- Site-specific cases
Whilst the project focuses on Croydon town centre and it's declining high street, this is an issue spread across London. The common loss of cultural safe spaces such as pubs, black beauty shops and fried chicken shops guides the conversation towards the future of local high streets and the importance of their diversity. High streets and the typologies that inhabit them are central to daily lives and play an important social role for many. Whether or not you rely on the local high street for employment and amenities, most people will access them for transport and pedestrian routes.
The project highlights the importance of seemingly everyday spaces and the social value they hold. The existing community networks formed in these spaces should not be overlooked but instead explored and analysed as a way to inform future urban proposals to be designed sensitively and with a conscious.
Issue, site & location
Final temporary scheme implemented into the former Allder's department store.
A fried chicken shop, black beauty shop and community pub make up the front facade, with these cultural safe spaces acting as thresholds into the main community hub space. The proposal of a cinema in the hub is a historical reference to the Scala Cinema which once existed inside the Allders building.
This illustrated plan drawing of Roosters Spot in Croydon was conducted as an exploration into the melting pot of cultures found in fried chicken shops and how their design elements act as a cultural safe space for London's youth.
