September 23, 2024
According to a study by the Croydon Observatory in December 2023, ‘Croydon has the highest population compared to other boroughs in London. Retail vacancies have been steadily rising over the past few years due to store closures and a number of high street retailers entering administration.
Following a successful pilot in 2019, Croydon Council’s Placemaking team had plans to open up its Urban Room in a shopping centre in the town centre in late 2023. Through conversations, stories, exhibitions and events, the Croydon Urban Room ), aims to bring together the views of those who live, work and visit the area, to develop clear priorities for a plan to steer the town centre's recovery.
In February 2023 funding was received from Research England’s Higher Education Innovation Fund (HEIF), which is administered by the UCL Innovation and Enterprise team for Co-Production Collective to work with the Croydon Council Placemaking team to bring together a group of people who live, work and study in Croydon, to help break down barriers and shape collaborative ways of working. Originally the idea was that Co-Production Collective would run a series of workshops with residents and Croydon Council’s placemaking team within the Urban Room and co-produce a guide to how work in co-productive way together.
Then in September 2023 Croydon Council received a separate pot of funding through the Greater London Authority’s Civic Partnership Programme. This funding was for looking at specific areas within North End quarter that could be improved as well as developing an overall strategy for the area. This was a great opportunity to provide a focus to the co-production workshops and enable those taking part to shape a bid to the Greater London Authority.
We worked together with the Croydon Council Placemaking team to bring together a group of 25 people who live, work and study in Croydon of different ages, stages of life and backgrounds who may have different perspectives and experiences of the town centre, including some representatives from the council from different departments.
Attendees included youth workers and teenagers, a number of people involved in the arts, residents with an interest in the environment, local councillors, representatives from property companies with an interest in the area as well a number of people with lived experience who came via the local arts project and the charity Scope.
"I was intrigued by the idea of co-production and how local people would be engaged equally to build a collaborative vision for the future of Croydon Town Centre.”
Leoni Descartes, workshop participant
"The chance to work collectively with a group of new people to create a vision for this often misunderstood part of London was really exciting to me, as when we work together our voice and impact can be so much greater.”
Betty Owoo, workshop participant
"My involvement in the Co-Producing Croydon project stems from my passion in helping the local town get back up on its feet despite the adversity it has gone through.”
Neil Chamroo, workshop participant
“Having lived and worked in Croydon for my entire life, I was really excited and intrigued when I heard about the Co-producing Croydon project. I’d never been involved in a community project before and thought that this would be a great opportunity to see how plans and decisions concerning the town's future development are made. I was excited to be able to get my ideas for the project across and to work with other Croydon residents who I wouldn’t otherwise have meet.”
Sarah Hamill, workshop participant
"Croydon is home and a major part of who I am, helping to set the path in my creative journey. Any way I can feed into Croydon and have an impact in positive change for the borough, I'll get involved, especially when it comes to rejuvenating the Town Centre, which has lost so much and is dying a slow death. This is why I chose to get involved in the Co-producing Croydon project and was enthused to attend all four sessions.”
Shaniqua Benjamin, workshop participant.
We held four workshops between January – March 2024. The first three took place at Turf Projects, an arts organisation located in the Whitgift Centre. The last on took place in the Croydon Urban Room itself.
The workshops were facilitated by Niccola, George, Alice and Laura from Co-Production Collective working with Croydon Council’s Placemaking team. Each workshop was built on what those taking part in the workshops contributed and fed back they wanted from the previous session, via conversations and feedback forms given out at the end of each session. Outputs from the workshops were captured by graphic facilitator Sandra Howgate.
The main focus for the workshops was how we could develop ideas to improve the Croydon North End Quarter by focussing in on specific locations within this area and coming up with ideas to improve these. Whist gaining an understanding of the constraints the council were working under and what was causing these to help the group come up with viable solutions/ideas. We also talked about specific issues of concern for the group in relation to the North End Quarter, like safety (and what that means to different people), lighting and the importance and need for social and green spaces. Alongside these conversations we built in time to talk about what it means to work in a co-produced way.
The fourth and final workshop took place within the Croydon Urban Room itself. The group created an exhibition to showcase the conversations they had, had.
Sandra Howgate created four graphic illustrations that summarised what the group discussed and key ideas they came up with. You can see two of these in the photo above from the fourth workshop where participants continued to add their ideas, photos and thoughts to these for the exhibition.
The workshops surfaced some key challenges as well as opportunities for the North End Quarter of Croydon. They also came up with some great ideas for what could be done to improve specific locations as well as more general ideas about how to make Croydon town centre safer. These were incorporated into the strategy that was put together for the Greater London Authority’s Civic Partnership Programme.
“I found the workshops brought me hope about the future and were built in a way that fostered collaboration with equality and equity considered. I wanted to get involved because my voice matters. I found there were a diverse range of voices, with people who were born, live and work in Croydon represented and met some wonderful people, new faces and old. Local knowledge and experiences were given space to be heard and were valued. I'm looking forward to seeing where this goes, which is refreshing.” Leoni Descartes, Workshop participant
“Co-production amongst the group was great as everyone respected each others’ ideas, listened to each other and worked together to produce a vision that we felt would enhance Croydon's environment and ultimately present our town with a much more positive image
I really loved being part of the project and meeting new people - it has given me greater confidence to take a more active role in my community and become more involved with local groups.” Sarah Hamill, workshop participant
“My main takeaway from the workshops and whole project, was understanding that Croydon requires pretty much all of us in order to make the impacts we wish to see. We can only do this project with the unity of our people, and can only go so far without it.” Neil Chamroo workshop participant
Excitingly the Croydon Urban Room is now officially open to the public! The outputs of the Co-production workshops are displayed on the first floor of the Croydon Urban Room where the team are taking time to have conversations to the wider public. Please feel free to go to the Whitgift Centre and have a look if you are in the area and would like to!
The strategy that was put together for the Greater London Authority’s Civic Partnership Programme from what was discussed at the Co-producing Croydon workshops has been used as an evidence base to support a successful funding bid to the Mayor of London’s CPP fund.
This strategy will also provide evidence to support development of other initiatives in the town centre including the Urban Greening programme and Borough of Culture Legacy - funded by the Growth Zone.
The plan is to hold further co-production sessions in the Urban Room to shape the design and delivery of improvements to the Surrey Street Area in Croydon town centre. Watch this space! We will keep you updated on progress.
Photo Credits
Cover image by Sandra Howgate
Photo of Leoni by Biljana Biki
Photo of Neil Chamroo by Steve Brading
September 26, 2024
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