London Districts: Croydon
This episode traverses the district of 'Croydon' through a visual tour with some light history as a commentary and some area recommendations.
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Croydon is in the London Borough of Croydon spread across both London and Surrey. It's a large town directly to the south of central London in the midst of Bromley, Thornton Heath, Mitcham and Carshalton.
Originally a mediaeval market town, Croydon was the go-to place for the valuable Saffron spice and its place name is believed to be derived from this.
Croydon boasts a large shopping complex in the shape of the Centrale and the Whitgift Centre which was the largest shopping centre in London until 2008.
This Greater London town is distinctive for its TfL Tramlink light rail transport system. Croydon's version of the DLR. It began operating in 2000 as the first London tram system since 1952. All 17 miles of it are now included on the London Tube Map.
The council seems to have given tacit approval of an arts quarter over the last few years. Dozens of striking murals are emerging on walls, shutters and fences around the town centre as part of the 2015 Croydon Mural Project which has produced over 100 murals to date.
Croydon College is a further education college established in 1868 offering BTEC Diplomas, NVQs, A levels and entry level courses. For the last few years, it has maintained an Ofsted rating of 'good'. The BRIT School for performing arts and technology also lives in Croydon and has birthed a slew of notable actors and musicians.
Recently, the popular food, retail and club outlet, Boxpark, forged out of shipping containers, opened a venue in East Croydon. It has revitalised the night life and trendy image among younger punters.
The town is expected to see further changes through its Vision 2020 urban planning initiative which aims on promoting Croydon as a hub of living, retailing, culture and business with £3.5 billion committed to development projects.
The Shirley Windmill has had its fair share of life tribulations. Its been abandoned, set on fire, replaced, eaten by birds, struck by lightning, had limbs broken off and was listed for sale in the paper as an April fool's joke by school pupils in 1971.
In 1803, Croydon opened the worlds first public railway. The Surrey Iron Railway ran from Croydon to Wandsworth to facilitate the area into becoming a growing commuter town.
Today, East Croydon station is one of the U.K.’s busiest non-terminal train stations. Additionally, the large town has a West and South Croydon station but is absent of a North Croydon. There is an express train to Gatwick airport; just one replacement of the now defunct Croydon international airport, which was also the U.K.’s first. It introduced a control tower along with air-traffic control to the world after the first world war.
Neighbouring the station is the iconic 50p building, or as it is properly known, number One Croydon. Completed in 1970, it has 27 multi angular storeys stacked up to a height of 269 feet.
Saffron Square tower is currently Croydon's tallest building at 440 feet and recently won a unique architectural prize for the ugliest building in the UK. A new skyscraper is set to be built at nearly 800 feet. This will exceed the height of One Canada Square in Canary Wharf to become the U.K.’s second tallest building behind The Shard and the highest residential block.
The Fairfield halls arts, entertainment and conference centre opened in 1962. It has hosted The Beatles, Stevie Wonder, Queen, Pink Floyd and was a setting in the Da Vinci Code film.
Aside from the modern development, Croydon preserves several older structures like the Croydon minster, Addington Palace to the south and Croydon Palace; traditionally the summer residence of the arch bishop of Canterbury for over 500 years.
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Music by Yeth Thar.
Written by Lee Traquair
Filmed and edited by Dewyne Lindsay
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Trip to England, Bracknell
Trip to England, Bracknell.
This video is a brief look at a small town in England called Bracknell located close to London. Very simple but nice and calm town
My other Bracknell vids:
Snow in Bracknell -
Readind - London Waterloo
Bircham Windmill at Great Bircham King's Lynn Norfolk England
Bircham Windmill Norfolk is situated in Great Bircham near King's Lynn Norfolk England. It is a working windmill fully restored and used as a bakery. A great place to visit, and the food is home cooked.
London Districts: Brixton
Episode 26 (Series Two) is the biggest episode yet! This time, we'll have a little fun in the south London district of 'Brixton' with a usual summary outline of the past and a few present day recommendations. Hopefully you'll discover a thing or two you didn't know before and maybe a lot more if you're new to Brixton. Go on, have a butchers...
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Brixton is a district within the London Borough of Lambeth in south London.
Around 1067, a man called 'Brihtsige' built a stone structure and it became a regular community meeting place known as 'Brixis-tane', a saxon term meaning 'at the stone of Brihtsige'. Over time, Brixistane morphed into the name Brixton.
Electric Avenue was one of the first streets to have electric street lighting installed and is home to the famous Brixton market.
By the 1960’s, the markets were the go to place for Caribbean's seeking out rare things like Scotch bonnet peppers and salt-fish to make things like patties, and fritters and authentic Jerk based dishes previously only available ‘back home’.
The covered in Brixton Village & Market Row markets are intrinsically linked to the history giving the area its strong Afro-Caribbean culture and ambience.
The Barrier Block is a daunting block of flats often mistaken for Brixton Prison. It's a truly brutalist-inspired structure designed by a Polish lady. The harsh, uninviting sight of it has a fearful reputation which it has also lived up to in the past.
Brixton has birthed some of the most influential aspects of modern culture in British society since the mid-20th century.
The Brixton Splash is a street festival held on the first Sunday of every August till 7pm with sound systems, soul food stalls and live music. It celebrates the historic local culture and provides free art workshops and volunteer opportunities for the youngsters.
Windrush Square was named to mark the 50 years since the Empire Windrush ship arrived with 492 initial migrants from Jamaica three years after World War Two in 1948. It features both the United Kingdom's national war memorial to African and Caribbean service personnel who fought in the First and Second World Wars and the Grade II-listed Georgian building housing the Black Cultural Archives. The archives are free to visit Tuesday to Saturday from 10-6pm.
Brixton is just as famous for its vitality and tolerance as it is for riots and crime. It was the scene of riots in 1981 during a time of deep social unrest. To tackle the rising crime from gangs, Police attempted to carry out an extremely controversial new law; the 'sus law' which allowed stop and search procedures by plain clothed officers on the mere suspicion of possible wrongdoing by any individual.
Within 5 years, 9 cinemas were built mostly under the railway arches in Brixton. The Ritzy Picturehouse on Coldharbour Lane, opened in 1911 as the Electric Pavilion and is widely regarded as one of the first purpose-built cinemas for film in the UK. It's the only one of those 9 to still exist.
This place is a vibrant melting pot of colour, sound, people, variety, smell and activity with a rare freedom that invites you to be you, earning it much admiration and pride.
Robert David Jones was born in Brixton and became known to the world as David Bowie. He was a beloved Brixtonian and this particular mural, created in his memory, is popular with visitors and tourists.
Pop Brixton has transformed a disused plot of land into a trendy space for food and live entertainment, seven days a week, till late. Its made out of old shipping containers, a prettier version of the successful Boxpark concept.
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Filmed and edited by Dewyne Lindsay
Music by Yeth Thar.
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London's Weirdest Ghost Stories
Matt Brown tracks down London's five most ridiculous ghost stories.
London Districts: Shoreditch
A short 7-minute tour guide documentary shot in 4K on the East London district of 'Shoreditch' with full commentary and recommendations.
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The district of Shoreditch falls under the London Borough of Hackney in London's East End.
The most plausible story derives the name from the Old English term ‘Soersditch’ meaning ‘Sewer’s Ditch’.
Old Spitalfields Market dates back to 1638. It sells anything from fresh fruit and furniture to pastries and antiques.
Shoreditch is without doubt a treasured part of London well-known for art, culture, fashion and food and prides itself on creativity and quirkiness. As one mural states, the melting pot is boiling over!
The area known as the Silicon Roundabout, essentially Old Street, is emerging as ‘the third-largest technology start-up cluster after San Francisco and New York City’. Google, Amazon and Cisco have all set up shop round there. You'll be lucky to find a one-bedroom place for anything less than half a mill.
For a long time, the focal point of Shoreditch was its church. St Leonard's is referenced in the traditional English nursery rhyme 'Oranges and Lemons'.
The Boundary Estate of 1900 sits on the district boundary as the oldest council estate in London. The soil from its foundations form the circular centrepiece mound that is Arnold Circus which It loops itself around. The circus is topped off with a community garden and bandstand.
Brick Lane is a rainbow of colour and diversity, idyllic for foodies and shopaholics. It is the heart of the city's Bangladeshi community and is named this way because it was rich in clay and earth deposits which became very useful for creating bricks and tiles to rebuild areas after the Great Fire.
Brick Lane used to sell goats, snakes, monkeys and lion cubs until the RSPCA stepped in to close it down in the 80's after thousands of complaints were made. You'll find vintage clothes, unique furniture and exotic food and there over 50 curry restaurants to choose from on Brick Lane itself! A failed campaign in 2006 tried to get Aldgate East tube station renamed as Brick Lane to improve tourist trade before the 2012 Olympics.
Network Rail has gifted this land to the Nomadic Community Gardens for showcasing sculptures, paintings, weird structures, bee keeping, clothing and growing stuff. It manages to forge urban beauty from random materials and discarded junk all laced in spray paint.
Speaking of spray paint Shoreditch is the place for London street art and is used as the main reference point for areas becoming more and more littered with graffiti, stickers, murals and event posters.
Welcome to London Districts!
Spray painters tag just about everything in sight. Their designs are mostly complex requiring advanced skill to pull off. Masterpieces don't last long though. Once he finished this piece, it was replaced the very next day!
The 24/7 Beigel Bake shop is probably the most famous shop on the world-famous Brick Lane. They make thousands of salt beef bagels a day, baked from scratch in-house.
This flower market populates Columbia Road every Sunday between 8 and 3pm come rain or shine. Its a great place for flowers but the world and his wife know about it. It gets extremely busy, especially on sunny days, when crowd levels feel like the Notting Hill Carnival so arrive either very early or towards the end to walk around more easily.
Shoreditch is the birthplace of English theatre in two forms. Shakespeare’s original playhouse, The Curtain Theatre of 1577, was rediscovered in 2012 through excavation. The recovered remains will be housed in a large multi-purpose development called 'The Stage' once completed in 2021. The first playhouse in England was rightfully just called 'The Theatre'. It was dismantled and reassembled on the Bankside in Southwark as the Globe Theatre.
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Filmed and edited by Dewyne Lindsay
Music by Yeth Thar.
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The Roman Bath in London
Did you know that London has a Roman Bath .. ? Hang on, but is it actually from Roman times though? We sent Joolz from Joolzguides down to have a look ...
There's more in this article on Londonist.com here:
Original music by Relentless M.C.
See more from Julian on his excellent website at:
Middle Littleton Tythe Barn NT 06.09.11
Middle Littleton Tythe Barn, also known as Middle Littleton Tithe Barn, is a grade I listed 12th or 13th-century tithe barn in the village of Middle Littleton, near Evesham in Worcestershire. It is one of the largest and most notable tithe barns in England. The barn is constructed of a mixture of Blue Lias and Cotswold stones, with a stone tile roof. It was originally built for Evesham Abbey, which was the third largest abbey in England. There is some uncertainty about when the barn was built. The National Trust describes it as 13th-century, whereas English Heritage describe in as 14th-century[1][2] The discrepancy may be the result of a radiocarbon date of around 1250 conflicting with evidence that the barn was built in 1376 by Abbot John Ombersley of Evesham Abbey.
The barn was built to hold tithes collected for Evesham Abbey, which was the third largest abbey in England before the Dissolution of the Monasteries. The size of the barn is an indication of the importance of the abbey at this time. It is now owned and operated by the National Trust.
Doctor Who Locations In London
Doctor Who fan? With many iconic scenes being filmed here in London, we dispatched Luke Spillane to guide us round some of the spots where the TV series has been filmed.
Luke has been a Doctor Who fan for 20 years, and currently presents and works on the official Doctor Who YouTube channel ( and is constantly trying to get Doctor Who references into his improv comedy group The RH Experience (
Find other locations mapped in this piece we did a few years ago:
London Districts: Millwall
The first episode of London Districts (Series Two) explores the East London district of 'Millwall' through a visual tour including some light historical commentary as an overview. Let's peel back some of the deeper layers in these lesser known areas of London.
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Millwall makes up the eastern half of the Isle of Dogs adjacent to Cubitt Town and sits firmly inside the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Millwall started out as ‘Pomfret Manor’ where the earliest ferry would sail between Millwall and Greenwich in the 15th century. To harness the strong winds across the peninsula, 7 windmills were erected on the wide embankment walls to mill flour from the wheat and corn being brought along the River Thames Tideway. This is why Millwall is named the way it is.
Old workers of the Millwall Dock dealt in grain, timber and wool as well as flour, most notably from the McDougall family. These gardens are named after John McDougall in particular, a prominent local politician aswell.
Margaret Thatcher’s LDDC (the London Docklands Development Corporation) raised the ground level of these gardens up to the river surface to improve the view. The LDDC also coined the term ‘Docklands’ and developed the Barkantine Estate across Westferry Road along with its Quarterdeck Shopping Parade.
Millwall F.C. was founded here in 1885 before moving to New Cross in 1910. The Millwall name carries a history of football hooliganism so most islanders refer to the Millwall area today as the ‘Isle of Dogs’ to make the distinction.
Millwall Dock is also an area where several housing developments and impressive apartment towers have been developed. There is a marked contrast between the newly established living and working areas and the older neighbouring developments in the area.
The 'SS Great Eastern' was the largest ship ever to exist in 1858.
It was twice the height of Big Ben in length and too wide for the Thames upon its construction so the Millwall shipbuilding workers had no choice but to launch the ship sideways. It held 4,000 passengers and could go from Millwall to Australia without refuelling.
This is all that remains at its launch site, the Millwall Iron Works factory, which is now Burrell’s Wharf.
The most obvious transport to the area is the DLR via Island Gardens, Mudchute and Crossharbour stations. Its also served by night buses and is about 10 minutes walk to the Jubilee Line at Canary Wharf.
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Filmed and edited by Dewyne Lindsay -
Music by Yeth Thar -
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