Croydon

For reasons we needn't go into here, I've spent a little time in Croydon over the last couple of weeks.


I think it must be a strong candidate to be voted one of the most soulless, depressing places on earth.


The road engineering -- even the hideous signage -- seem almost designed to make this an inhuman and hostile environment:


The places that have been designed as leisure destinations are, if anything, worse, with their cheap materials, appalling decor, crass layout... in fact, everything about them without exception is depressing:


It feels as if all the worst experiments in post-War British planning were tried out here, and all of them went wrong:


I'm sure there are delightful bits of Croydon. It's just that I haven't yet found one.


In fact, the only thing I like is the tram, which at least offers the hope of escape to somewhere less inhuman.