ABSTRACT

Croydon is a town of two halves. With a population in 1971 of just over one-third of a million, it is the largest of all London's boroughs. Indeed, at a time when most parts of the capital are rapidly depopulating, Croydon's population has continued to rise, registering an increase often thousand through the 1960s. Croydon is, furthermore, among the richest boroughs in London. Its high rateable value (over £64 million in 1973) is in part a reflection of the large-scale commercial development which has taken place in the town in recent years (see Chapter 8), but it also reflects a high level of relative prosperity among many householders in the borough. But to say that Croydon is a growing, thriving, and prosperous town is to overlook the considerable differences which exist between different sections of its population. Foremost among these is the division between the mainly working class residents of the north and west, and the mainly middle class residents of the south and east.