Croydon – Motor City
by Sue Barr
This series of photographs is inspired by the modernist legacy of Croydon, which underwent a major expansion in the 1950s and 60. Motor transport was an integral part of the urban planners’ futurist dreams, and office blocks with aspirational names such as Apollo House, Luna House and Corinthian House were built in the centre of town around multistorey car parks. In this project, the architecture of parking expresses itself in aging ramped landscapes and Brutalist concrete, creating a scenery of abstract forms and fading Utopian ideals.
Words by Diane Smyth
