A seven-metre gateway and an 18-metre Vic Lee mural mark 750 years of Surrey Street Market. Signs, trees and trader power upgrades come next in the £4.4m project.

A gateway standing more than seven metres tall has been unveiled at Surrey Street Market, in the year the market turns 750. A week later the council put up an 18-metre mural about its history in the High Street.

Croydon Council announced the gateway on 14 September. Its design came out of the market’s new branding, worked up by Bob Design with students from Croydon School of Art, and the decorative tiles around its base carry that branding.

The designs were drawn from the market’s produce and from three local landmarks:

  • the former Grants department store
  • the brickwork of the pumping station
  • the Victorian drinking fountain restored last year

Information panels on the gateway set out the market’s history, and the council says more heritage displays and directional signs are planned.

1276, and the names the market used to have

The anniversary is precise. Executive Mayor Jason Perry wrote in his weekly newsletter on 18 September that the town centre market was granted a Royal Charter in 1276, making this its 750th year.

Culture Croydon’s listing for the mural records that the 1276 charter established a weekly market in the triangle of streets around what is now Surrey Street, and that the market has traded under several older names: the Shambles, the Flesh Market, the Butcherie and Butcher Row.

The mural is by the South London artist Vic Lee, commissioned by Culture Croydon. It is 18 metres long, it is in the High Street, it is free to see, and it is up until 31 January 2027.

John Hickman, of the local history group Croydon Natural History and Scientific Society, told the council: “There’s been a market here for a very long time and we got involved to contribute towards the conservation of this marvellous area. The elements of the arch can be found in Surrey Street, which makes it unusual. This is just the beginning of things that are going to happen in Surrey Street over the next two or three years.”

What is built, and what is still to come

The gateway and the resurfacing of Overton’s Yard, which the council says makes access easier for traders, are the first phase. Still to come:

  • a Surrey Street sign at the northern entrance
  • new trees
  • shaded seating areas
  • new anchor points for traders’ gazebos
  • improved power supplies for traders

Croydon won the smallest of the five London grants

The £4.4m Amplifying Surrey Street project has two main funders, and the split is worth knowing because it decides how much of this is Croydon’s own money.

£3m comes from the Croydon Growth Zone, the long-running arrangement under which the council and the Greater London Authority reinvest business rates from the town centre back into it. A further £814,000 came from the Mayor of London’s Civic Partnership Programme, which the council bid for.

Bar chart of the five Civic Partnership Programme awards announced in August 2024. Brent 3.1 million pounds, Redbridge 3 million, Hackney 3 million, Lewisham 2.486 million, Croydon 814,000 pounds
Croydon's Surrey Street grant was the smallest of the five awarded. Chart by Croydon Today, from the Mayor of London's announcement of 5 August 2024.

City Hall announced the programme on 5 August 2024: £12.4m shared between five boroughs, to “create open, connected and inclusive public spaces and high streets, work with underserved communities and strengthen London’s climate resilience”. Brent took £3.1m for Neasden town centre, Redbridge £3m for Ilford, Hackney £3m for Hoxton and Lewisham £2,486,000 for its rivers project. Croydon’s £814,000 for Surrey Street was the smallest award of the five.

That is the context for the £4.4m figure. The GLA grant is under a fifth of the project; the Growth Zone, funded by business rates raised in the town centre, is carrying most of it.

What it means for you

The Caravan Gallery is on Surrey Street today. The Mayor’s newsletter says the vintage-caravan photography exhibition of Croydon’s streets and buildings is at Surrey Street Market on Friday and Saturday, 18 and 19 September, then at North End on Sunday, 11am to 5pm, as part of the final weekend of the Open House Festival. It is free and there is no booking.

Picnic in the Park is on Sunday. The council’s newsletter lists it at Grangewood Park from 1pm on Sunday 20 September, with live music, market and food stalls.

The market’s own big weekend is 3 and 4 October. Croydon Harvest returns to the town centre then, and Surrey Street trades alongside it: see our guide to Croydon Harvest and the Walnut Fair.

If you are looking for what else is on, our things to do in Croydon page carries the standing list.

Sources