas. When the London and Croydon Railway arrived in 1839, it later experimented with an atmospheric system, in which trains were sucked along a pipe by air pressure rather than hauled by locomotives. It was short-lived, but Croydon had a go. That railway habit never really left. Tramlink, opened in 2000, put trams back on Croydon's streets after decades without them.
Archbishops, almshouses and a market older than most countries
For about five centuries the Archbishops of Canterbury kept a country residence in Croydon. The Old Palace still stands near the Minster and formerly housed Old Palace of John Whitgift School, which closed in 2025. One of those archbishops, John Whitgift, founded the Whitgift Almshouses in 1596, and the charity he created still shapes the town. His tomb is in the Minster, which burned down in 1867 and was rebuilt by George Gilbert Scott. Surrey Street Market has been trading for centuries, and a charter dating to 1276 is often cited. Stallholders still call out their prices over fruit, veg and fish, a short walk from the glass towers.
Why dubstep was born in a Croydon record shop
In the early 2000s a new sound grew out of Croydon's clubs, bedrooms and record shops: slow, heavy, bass-led and full of space. It was called dubstep, and Big Apple Records on Surrey Street became a gathering point for its first producers. Skream and Benga, both from Croydon, became its best-known names, and the sound went on to fill clubs around the world. The borough's musical list stretches further. Stormzy was born in Thornton Heath, and the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, whose cantata Hiawatha's Wedding Feast was a huge hit in Edwardian Britain, lived and worked here. Kate Moss, born in Croydon in 1974, was the face of 1990s fashion.
The Eagles of Selhurst Park
Crystal Palace moved to Selhurst Park in 1924, in a ground designed by Archibald Leitch, the great architect of football stadiums. The club took its name from the Crystal Palace, the glass exhibition hall that once stood on the hill nearby. Its nickname is the Eagles. Selhurst Park has one of English football's loudest atmospheres, with the Holmesdale Fanatics keeping up their noise and flags. On 17 May 2025 Palace beat Manchester City 1-0 at Wembley to win the FA Cup, the first major trophy in the club's history.