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Graham Parker

Graham Thomas Parker (born 18 November 1950) is an English singer-songwriter, who is best known as the lead singer of the British band Graham Parker & the Rumour.

Early career (1960s–1976)
Parker was born in Hackney, East London, in 1950. He was a pupil at Chobham Secondary Modern School in Surrey. After the success of the Beatles, Parker and some other 12/13-year-olds formed the Deepcut Three, soon renamed the Black Rockers. None of the members actually learned to play their instruments, however, and were merely dress-up bands, adopting Beatle haircuts, black jeans and polo neck sweaters. By the time Parker was 15 he was a fan of soul music, especially Otis Redding, and would go to dance clubs in the nearby towns of Woking and Camberley where there was a thriving appreciation of soul music, Motown and ska.

Parker left school at 16 and went to work at the Animal Virus Research Institute in Pirbright, Surrey, where he bred animals for foot-and-mouth disease research. At 18 he left the job and moved to Guernsey in the Channel Islands where he took a variety of jobs, picking tomatoes, digging ditches, collecting money from pinball machines, and working in a bakery. In Guernsey he bought an acoustic guitar and began to learn fingerpicking style and began writing songs with lyrics heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the time.

Parker returned to England for a year, living in Chichester in Sussex where he worked at the Chichester Rubber Glove Factory. By 1971, he had left England again and spent time in Paris. From France, Parker hitchhiked through Spain to Morocco, where he travelled around for a year before moving to Gibraltar. In Gibraltar he worked on the docks unloading frozen foods, which he then helped deliver to supermarkets. His guitar playing and writing skills were improving, and after playing songs to a few locals in a bar, he found himself on an afternoon show on Gibraltar television where he performed two or three of his own songs. At that time, a strongly psychedelic influenced band named Pegasus often played in the same bar and asked Parker to join them. With Parker in the band playing a borrowed electric guitar, Pegasus played one show in Gibraltar before going to Tangier, Morocco, where they briefly performed in a nightclub. Parker, however, was growing out of the hippie trappings and decided the band needed to learn a few songs that involved major keys (all the songs they played were in A minor) and so taught the members some of the soul numbers he had loved as a youth, including Wilson Pickett’s "In The Midnight Hour". He also tired of the band's hippie name and renamed them Terry Burbot's Magic Mud.

In late 1972, Parker returned to England and lived with his parents, working at a petrol station around the corner from his childhood home in Deepcut. By now he was determined to pursue a career in music and worked steadily on improving his guitar playing and song writing. In late 1974 he placed an ad in Melody Maker seeking like-minded backing musicians. One of the musicians who answered the ad was Noel Brown, a guitarist who lived in south London. Brown introduced him to Paul "Bassman" Riley who had recently been a member of Chilli Willi and the Red Hot Peppers. (Brown also found Parker a gig at Southern Comfort, a tiny hamburger café on Seven Sisters Road in Finsbury Park, London where he played solo, performing a mixture of original songs and covers.) Riley thought Parker should meet Dave Robinson, the manager of the by now defunct Brinsley Schwarz band. Robinson had a small studio above the Hope & Anchor pub in Islington and began to record Parker, sometimes solo and sometimes with a few musicians behind him.

One of the songs Parker recorded was "Between You and Me." This demo version ended up on Parker's first album, Howlin' Wind, after the Rumour tried to record it but failed to achieve the natural feel of the demo. Another song, "Nothin's Gonna Pull Us Apart" was played, in demo form, on the Charlie Gillett show "Honky Tonk" on BBC London 94.9. On hearing the song, Nigel Grainge from Phonogram Records called Gillett and asked who the new singer was. By now Robinson had become Parker's manager and a deal with Phonogram was struck. Robinson then went about recruiting the musicians who would become the Rumour, and recording for Howlin’ Wind began in the winter of 1975 with Nick Lowe producing. In 1975, he recorded a few demo tracks in London with Dave Robinson, who would shortly found Stiff Records and who connected Parker with his first backing band of note, The Rumour. Parker had one track, "Back to Schooldays", released on the compilation album, A Bunch of Stiff Records for Stiff Records.

In the summer of 1975, Parker joined ex-members of three British Pub rock (United Kingdom) bands to form Graham Parker and the Rumour: Parker (lead vocals, guitar) with Brinsley Schwarz (lead guitar) and Bob Andrews (keyboards) (both ex Brinsley Schwarz), Martin Belmont (rhythm guitar, ex Ducks Deluxe) and Andrew Bodnar (bass) and Steve Goulding (drums). They began in the British pub rock scene, augmented at times by a four-man horn section known as The Rumour Horns: John "Irish" Earle (saxophone), Chris Gower (trombone), Dick Hanson (trumpet), and Ray Beavis (saxophone).

The band's first album, Howlin' Wind, was released to acclaim in April 1976 and was rapidly followed by the stylistically similar Heat Treatment. A mixture of rock, ballads, and reggae-influenced numbers, these albums reflected Parker's early influences and contained the songs which formed the core of Parker's live shows – "Black Honey", "Soul Shoes", "Lady Doctor", "Fool's Gold", and his early signature tune "Don't Ask Me Questions", which hit the top 40 in the UK Singles Chart.

Establishing a recording career in early 1976, Parker preceded two other new wave English singer-songwriters with whom he is often compared: Elvis Costello and Joe Jackson. (Costello's first single was released in 1977, and Jackson's first solo single in late 1978). Jackson said of Parker in a 1979 interview, "Graham Parker I really like. I think he's very genuine."

New direction (1977)
Graham Parker and the Rumour appeared on BBC television's Top of the Pops in 1977, performing their version of The Trammps' "Hold Back the Night" from The Pink Parker EP, a top 30 hit in the UK Singles Chart in March 1977. At this point, Parker began to change his songwriting style, hoping to break into the American market. The first fruits of this new direction appeared on Stick To Me (1977), which broke the top 20 on the UK Albums Chart.

Parker and the Rumour gained a following in Australia thanks to the support of community radio (4ZZZ, 3RRR), Sydney independent rock station Double Jay (2JJ) and the ABC's weekly pop TV show Countdown, which gave the group nationwide exposure. They made their first tour there in 1978, where they spotted rising Australian band The Sports, who subsequently supported Parker and the Rumour on their early 1979 UK tour. The group made a second Australian tour in late 1979, when Parker appeared on Countdown as a guest presenter.

Squeezing Out Sparks (1978–1979)
An official Graham Parker and The Rumour live album, The Parkerilla, issued in 1978, had nothing new: three sides were live, with versions of previously released songs; the fourth was devoted to a "disco" remake of "Hey Lord, Don't Ask Me Questions". The Parkerilla satisfied his contractual obligation to Mercury Records, freeing him to sign with Arista. Parker had long been dissatisfied with the performance of Mercury Records, finally issuing in 1979 as a single B-side "Mercury Poisoning" a song that directly attacked it. The flip side of the single was a cover of the Jackson Five song "I Want You Back (Alive)."

Graham Parker and The Rumour were one of the four support acts for Bob Dylan at the Picnic at Blackbushe on 15 July 1978. The band also opened Richard Branson's new club The Venue, London, in November 1978.

Energized by his new label, Arista Records, and with record producer Jack Nitzsche, Parker wrote the songs that would form the basis for Squeezing Out Sparks, widely held to be the best album of his career. For this album, The Rumour's brass section, prominent on all previous albums, was jettisoned.

Squeezing Out Sparks (1979) was named by Rolling Stone at No. 335 on its List of Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums of All Time. In an early 1987 Rolling Stone list of their top 100 albums from 1967 to 1987, Squeezing Out Sparks was ranked at No. 45, while Howlin' Wind came in at No. 54. The album features several of Parker's most famous songs, including "Passion Is No Ordinary Word", "You Can't Be Too Strong", and the singles "Local Girls", "Protection", and "Discovering Japan". The companion live album Live Sparks, was sent to US radio stations as part of a concerted promotional campaign.

The jettisoned brass section continued to play on other people's records, credited as The Irish Horns (on the album London Calling by The Clash) or The Rumour Brass, most notably on Katrina and the Waves' 1985 hit "Walking On Sunshine".

The end of The Rumour (1980)
Bob Andrews left The Rumour in early 1980, and was not officially replaced. However, in studio sessions for the next album, Nicky Hopkins and Danny Federici (of The E Street Band) played keyboards.

1980's The Up Escalator was Parker's highest-charting album in the UK, and was produced by Jimmy Iovine. The album featured the single "Stupefaction" and the track "Endless Night", which had guest vocals from Bruce Springsteen. The front cover of the album credited only Graham Parker, not "Graham Parker and The Rumour". The album was certified Gold in Canada (for over 50,000 copies sold).

The Up Escalator would prove to be Parker's last album with the Rumour until a reunion decades later. However, Rumour guitarist Brinsley Schwarz reunited with Parker in 1983 and played on most of his albums through to the decade's end. Other Rumour members also played with Parker in later years: bassist Andrew Bodnar would rejoin Parker from 1988 through the mid-1990s, and drummer Steve Goulding would play on Parker's 2001 album Deepcut To Nowhere.

Commercial success (1981–1990)
The 1980s were Parker's most commercially successful years, with well-financed recordings and radio and video play. His follow-up to The Up Escalator, 1982's Another Grey Area, used session musicians Nicky Hopkins and Hugh McCracken. This album charted at UK No. 40 and US No. 51, and spun off a top 50 UK single in "Temporary Beauty".

1983's The Real Macaw, with drumming by Gilson Lavis of Squeeze and Brinsley Schwarz on guitar, did not fare as well, hitting US No. 59 on the album charts but missing the UK charts altogether. However, Parker's 1985 release Steady Nerves (credited to Graham Parker and The Shot) was a moderate success and included his only US top 40 hit "Wake Up (Next to You)". The Shot was a four-piece backing band, all of whom had played on either The Real Macaw or Another Grey Area: Brinsley Schwarz (guitar), George Small (keyboards), Kevin Jenkins (bass) and Michael Braun (drums). Steady Nerves was recorded in New York City, and Parker began living mostly in the United States during this time.

Record label changes came quickly after the mid-1980s, partly accounting for the number of compilation albums in Graham Parker's discography. Particularly unproductive was Parker's tenure at Atlantic Records, where he released nothing and signed to RCA Records. He began producing his own recordings and issued The Mona Lisa's Sister. The backing band for this album included former Rumour-mates Schwarz and Bodnar; keyboardists James Hallawell and Steve Nieve; and drummer Terry Williams (replaced on one cut by Andy Duncan, and two others by Pete Thomas, who, like Nieve, was a member of Elvis Costello and the Attractions). Rolling Stone magazine ranked The Mona Lisa's Sister at No. 97 on its list of The 100 Greatest Albums of the 1980s.

The 1990s
Parker continued to record for RCA through the early 1990s. Long-time guitarist Schwarz once again left Parker after the 1989 album Human Soul. Parker's 1991 offering, Struck By Lightning, had Bodnar and Pete Thomas in the backing band, as well as guest appearances from The Band's Garth Hudson on keyboards and John Sebastian on autoharp. However, the album's chart peak of US No. 131 saw Parker dropped by the label. 1992's Burning Questions was released by Capitol Records, who promptly dropped him after the album failed to sell.

A 1994 Christmas-themed EP release (Graham Parker's Christmas Cracker) was issued on Dakota Arts Records, before Parker found a more permanent home on American independent label Razor & Tie. After the personal 12 Haunted Episodes, and 1996's Acid Bubblegum (featuring Jimmy Destri of Blondie on keyboards), Parker grew quiet in the late 1990s. However, he continued to play live fairly regularly, often working with backing band The Figgs (who, like The Rumour, when not backing Parker also issue records as a discrete unit).

To the present
Parker began a more active period in 2001, with the UK re-release of his early Rumour work, and with his third studio album for Razor & Tie, Deepcut to Nowhere. In 2003, he collaborated with Kate Pierson of the B-52's and Bill Janovitz of Buffalo Tom to record an album of lesser-known John Lennon/Paul McCartney compositions that had never been recorded by The Beatles. The album, called From a Window: Lost Songs of Lennon & McCartney, was credited to "Pierson, Parker, Janovitz". Also in 2003, Parker contributed a solo acoustic version of Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb" to the compilation album, A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd.

New solo work continued with 2004's Your Country, which saw Parker switch labels to Chicago-based indie Bloodshot Records and was co-produced by John Would at Stanley Recording in Venice, California. The album was recorded and mixed in two weeks.

Songs of No Consequence was recorded with The Figgs in 2005. A show from the ensuing tour with the Figgs was broadcast on FM radio and released as an album in 2006. In March 2007, a new full-length album, Don't Tell Columbus, was released.

In addition to his records, Parker published an illustrated science fiction novella, The Great Trouser Mystery in 1980. He published a set of short stories, Carp Fishing on Valium, in June 2000. His third book, the novel The Other Life of Brian, appeared in September 2003.

In early 2011, Parker reunited with all five original members of The Rumour to record a new album, Three Chords Good. It was released in November 2012. Music journalist, Stephen Thomas Erlewine noted that the release was "the rare reunion that simultaneously looks back while living in the present." Meanwhile, the Judd Apatow film This Is 40, in which Parker and Rumour play themselves, was released a month later, in December 2012.

The Parker/Rumour reunion continued into 2015, when their new album Mystery Glue was issued. It was followed by a short international tour, after which the reunion ended.

In April 2018, Parker signed with 100% Records, and released a brand new single titled "Dreamin'". Later, in July 2018, Parker announced Cloud Symbols, his brand new studio album to be released on 21 September 2018. The album features Parker's brand new backing band The Goldtops, which consists of Martin Belmont on guitar, Geraint Watkins on keyboards, Simon Edwards on bass, and Roy Dodds on drums. The album also features the Rumour Brass, making this their first appearance on a Graham Parker album since Stick to Me in 1977 and their first time working with Parker since the Squeezing Out Sparks tour in 1979. The album was initially to be produced by Neil Brockbank, but he died during the recording of the album and production duties for the rest of the album were passed onto Tuck Nelson and Parker himself.

He announced a solo, acoustic 40th Anniversary version of Squeezing Out Sparks, for an 13 April 2019 release. It also contains the non-album single, "Mercury Poisoning".

In September 2023, Graham Parker & the Goldtops released a new studio album Last Chance to Learn the Twist. The Goldtops lineup now included drummer Jim Russell in place of Roy Dodds.

EPs

 * Graham Parker & The Rumour
 * The Pink Parker EP (1977) – UK Singles Chart No. 24

 * Graham Parker
 * Graham Parker's Christmas Cracker EP, 1994
 * Five Loose Screws EP, 2007

Outtakes, demos, rarities, etc.

 * Loose Monkeys (outtakes), 1999
 * That's When You Know (1976 demos + Live at Marble Arch), 2001
 * The Official Art Vandelay Tapes (b-sides, rare tracks, outtakes, etc.), 2003
 * The Official Art Vandelay Tapes, Vol. 2 (b-sides, rare tracks, outtakes, etc.), 2005
 * The Middlesex Demos (1973-75 demos), 2022

Live albums
Graham Parker & the Rumour
 * Live at Marble Arch, 1976
 * At the Palladium, New York, NY, 1977
 * The Parkerilla (1978) UK No. 14, US No. 149, AUS No. 22
 * Live Sparks, 1979
 * Live in San Francisco 1979, 2009
 * Live Alone at the Freight & Salvage, 2012
 * Official Bootleg Box, 2014

Graham Parker
 * Live! Alone in America, 1989 (Recorded live in Philadelphia, October 1988)
 * Live Alone! Discovering Japan, 1993
 * Live from New York, 1996
 * BBC Live in Concert (compilation 1977–91), 1996
 * The Last Rock and Roll Tour, 1997 (with the Figgs)
 * Not If It Pleases Me (BBC sessions 1976–77), 1998
 * King Biscuit Flower Hour Presents Graham Parker (live 1983), 2003
 * Live Cuts from Somewhere, 2003 (with the Figgs)
 * Blue Highway, 2003 (Recorded live in Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois on 4 July 1988)
 * !Live Alone: The Bastard of Belgium, 2005
 * Yer Cowboy Boot, 2005
 * 103 Degrees in June, 2006 (with the Figgs)
 * Platinum Bastard, 2007
 * Live Alone at the Freight & Salvage, 2011
 * Five Old Souls: Live in Southampton, 2021 (with the Gold Tops and the Rumour Brass)

Compilation albums

 * The Best of Graham Parker and the Rumour 1980
 * Look Back in Anger: Classic Performances, 1982
 * Historia de la musica rock: Graham Parker and the Rumour, 1982
 * It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing, 1984
 * Pourin' It All Out: The Mercury Years, 1986
 * The Best of Graham Parker 1988–1991, 1992
 * Passion Is No Ordinary Word: The Graham Parker Anthology 1993
 * No Holding Back, 1996
 * Vertigo Compilation
 * Temporary Beauty, 1997
 * Stiffs & Demons
 * Master Hits, 1999
 * The Ultimate Collection
 * You Can't Be Too Strong: An Introduction to Graham Parker and the Rumour, 2001
 * Don't Ask Me Questions: The Best of Graham Parker & the Rumour (1976–1979), 2014

Tribute album appearances

 * Beat The Retreat - Songs By Richard Thompson, 1995 (song: "The Madness Of Love")
 * A Fair Forgery of Pink Floyd, 2003 (song: Pink Floyd's "Comfortably Numb")
 * Lost Songs Of Lennon & McCartney - From A Window, 2003 (Parker sings lead on five tracks)
 * The Beautiful Old, 2013 (song: "The Daring Young Man on the Flying Trapeze")

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Richard Busby

Richard Busby (22 September 1606 – 6 April 1695) was an English Anglican priest who served as head master of Westminster School for more than fifty-five years. Among the more illustrious of his pupils were Christopher Wren, Robert Hooke, Robert South, John Dryden, John Locke, Matthew Prior, Henry Purcell, Thomas Millington and Francis Atterbury.

Early life and education
Busby was born at Lutton in Lincolnshire, and educated at Westminster, where he first showed his academic promise by gaining a King's Scholarship. From Westminster, Busby duly proceeded to Christ Church, Oxford, graduating in 1628. In his thirty-third year he had already become renowned for the obstinate zeal with which he supported the falling dynasty of the Stuarts, and was rewarded for his services with the prebend and rectory of Cudworth, with the chapel of Knowle annexed, in Somerset.

Career at Westminster
In 1638, Busby became headmaster of Westminster, where his reputation as a teacher was soon established. Dr. Busby prayed publicly for King Charles I on the morning of his execution nearby, but remained in office throughout the political changes of the Commonwealth and the Restoration. Despite his unapologetic royalism, a popular anecdote held that one day the school was visited by Charles II and Busby refused to doff his hat to the king, explaining that if the boys saw him doing so, it might lead them to believe there was "a greater man on earth than himself."

As a headmaster, Busby was as famous for liberally administering corporal punishment as he was for his abilities as a teacher and mentor. Though it was said he once boasted of having birched sixteen of the bishops on the bench, many of his students would later speak affectionately of the role he played in their education. The nonconformist Anglican priest Philip Henry attributed his strong religious convictions to Busby's lessons and recalled being flogged as a student only once, and "deservedly", for lying. John Dryden dedicated his translation of the Fifth Satire of Persius to Busby in fond memory of his days at Westminster and sent his two sons to study under Busby as well. In the next century, however, Busby's reputation as a disciplinarian had eclipsed that of his scholarship and pedagogy. Alexander Pope satirised Busby in the 1743 edition of The Dunciad. The ghost of Busby comes forward, carrying a birch rod "dripping with Infants' blood, and Mothers' tears" (The Greater Dunciad IV 142) and proclaims the virtues of rote memorisation for placing a "jingling padlock" on the mind. Busby built and stocked a library that is still the classroom of the School's Head of Classics, and he wrote and edited many works for the use of his scholars. His original treatises (the best of which are his Greek and Latin grammars), as well as those he edited, remained in use for centuries. Busby also knew Arabic and Hebrew and wrote grammars in those languages for use in the school, though he does not appear to have published them.

Busby died, still in office, aged 88. Sir Charles Lyttelton relates an old story, that "ye people in ye street, when he was expiring, saw flashes and sparks of fire come out of his window, which made them run into ye house to put it out, but when they were there saw none, nor did they of ye house." He is buried in Westminster Abbey, where his memorial by the sculptor Francis Bird is located in the south transept of the building.

He left his considerable fortune to various charitable causes, and the Busby Trustees still administer his wishes.

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Richard Busby


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Beanie (seamed cap)

In New Zealand, the United States, the United Kingdom, and elsewhere, a beanie is a head-hugging brimless cap, sometimes made from triangular panels of material joined by a button at the crown and seamed together around the sides. Beanies may be made of cloth, felt, wool, leather, or silk. In many US regions and parts of Canada the term "beanie" refers to a knitted cap (often woolen), alternately called a "stocking cap" or (especially in Canada) a "toque".

Styles

One popular style of the beanie during the early half of the twentieth century was a kind of skullcap made of four or six felt panels sewn together to form the cap. The panels were often composed of two or more different contrasting colors to give them a novel and distinctive look. This type of beanie was also very popular with some colleges and fraternities, as they would often use school colors in the different panels making up the headgear.

Another style of beanie was the whoopee cap, a formed and pressed wool felted hat, with a flipped-up brim that formed a band around the bottom of the cap. The band would often have a decorative repeating zig-zag or scalloped pattern cut around the edge. This gives the whoopee cap the appearance of a silly-looking crown made of fabric, or yarn that has been knit or crocheted instead of precious metals like gold, silver, platinum, and so on. It was also quite common for schoolboys to adorn these styles of beanies with buttons and pins.

Etymology
According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the etymology is uncertain, but probably derives from the slang term "bean", meaning "head". In New Zealand and Australia, the term "beanie" is normally applied to a knit cap known as a toque in Canada and parts of the US, but also may apply to the kind of skull cap historically worn by surf lifesavers and still worn during surf sports. The non-knitted variety is normally called a "cap" in other countries.

Other explanations have referred to the cloth-covered button on the crown, which is about the size of a bean. Some academics believe that the term is instead derived from a type of headgear worn in some medieval universities. The yellow hats (bejaunus, meaning "yellowbill", later beanus, a term used for both the hats and the new students) evolved into the college beanies of later years. In the United Kingdom, the term "Benny hat" may also refer to a knitted style of head-covering. This name originally comes from the character "Benny", played by actor Paul Henry in the British Crossroads soap opera. The character appeared from the mid-1970s to the late 1980s and usually wore a knitted version of the hat.

History

A larger variant of the skullcap, the beanie was working apparel associated with blue-collar laborers, including welders, mechanics, and other tradesmen who needed to keep their hair back, but for whom a brim would be an unnecessary obstruction. Beanies do sometimes have a very small brim, less than an inch deep, around the brow front. The baseball cap evolved from this kind of beanie, with the addition of a visor to block the sun.

By the mid-1940s, beanies fell out of general popularity as a hat, in favor of cotton visored caps like the baseball cap. However, in the 1950s and possibly beyond, they were worn by college freshmen and various fraternity initiates as a form of mild hazing. For example, Lehigh University required freshmen to wear beanies, or "dinks", and other colleges including Franklin & Marshall, Gettysburg, Rutgers, Westminster College, and others may have had similar practices. Benedictine College, in Atchison, Kansas, still carries this tradition for the first week of a freshman's classes, and is said to be the only college in the US to maintain this tradition. Georgia Tech continues to provide freshmen with RAT caps, though their mandatory wear ceased in the 1960s. Wilson College continues this tradition today as a part of its Odd/Even class year "rivalry".

At Cornell University, freshman beanies (known as "dinks") were worn into the early 1960s. Dinks were not officially required, but their wearing was enforced by student peer pressure. An annual ritual was the burning of the caps in a boisterous bonfire.

Propeller beanie

In the summer of 1947, while still in high school, science fiction fanzine artist Ray Nelson, per his claim, invented the propeller beanie as part of a "spaceman" costume on a lark with some friends. He later drew it in his cartoons as emblematic shorthand for science fiction fandom. The hat became a fad, seen in media such as "Time for Beanie", and was sold widely by many manufacturers over the next decade.

The propeller beanie increased in popular use through comics and eventually made its way onto the character of Beany Boy of Beany and Cecil. Today, computer-savvy and other technically proficient people are sometimes pejoratively called propellerheads because of the one-time popularity of the propeller beanie.

In the 21st century, propeller beanies are rarely seen on the street and are primarily worn for satirical or comedic purposes. Google offers these to their newly hired employees, "Nooglers", as part of their onboarding.

In 1996, student hackers placed a giant propeller beanie on the Great Dome at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The scaled-up propeller rotated as the wind drove it like a windmill.

title: Beanie (seamed cap)


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title: Template:East of England


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Talk:Joshua Waitzkin

Picture is impersonating someone else!
This is not the true picture of Joshua. Please show the most recent of Joshua since you claim he is still alive. Why is the writer impersonating Bruce Mayrock, the true owner of that picture who died on May 30th 1969 in New York. Zilze (talk) 12:34, 2 June 2020 (UTC)

 * So this is extremely odd. The | picture in the article is definitely a picture of Joshua (see | the full photo, with two other chess grandmasters, taken in 2005, or compare to | this YouTube video of Joshua). But you're right that the entire world seems to have decided that that is a picture of Bruce Mayrock, including |in statuary.

 * I learned that today from | this Twitter thread], and came to this article's talk page to see if there'd been any discussion of it! If you look for the | photo of Mayrock ablaze, or this | newspaper photo immediately afterwards, you'll see he looks nothing like Joshua. The "Fake History Hunter" tweet earlier suggested that | this is Bruce Mayrock, whose hair and features resemble the man ablaze, at least. As to why the confusion I have no idea. — mendel ☎ _ * _ 23:01, 30 May 2021 (UTC)

Correct quotation?
Hi, I reference the quoted passage which ends with— "It was something that I loved so deeply that when I started to become alienated from it, I couldn't do it in an immature way".

To me this doesn't make sense. It seems to say the opposite of what happened in the way he left chess. Is it meant to be "I couldn't do it in a mature way" ?

Given that it implies an abrupt finality (i.e. immature) leaving, is the quote correct? Manytexts (talk) 11:18, 20 November 2020 (UTC)

A Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion
The following Wikimedia Commons file used on this page or its Wikidata item has been nominated for deletion: Participate in the deletion discussion at the. —Community Tech bot (talk) 03:36, 9 July 2022 (UTC)
 * 01.21.51.Searching.for.Bobby.Fischer.Screenshot.jpg

title: Talk:Joshua Waitzkin


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Robert South

Robert South (4 September 1634 – 8 July 1716) was an English churchman who was known for his combative preaching and his Latin poetry.

Early life
He was the son of Robert South, a London merchant, and Elizabeth Berry. He was born at Hackney, Middlesex, and was educated at Westminster School under Richard Busby, and at Christ Church, Oxford, matriculating on 11 December 1651.

Among his college exercises was a panegyric on Oliver Cromwell in Latin verse on the conclusion of peace at the end of the First Anglo-Dutch War (5 April 1654). He commenced B.A. on 24 February 1654–5. On account of his using the Book of Common Prayer John Owen, then Dean of Christ Church and vice-chancellor, unsuccessfully opposed his proceeding M.A. on 12 June 1657. South travelled on the continent, and in 1658 privately received episcopal ordination, perhaps from Thomas Sydserf. He was incorporated M.A. at Cambridge in 1659. His assize sermon at St. Mary's on 24 July 1659 was an attack on the Independents, with a sample of the humour for which South became famous. In his university sermon on 29 July 1660 he included the Presbyterians in his invective, referring to Henry Wilkinson as 'Holderforth.'

Under Charles II
He was chosen public orator to the university on 10 August 1660, an office which he held till 1677. Edward Hyde, 1st Earl of Clarendon made him his chaplain, in consequence of his oration on his installation as chancellor (15 November). On 30 March 1663 he was installed prebendary of Westminster. On 1 Oct. 1663 he was created B.D. and D.D. on letters from Clarendon. The creation was opposed in convocation by those who reckoned South a time-server. On a scrutiny, Nathaniel Crew, the senior proctor, declared the majority to be for South, who was presented by John Wallis. He was incorporated D.D. at Cambridge in 1664. Clarendon gave him in 1667 the sinecure rectory of Llanrhaiadr-y-Mochnant, Denbighshire, and on Clarendon's fall, at the end of that year, he became chaplain to James, Duke of York.

South's ridicule of the Royal Society, in an oration at the dedication of the Sheldonian Theatre, July 1669, called forth a remonstrance from Wallis, addressed to Robert Boyle. South was installed canon of Christ Church on 29 Dec. 1670.

A zealous advocate of the doctrine of passive obedience, he strongly opposed the Toleration Act, declaiming in unmeasured terms against the various Nonconformist sects. In 1676 he was appointed chaplain to Lawrence Hyde, Earl of Rochester, ambassador-extraordinary to the king of Poland, and he sent an account of his visit to Edward Pococke in a letter, dated Dantzic, 16 December 1677, which was printed along with South's Posthumous Works in 1717. In 1678 he was presented to the rectory of Islip, Oxfordshire.

He lived at Caversham, near Reading, Berkshire, where he had an estate. South was chaplain in ordinary to Charles II, but had no other preferment from him than the Westminster prebend.

Under James II
In James II's reign Rochester, then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, is said to have offered South an Irish archbishopric (Cashel was vacant, 1685–91). Rochester nominated South (November 1686) as one of two Anglican divines to discuss points of doctrine with two of the church of Rome; but James objected to South, and Simon Patrick was substituted.

Under William and Mary
At the Glorious Revolution South hesitated to transfer his allegiance, being, according to White Kennett, under the influence of William Sherlock, D.D. He at length took the oath, adopting the parliamentary fiction that James's flight constituted an abdication. He is said to have declined a bishopric vacated by a nonjuror. He opposed the scheme for a comprehension of dissenters, but was not a member either of the royal commission (13 September 1689) on the subject, or of the convocation of that year.

In 1693 South intervened anonymously in the Socinian controversy, with strong animus against Sherlock, his Animadversions on Dr Sherlock's Book, entitled a Vindication of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity (1690) being 'humbly offered to his admirers, and to himself the chief of them.' He made galling references to Sherlock's career, 'tainted with a conventicle' at the outset; vehemently assailed his earlier writings as heterodox on the doctrine of atonement, and maintained his 'new notion' of the Trinity to be tritheistic; an opinion reiterated in his Tritheism Charged upon Dr Sherlock's New Notion of the Trinity, and the Charge Made Good'' (1695). The anonymity of these attacks was transparent. It is not certain that South was the translator of A Short History of Valentinus Gentilis the Tritheist (1696) from the Latin of Benedict Aretius; the dedication to the hierarchy is in his manner, and there is a reference to Gentilis in Tritheism Charged. p. 47. South's position is mainly that of Wallis, but he chiefly devotes his learning to demolishing Sherlock. Public judgment on the controversy was expressed in William Pittis's ballad, 'The Battle Royal'. The controversy was carried into the pulpit, and made for such sharp feelings that the king interposed to stop it.

Under Queen Anne
During the greater part of the reign of Anne South remained comparatively quiet; his health was broken. He roused himself in 1710 to take part on the High Church side in the affair of Henry Sacheverell. On the death (20 May 1713) of Thomas Sprat the bishopric of Rochester and deanery of Westminster were offered to him; but he turned them down. He died at Westminster on 8 July 1716, and was buried in Westminster Abbey. South gave orders that his ashes should rest near those of Richard Busby. At the south wall of the sanctuary stands a large monument of white marble with a reclining figure, right arm on a cushion, and hand on a skull, and a closed book in the left. The background is framed by two fluted Corinthian column, on either side of an inscription tablet, surmounted by a glory, and two cherubs on drapery. On the cornice is an armorial cartouche decorated with floral festoons, between two flaming urns.

Works
He published a large number of sermons, and they appeared in a collected form in 1692 in six volumes, reaching a second edition in his lifetime in 1715. There have been several later issues; one in two volumes, with a memoir (Henry George Bohn, 1845).

His Opera posthuma Latina, including his will, his Latin poems (among them the at South's time well-known witty poem Musica incantans about the power of music), and his orations while public orator, with memoirs of his life, appeared in 1717. An edition of his works in 7 vols. was published at Oxford in 1823, another in 5 vols in 1842.

He was praised for his wit, though Mark Noble wrote that once, whilst giving a sermon to Charles II, he observed the entire congregation had gone to sleep - Noble remarks that, "Stopping and changing the tone of his voice, he called thrice to Lord Lauderdale, who, awakened, stood up: "My Lord" says South very composedly "I am sorry to interrupt your repose, but I must beg that you will not snore quite so loud, lest you should awaken his majesty", and then as calmly continued his discourse."

title: Robert South


text:
Croydon

Croydon is a large town in South London, England, 9.3 mi south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London, it is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensive shopping district. The entire town had a population of 192,064 as of 2011, whilst the wider borough had a population of 384,837.

Historically an ancient parish in the Wallington Hundred of Surrey, at the time of the Norman conquest of England Croydon had a church, a mill, and around 365 inhabitants, as recorded in the Domesday Book of 1086. Croydon expanded in the Middle Ages as a market town and a centre for charcoal production, leather tanning and brewing. The brewing industry remaining strong for hundreds of years. The Surrey Iron Railway from Croydon to Wandsworth opened in 1803 and was an early public railway. Later 19th century railway building facilitated Croydon's growth as a commuter town for London. By the early 20th century, Croydon was an important industrial area, known for car manufacture, metal working and Croydon Airport. In the mid 20th century these sectors were replaced by retailing and the service economy, brought about by massive redevelopment which saw the rise of office blocks and the Whitgift Centre, the largest shopping centre in Greater London until 2008. Historically, the town formed part of the County of Surrey, and between 1889 and 1965 a county borough, but was amalgamated into Greater London in 1965.

Croydon lies on a transport corridor between central London and the south coast of England, to the north of two high gaps in the North Downs, one taken by the A23 Brighton Road and the main railway line through Purley and Merstham and the other by the A22 from Purley to the M25 Godstone interchange. Road traffic is diverted away from a largely pedestrianised town centre, mostly consisting of North End. East Croydon railway station is a hub of the national railway system, with frequent fast services to central London, Brighton and the south coast. The town is also at the centre of the only tramway system in southern England.

Toponymy

As the vast majority of place names in the area are of Anglo-Saxon origin, the theory accepted by most philologists is that the name Croydon derives originally from the Old English croh, meaning "crocus", and denu, "valley", indicating that, like Saffron Walden in Essex, it was a centre for the cultivation of saffron. It has been argued that this cultivation is likely to have taken place in the Roman period, when the saffron crocus would have been grown to supply the London market, most probably for medicinal purposes, and particularly for the treatment of granulation of the eyelids.

There is also a plausible Brittonic origin for Croydon in the form "Crai-din" meaning "settlement near fresh water" (cf Creuddyn, Ceredigion), the name Crai (variously spelled) being found in Kent at various places even as late as the Domesday Book.

Alternative, although less probable, theories of the name's origin have been proposed. According to John Corbet Anderson: "The earliest mention of Croydon is in the joint will of Beorhtric and Aelfswth, dated about the year 962. In this Anglo-Saxon document the name is spelt [here he uses Old English characters] Crogdaene. Crog was, and still is, the Norse or Danish word for crooked, which is expressed in Anglo-Saxon by crumb, a totally different word. From the Danish came our crook and crooked. This term accurately describes the locality; it is a crooked or winding valley, in reference to the valley that runs in an oblique and serpentine course from Godstone to Croydon." Anderson challenged a claim, originally made by Andrew Coltee Ducarel, that the name came from the Old French for "chalk hill", because it was in use at least a century before the French language would have been commonly used following the Norman Conquest. However, there was no long-term Danish occupation (see Danelaw) in Surrey, which was part of Wessex, and Danish-derived nomenclature is also highly unlikely. More recently, David Bird has speculated that the name might derive from a personal name, Crocus: he suggests a family connection with the documented Chrocus, king of the Alemanni, who allegedly played a part in the proclamation of Constantine as emperor at York in AD 306.

Early history
The town lies on the line of the Roman road from London to Portslade, and there is some archaeological evidence for small-scale Roman settlement in the area: there may have been a mansio (staging-post) here. Later, in the 5th to 7th centuries, a large pagan Saxon cemetery was situated on what is now Park Lane, although the extent of any associated settlement is unknown.

By the late Saxon period Croydon was the hub of an estate belonging to the Archbishops of Canterbury. The church and the archbishops' manor house occupied the area still known as "Old Town". The archbishops used the manor house as an occasional place of residence: as lords of the manor they dominated the life of the town well into the early modern period, and as local patrons they continue to have an influence. Croydon appears in Domesday Book (1086) as Croindene, held by Archbishop Lanfranc. Its Domesday assets included 16 hides and 1 virgate of land; a church; a mill worth 5s; 38 plough-teams; 8 acre of meadow; and woodland for 200 hogs. It had a recorded population of 73 households (representing roughly 365 individuals); and its value in terms of taxes rendered was £37 10s 0d.

The church had been established in the middle Saxon period, and was probably a minster church, a base for a group of clergy living a communal life. A charter issued by King Coenwulf of Mercia refers to a council that had taken place close to the monasterium (meaning minster) of Croydon. An Anglo-Saxon will made in about 960 is witnessed by Elfsies, priest of Croydon; and the church is also mentioned in Domesday Book. The will of John de Croydon, fishmonger, dated 6 December 1347, includes a bequest to "the church of S John de Croydon", the earliest clear record of its dedication. The church still bears the arms of Archbishop Courtenay and Archbishop Chichele, believed to have been its benefactors.

In 1276 Archbishop Robert Kilwardby acquired a charter for a weekly market, and this probably marks the foundation of Croydon as an urban centre. Croydon developed into one of the main market towns of north east Surrey. The market place was laid out on the higher ground to the east of the manor house in the triangle now bounded by High Street, Surrey Street and Crown Hill. By the 16th century the manor house had become a substantial palace, used as the main summer home of the archbishops and visited by monarchs and other dignitaries. However, the palace gradually became dilapidated and surrounded by slums and stagnant ponds, and in 1781 the archbishops sold it, and in its place purchased a new residence at nearby Addington. Nevertheless, many of the buildings of the original Croydon Palace survive, and are in use today as Old Palace School.

The Parish Church (now Croydon Minster) is a Perpendicular-style church, which was remodelled in 1849 but destroyed in a great fire in 1867, after which only the tower, south porch, and outer walls remained. A new church was designed by Sir George Gilbert Scott, one of the greatest architects of the Victorian age, and opened in 1870. His design loosely followed the previous layout, with knapped flint facing and many of the original features, including several tombs. Croydon Parish Church is the burial place of six Archbishops of Canterbury: John Whitgift, Edmund Grindal, Gilbert Sheldon, William Wake, John Potter and Thomas Herring. Historically part of the Diocese of Canterbury, Croydon is now in the Diocese of Southwark. In addition to the suffragan Bishop of Croydon, the Vicar of Croydon is a preferment.

Addington Palace is a Palladian-style mansion between Addington Village and Shirley, in the London Borough of Croydon. Six archbishops lived there between 1807 and 1898, when it was sold. Between 1953 and 1996 it was the home of the Royal School of Church Music. It is now a conference and banqueting venue.

Croydon was home to the Addiscombe Military Seminary (1809–1861), at which young officers were trained for the army of the East India Company.

Croydon was a leisure destination in the mid 19th century. In 1831, one of England's most prominent architects, Decimus Burton, designed a spa and pleasure gardens below Beulah Hill and off what is now Spa Hill in a bowl of land on the south-facing side of the hill around a spring of chalybeate water. Burton was responsible for the Beulah Spa Hotel (demolished around 1935) and the layout of the grounds. Its official title was The Royal Beulah Spa and Gardens. It became a popular society venue attracting crowds to its fêtes. One widely publicised event was a "Grand Scottish Fete" on 16 September 1834 "with a tightrope performance by Pablo Fanque, the black circus performer who would later dominate the Victorian circus and achieve immortality in the Beatles song, Being for the Benefit of Mr. Kite!" The spa closed in 1856 soon after the opening nearby of the Crystal Palace which had been rebuilt on Sydenham Hill in 1854, following its success at the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park.

Horse racing in the area took place occasionally, notably during visits of Queen Elizabeth I to the archbishop. Regular meetings became established first on a course at Park Hill in 1860 and from 1866 at Woodside, where particularly good prizes were offered for the races run under National Hunt rules. In that sphere its prestige was second only to Aintree, home of the Grand National. Increasing local opposition to the presence of allegedly unruly racegoers coupled with the need to obtain a licence from the local authority led to it being closed down in 1890.

The Elizabethan Whitgift Almshouses, the "Hospital of the Holy Trinity", in the centre of Croydon at the corner of North End and George Street, were erected by Archbishop John Whitgift. He petitioned for and received permission from Queen Elizabeth I to establish a hospital and school in Croydon for the "poor, needy and impotent people" from the parishes of Croydon and Lambeth. The foundation stone was laid in 1596 and the building was completed in 1599.

The premises included the Hospital or Almshouses, providing accommodation for between 28 and 40 people, and a nearby schoolhouse and schoolmaster's house. There was a Warden in charge of the well-being of the almoners. The building takes the form of a courtyard surrounded by the chambers of the almoners and various offices.

Threatened by various reconstruction plans and road-widening schemes, the Almshouses were saved in 1923 by intervention of the House of Lords. On 21 June 1983 Queen Elizabeth II visited the Almshouses and unveiled a plaque celebrating the recently completed reconstruction of the building. On 22 March each year the laying of the foundation stone is commemorated as Founder's Day.

The Grade II listed West Croydon Baptist Church was built in 1873 by J. Theodore Barker. It is a red brick building with stone dressings. Its three bays are divided by paired Doric pilasters supporting a triglyph frieze and panelled parapet.

The Parish Church of St Michael and All Angels by John Loughborough Pearson in West Croydon was built between 1880 and 1885, and is Grade I listed.

Industrial Revolution and the railway
The development of Brighton as a fashionable resort in the 1780s increased Croydon's importance as a halt for stage coaches on the road south of London. At the beginning of the 19th century, Croydon became the terminus of two pioneering commercial transport links with London. The first, opened in 1803, was the horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway from Wandsworth, which in 1805 was extended to Merstham, as the Croydon, Merstham and Godstone Railway. The second, opened in 1809, was the Croydon Canal, which branched off the Grand Surrey Canal at Deptford. The London and Croydon Railway (an atmospheric and steam-powered railway) opened between London Bridge and West Croydon in 1839, using much of the route of the canal (which had closed in 1836). Other connections to London and the south followed.

The arrival of the railways and other communications advances in the 19th century led to a 23-fold increase in Croydon's population between 1801 and 1901. This rapid expansion of the town led to considerable health problems, especially in the damp and overcrowded working class district of Old Town. In response to this, in 1849 Croydon became one of the first towns in the country to acquire a local board of health. The Board constructed public health infrastructure including a reservoir, water supply network, sewers, a pumping station and sewage disposal works. The Surrey Street Pumping Station is Grade II listed; it was built in four phases. starting with the engine house in 1851, with a further engine house in 1862, a further extension in 1876–7 to house a compound horizontal engine and a further extension in 1912.

A growing town

In 1883 Croydon was incorporated as a borough. In 1889 it became a county borough, with a greater degree of autonomy. The new county borough council implemented the Croydon Improvement scheme in the early 1890s, which widened the High Street and cleared much of the "Middle Row" slum area. The remaining slums were cleared shortly after Second World War, with much of the population relocated to the isolated new settlement of New Addington. New stores opened and expanded in central Croydon, including Allders, Kennards and Grade II listed Grants, as well as the first Sainsbury's self-service shop in the country. There was a market on Surrey Street.

Croydon was the location of London's main airport until the Second World War. During the war, much of central Croydon was devastated by German V-1 flying bombs and V-2 rockets, and for many years the town bore the scars of the destruction. After the war, Heathrow Airport superseded Croydon Airport as London's main airport, and Croydon Airport quickly went into a decline, finally closing in 1959.

By the 1950s, with its continuing growth, the town was becoming congested, and the Council decided on another major redevelopment scheme. The Croydon Corporation Act was passed in 1956. This, coupled with national government incentives for office relocation out of Central London, led to the building of new offices and accompanying road schemes through the late 1950s and 1960s, and the town boomed as a business centre in the 1960s, with many multi-storey office blocks, an underpass, a flyover and multi-storey car parks. The redeveloped town centre has since been identified as an "edge city" – a significant urban and commercial centre in its own right, located on the outskirts of a larger metropolitan area (in this case, London).

In 1960 Croydon celebrated its millennium with a pageant held at Lloyd Park and an exhibition held at the old Croydon Aerodrome.

Modern Croydon

The growing town attracted many new buildings. The Fairfield Halls arts centre and event venue opened in 1962. Croydon developed as an important centre for shopping, with the construction of the Whitgift Centre in 1969. No. 1 Croydon (formerly the NLA Tower) designed by Richard Seifert & Partners was completed in 1970. The Warehouse Theatre opened in 1977.

The 1990s saw further changes intended to give the town a more attractive image. These included the closure of North End to vehicles in 1989 and the opening of the Croydon Clocktower arts centre in 1994. An early success of the centre was the "Picasso's Croydon Period" exhibition of March–May 1995.

The Croydon Tramlink began operation in May 2000 (see Transport section below).

The Prospect West office development was built in 1991 to 1992, and its remodelling planned in 2012 has now been completed. Renamed Interchange Croydon when it was reopened in 2014, the 180,000 square foot office development was the first new grade A office development of its size to open in Croydon for more than 20 years.

Another large shopping centre, Centrale, opened in 2004 opposite the Whitgift Centre, and adjoining the smaller Drummond Centre. House of Fraser and Debenhams are the anchor stores in the combined centre. In addition, there are plans for a large, new one billion pound shopping centre, in the form of a new Westfield shopping mall to add to the two which the company currently has in Greater London; Westfield plans to work jointly with Hammersons and to incorporate the best aspects of the two companies' designs. In November 2017, Croydon Council gave permission for the new Westfield shopping centre to be built and in January 2018, the Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, approved the regeneration scheme. Work to demolish the existing Whitgift Centre was due to begin in 2018 and Westfield Croydon was initially to open by 2022. The Westfield plans were delayed and the planning permission elapsed: however, in 2021, Croydon Council confirmed they were committed to see the Westfield Centre proceed. There are several other major plans for the town including the redevelopment of the Croydon Gateway site; and extensions of Tramlink to Purley Way, Streatham, Lewisham and Crystal Palace.

Croydon has many tall buildings such as the former Nestlé Tower (St George's House). The London Borough of Croydon's strategic planning committee in February 2013 gave the go-ahead to property fund manager Legal and General Property's plans to convert the empty 24-storey St George's House office building, occupied by Nestlé until September 2012, into 288 flats.

In 2007, events were held under the label of Croydon Exp07 to promote billions of pounds of promised projects, including swimming pools and a library. However, plans for a new shopping centre, to be called Park Place, had already been abandoned amid a scandal about cash for peerages. Also abandoned were plans for an arena near the East Croydon station, after a compulsory purchase order was rejected in 2008 at Cabinet level.

On 22 November 2011, then Mayor of London Boris Johnson announced £23m of additional funding to help redevelop the town at the Develop Croydon Conference.

Several apartment developments, for instance Altitude 25 (completed 2010), have been built in recent years, and several more are being built or planned. The construction of Saffron Square, which includes a 43-storey tower, began on Wellesley Road in 2011 and was completed in 2016. Other developments with towers over 50 floors high have been given planning approval. These include the 54-storey "Menta Tower" in Cherry Orchard Road near East Croydon station, and a 55-storey tower at One Lansdowne Road, on which construction was set to begin in early 2013. The latter is set to be Britain's tallest block of flats, including office space, a four-star hotel and a health club.

In May 2012 it was announced that Croydon had been successful in its bid to become one of twelve "Portas Pilot" towns and would receive a share of £1.2m funding to help rejuvenate its central shopping areas.

In November 2013, Central Croydon MP Gavin Barwell gave a presentation at a public meeting on the Croydon regeneration project, detailing various developments underway due to be completed in coming years.

On 26 November 2013, Croydon Council approved a redevelopment of the Town Centre by The Croydon Partnership, a joint venture by The Westfield Group and Hammerson. London Mayor Boris Johnson approved the plan the following day. The Croydon Advertiser listed the approval as an "Historic Night for Croydon".

At Ruskin Square, a Boxpark made of sea containers opened in 2016 as a temporary measure until new buildings are constructed for shops, offices and housing. The London Evening Standard said that this and other developments were reviving the town which was in the process of gentrification.

Future
A Croydon Vision 2020 plan was drawn up by Croydon Council after a 1999 study by town planning consultants EDAW. The plan includes new office blocks, apartment buildings, shopping centres and other developments, some of which have already been built. More than 2,000 new homes are planned.

A redeveloped Fairfield Halls has been planned to be the linchpin of a cultural quarter encompassing nearby College Green. Plans include an art gallery, a new college, shops and offices, with a multi-storey car park set for demolition to make space for 218 homes.

Economy
As of 2011, Croydon's annual retail turnover from comparison goods was £353 million, the fifth-highest in Greater London behind the West End, Shepherd's Bush, Stratford and Kingston upon Thames. Croydon had as of 2012 320991 sqm of total town centre floorspace, the second highest in Greater London only behind the West End.

Apart from its large central shopping district, Croydon has a number of smaller shopping areas, especially towards the southern end of the town in which are many restaurants. As of 2011, two of Croydon's restaurants were listed in The Good Food Guide.

In a 2015 study by CACI, Croydon was ranked 12th in the "Hot 100 UK retail locations" with a score of 90%.

The Zotefoams company has its headquarters in Croydon.

Status
For centuries the area lay within the Wallington hundred, an ancient Anglo-Saxon administrative division of the county of Surrey. In the later Middle Ages – probably from the late 13th century onwards – residents of the town of Croydon, as defined by boundary markers known as the "four crosses", enjoyed a degree of self-government through a town court or portmote, and a form of free tenure of property. These privileges set the area of the town apart from its rural hinterland, where the more usual and more restrictive rules of manorial tenure applied. However, Croydon did not hold any kind of formal borough status.

In 1690, the leading inhabitants petitioned William III and Mary for Croydon to be incorporated as a borough. The application was initially approved, the king authorising the drafting of a charter, but the process was then abruptly halted, apparently through the intervention of Archbishop John Tillotson, who probably feared a threat to his own authority over the town. The application was revived the following year, when Queen Mary again authorised a charter, but once again it was abandoned. A second petition in 1707 was effectively ignored.

Croydon's growth in the 19th century brought the issue of incorporation back on to the political agenda, and in 1883 the ancient parish of Croydon, apart from its exclave of Croydon Crook or Selsdon, was created a municipal borough within Surrey. In 1889, because the population was high enough, it was made a county borough, exempt from county administration.

In 1965 (under the terms of the London Government Act 1963) the County Borough of Croydon was abolished and the area was transferred to Greater London and combined with the Coulsdon and Purley Urban District to form the London Borough of Croydon.

The borough has on several occasions sought city status. (This would be a purely honorific change of title, making no practical difference to the borough's governance.) A draft petition was submitted by the County Borough to the Home Office in 1951, a more formal petition in 1954, and two more applications in 1955 and 1958. When the London Borough was created in 1965, the Council endeavoured to have it styled a City, as was the City of Westminster. Further bids for city status were made in 1977, 1992, 2000, 2002, and 2012. All have failed. The borough's predominant argument has always been its size: in 2000 it pointed out that it was "the largest town which does not have the title of City in the whole of Western Europe". The grounds on which it has been turned down have invariably been that it is (as was stated in 1992) merely "part of the London conurbation, rather than a place with a character and identity of its own". Undeterred, council representatives have more than once described Croydon as "a city in all but name". In 2008, Boris Johnson, then Mayor of London, said he would support Croydon being awarded city status.

Modern governance
The London Borough of Croydon has a Labour-controlled council with 41 Labour councillors and 29 Conservative councillors elected on 3 May 2018.

Since 2024
From 1974 to 2024, Croydon was represented by three MPs. Under the 2023 Periodic Review of Westminster constituencies, Croydon will be covered by four parliamentary constituencies from the 2024 general election: Croydon East, Croydon West, Croydon South and Streatham and Croydon North.

Until 2024
Most of the town centre lies within the Addiscombe and Fairfield wards, which form part of the Croydon Central constituency. The rest of the town centre is in the Croham ward, which is part of the Croydon South constituency. These wards are all in the London Borough of Croydon, which is responsible for services along with other agencies such as education, refuse collection, road maintenance, local planning and social care. The Addiscombe ward is currently represented by Labour Councillors. The Fairfield and Croham wards have, by contrast, habitually elected Conservative members. The sitting Member of Parliament for Croydon Central is Sarah Jones, a member of the Labour Party. The sitting Member of Parliament for Croydon South is Chris Philp, a member of the Conservatives. The Member of Parliament for Croydon North is Steve Reed, for the Labour Party.

Public services
The territorial police force is the Metropolitan Police. Their Croydon Police Station is on Park Lane opposite the Croydon Flyover.

The statutory fire and rescue service in Croydon is the London Fire Brigade (LFB) who have a fire station in Old Town, with two pumping appliances.

The nearest hospital is Croydon University Hospital (known from 1923 to 2010 as Mayday Hospital) in nearby Thornton Heath, which is part of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust. The London Ambulance Service provides the ambulance service.

Demography and population
The town of Croydon includes its neighbourhoods Addiscombe, Addington, Broad Green, Coombe, Forestdale, New Addington, Sanderstead, Selsdon, Shirley, and Waddon. The 13 electoral wards that make it up together counted a population of 192,064 in the 2011 census, forming the majority of the borough overall (pop. 384,837).

Croydon is ethnically diverse. Those who are from BAME minority background range from 19.5% in Sanderstead ward to 68.6% in Broad Green. West Thornton ward (part of Thornton Heath) is one of the most ethnically diverse areas of England.

Fairfield ward, which is the major ward covering the central town, was ethnically 40% White British, 16% Indian, and 10% Other White in the 2011 UK Census. Religiously, 46% was Christian, 21% irreligious, 13% Hindu and 8% Muslim. The most common household tenure type was either owned or privately rented. The median age was 33. In addition, the Broad Green ward was ethnically 23% White British, 13% Indian, 13% Other Asian, and 11% Black African. About 41% of household tenures were owned, while privately and socially rented each made up 29% each. The median age was 31. The Addiscombe ward was ethnically 45% White British and 10% Other White. Religiously, 52% of the population was Christian, 24% irreligious, 7% Muslim and 6% Hindu. 52% of house tenures were owned. There are 10 other wards that cover Croydon's neighbourhoods.

The median house price as of 2014 was £212,998 in Selhurst ward, one of London's lowest. The highest in the town was in Sanderstead ward, £392,500. The mean age in 2013 ranged from 32 years in Broad Green and Fieldway wards, to 43.2 years in Selsdon and Ballards ward.

Geography

Croydon town centre is near the centre of the borough of Croydon, to the north of the North Downs and the Pilgrims' Way path. To the north of Croydon are typical London districts, whereas a short distance southeast (such as Coombe and Selsdon) is green, hilly and rural land. To the west are industrial areas, part of which are in the London Borough of Sutton. The southern suburbs are mainly affluent and also hilly.

The town centre is bordered by Waddon immediately southwest of central Croydon. To the west, inside the London Borough of Sutton lies Beddington. To the north are Broad Green, Thornton Heath and Selhurst. To the south lies South Croydon, and going further south are Purley and Sanderstead. To the east lie Addiscombe and Shirley.

Croydon High Street runs from South Croydon up to the point where it meets the street called North End. North End is the main shopping street, while Croydon High Street is the main restaurant quarter.

The High Street is also home to Wrencote House, a Grade II* listed building. Dating from the late 17th or early 18th centuries, and probably built as a merchant's house, it has a distinctive "H" plan form over its four floors (including basement and attic storey). External features include a rich red brick facade with black headers, and a heavily carved and enriched wooden eaves cornice.

Wellesley Road on the A212 road forms a north–south axis through the town centre. In line with London Plan policy, there have been a number of proposals to create greater integration between East Croydon station, which lies on one side of the A212, and the town centre of Croydon, which lies on the other side of it. Croydon Vision 2020 aims to tackle this though such solutions as making the road easier for pedestrians to cross by creating a centre island pathway.

Topographically, central Croydon generally lies between 50 m (in the north) and 70 m (in the south) above sea level. Elevation significantly climbs towards the east of the town – Coombe Park peaks at about 95 m above sea level, whereas the Addington Hills, Coombe Wood and Addington Golf Course are as high as 145 m, with the southern end of New Addington having an elevation of over 160 m. To the south, Croham Hurst has a hill of 145 m, and the highest area of Croydon is the Sanderstead Plantation at 175 m. The lowest elevation is around Broad Green, about 35 m above sea level.

River Wandle
The River Wandle is a tributary of the River Thames, flowing some 9 miles (14 km) to Wandsworth and Putney from its source in Croydon. It roughly forms the borough's western boundary with the London Borough of Sutton, and for part of its length also forms the boundary between the London Boroughs of Croydon and Lambeth. One of its tributaries rises in Selhurst.

Arts

There are several arts venues. Foremost is the Fairfield Halls, opened in 1962, which consists of a large concert hall frequently used for BBC recordings, the Ashcroft Theatre and the Arnhem Gallery. Fairfield is the home of the London Mozart Players. Many famous faces have appeared at the Fairfield Halls, including the Beatles, Bucks Fizz, Omid Djalili, Robert Cray, JLS, Chuck Berry, B. B. King, Don McLean, The Monkees, Johnny Cash, Dionne Warwick, Gladys Knight, Morecambe and Wise, Tom Jones, The Stylistics, Status Quo, Level 42, A-HA, John Mayall, Jools Holland, Kenny Rogers, James Last, and Coolio. The main concert hall was used for the conference scene in the Ron Howard film The Da Vinci Code (2006). The Fairfield Halls reopened in 2019, following a programme of modernisation and refurbishment. Prior to the construction of The Fairfield Halls theatre entertainment was provided by the Theatre Royal (1868–1959) based on the high street on a site previously housing a venue known as 'the theatre'.

Croydon Clocktower, developed by the London Borough of Croydon in the mid-1990s, houses a state-of-the-art library, a performance venue in the old reference library, the David Lean Cinema (a small, independent, art-house cinema) and the Museum of Croydon, which details Croydon's history. The building links into Croydon Town Hall and some areas of the building, most notably the Braithwaite Hall, are part of the original town hall and library complex, built in 1892–1896 to a design by Charles Henman. A bronze statue of Queen Victoria was erected outside the buildings in 1903.

The Warehouse Theatre (which closed in 2012), was a studio theatre known for promoting new writing, comedy and youth theatre. It had to close because of the major Ruskin Square redevelopment, but will re-open in the future in a new larger theatre building within the new development.

The Pembroke Theatre had many productions with well-known actors before its closure in about 1962.

There are several local and small venues for comedy and community events dotted around Croydon and its districts. Croydon Youth Theatre Organisation celebrated its 40th birthday in 2005. There are several community arts groups, particularly in the large Asian community.

The Spread Eagle Theatre is a new 50-seat studio theatre. Opened in October 2013, it is situated in the town centre, 10 minutes' walk from East Croydon Station. The Spread Eagle works closely with its sister venue, the Old Joint Stock Theatre in Birmingham. Both venues champion 'big plays for small spaces' with an emphasis on new writing, supporting emerging artists and theatre companies.

A calendar titled "Rare Roundabouts of Croydon", with a picture of a different Croydon roundabout each month, has enjoyed some success.

Public art
About 60 murals were added to Croydon town centre in 2018, as part of the Rise street art festival coordinated by the Rise art gallery in Croydon.

Literature
Croydon is the setting of two poems by British Poet Laureate Sir John Betjeman, "Croydon" and "Love in a Valley".

The borough has been the residence of many renowned authors and novelists, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who set up house in Norwood, D.H. Lawrence, and French novelist Émile Zola, who lived for a time in the Queen's Hotel, Upper Norwood. Cicely Mary Barker, author and illustrator of the Flower Fairies series of books, was born in Croydon.

Croydon is the setting of novels. The now defunct airport lent itself to the mysteries The 12.30 from Croydon and Death in the Clouds, and the town is mentioned in some Sherlock Holmes mysteries.

Croydon is referred to in a rhyme dating back to the 18th century, revised in the Victorian era to:

In Jane Austen's unfinished novel The Watsons (written c.1803–1805), the heroine, Emma Watson, has a brother and sister-in-law who live in Croydon, and who urge her to join them for an extended visit. Another sister, Elizabeth, encourages the idea, commenting "there is always something lively going on at Croydon". It would appear that the plot was intended to continue with Emma moving to Croydon.

Music
The composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor (1875–1912) lived at 30 Dagnall Park, Selhurst, until his death. He grew up in Croydon and sang in the church choir at St George's and taught at the Crystal Palace School of Music and many other schools of music. He died from pneumonia after collapsing at West Croydon station. There is an impressive grave with a poem at Bandon Hill Cemetery, and exhibits about him in the Museum of Croydon.

Addington Palace housed The Royal School of Church Music from 1953 to 1996.

In addition to the Fairfield Halls, several venues in Croydon have hosted rock acts. Established in 1976, the Cartoon was a popular live music venue that closed in 2006. The Greyhound in Park Lane played host to acts such as Led Zeppelin, Jimi Hendrix, The Who, David Bowie, Queen, Siouxsie and the Banshees, The Damned, The Boomtown Rats, A-ha in (1987) and others during the 1960s and '70s. Mott The Hoople paid tribute to the town's music scene in the song Saturday Gigs. The Greyhound also saw the debut of the Electric Light Orchestra in 1972.

In the punk era Croydon had its own scene including bands such as Johnny Moped, which at one point had member Captain Sensible who later released the song "Croydon" in 1982 in tribute to his home town.

Croydon has been at the centre of the development of the dubstep genre, a relatively recent musical development that traces its roots from Jamaican dub music, UK Garage and drum and bass. Artists such as Benga and Skream, who honed their production and DJing skills whilst working at the now defunct Big Apple Records on Surrey Street, along with Norwood's Digital Mystikz, DJ Chef, Timi Korus and Thornton Heath's Plastician, form the core roster of dubstep DJs and producers. Moreover, UK rappers and grime artists Stormzy, Krept and Konan, Nadia Rose and Section Boyz all hail from or can trace their roots to the London Borough of Croydon.

In 1993, Music Week reported that Croydon's record shops were thriving. The town centre was for 30 years home to Europe's largest second-hand record store, Beano's, offering rare vinyl, CDs and books. In November 2008, it was announced that Beano's would close. The premises, off Church Street near the Grant's cinema complex, became a "market place" with stalls for rent by small business and individuals. Another, now closed, record shop was Shake Some Action which specialized in punk records at 100 Church Street. Continuing Croydon's tradition of dubstep record shops, are Reggaemasters, which opened in 2004 on Drummond Road and moved to Frith Road in 2019, and Addiscombe's DnR Vinyl, which cites Big Apple Records as its main inspiration. Ten Pin Records opened in Purley in 2022.

The oldest currently surviving shop in Croydon is 46 South End, which is a music shop. Dating back to the 16th century, this Grade II listed building still retains all its original Tudor features. Records show that the premises has been a shop for at least 163 years, where street directories from 1851 give the names of E. C. Johnson & Thorpe.

Croydon is home to the BRIT School for performing arts and technology, based in Selhurst, which has produced stars such as Adele, Jessie J, Amy Winehouse, Leona Lewis, Katie Melua, Katy B, Kate Nash, Imogen Heap, Rizzle Kicks, Dane Bowers and members of the Feeling & the Kooks. Independent of such institutions, Croydon is also the home of artists such as Nosferatu D2, Frankmusik, Noisettes, and Saint Etienne.

Club Soda is a music charity supporting artists with learning disabilities, their artists include The Carbonators. They run a regular club night called Soda Beat.

Media
Croydon plays host to the popular Channel 4 show Peep Show. The ITV police drama The Bill, although set in East London, was filmed in Croydon and many of the town centre locations were filmed around Surrey Street and St George's House (the Nestle building). Sun Hill Police Station is in nearby Mitcham. The opening credit sequence for the sitcom Terry and June featured the eponymous stars walking around the Whitgift Centre and the Fairfield Halls. In 2007, the music video for pop star Mika's single "Big Girl (You Are Beautiful)" was shot in various locations around the town, including High Street and Surrey Street Market. The Delta Point building, close to West Croydon station appeared in the film The Dark Knight Rises as Gotham General Hospital. The 2018 interactive film, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch featured several scenes shot in Croydon, such as St George's Walk and No.1 Croydon.

Croydon has its own fully independent television station: it does not receive any government or local authority grant or funding and is supported by donations, sponsorship and by commercial advertising. In 2012, Croydon Radio, an internet radio station, began in the area.

Parks and open spaces
The borough has many woods for walking in, which together account for 8.5% of Greater London's woodland resource (626.46 hectares). These include Lloyd Park and Croham Hurst.

Among several other parks and open spaces around Croydon, there is an area of landscaped green space in the town centre called Queens Gardens; it is adjacent to the town hall and Clocktower art centre.

Croydon holds one of the sources of the River Wandle. The river being a rare chalk stream. The Wandle Trail enables walkers to walk main off-road to London. The Vanguard Way is an off-road walk from Croydon to Newhaven (Britain's South Coast) intersecting the London Outer Orbital Path, North Downs Way and the Pilgrims' Way.

Clubs and teams
The most prominent sports club in the borough is Crystal Palace Football Club, based in the north of the borough since 1918. Palace play at the purpose-built stadium of Selhurst Park, which the club moved to in 1924 from the Nest, its first Croydon-based stadium. The Nest had previously been the home of the defunct Croydon Common Football Club and sat next to Selhurst station. Palace won promotion to the Premier League (the top tier of football in England) at the end of the 2012–13 season. Croydon has a Non-League football club, Croydon F.C. who play at Croydon Sports Arena. Sunday League team Purley Saint Germain also play at Croydon Sports Arena.

Streatham-Croydon RFC, founded in 1871, is one of Greater London's oldest extant rugby union clubs, playing just north of the town centre at Frant Road in Thornton Heath.

Croydon Amphibians SC plays in Division 2 British Waterpolo League. In 2008, the team won the National League Division 3.

The borough also has a women's roller derby team called Croydon Roller Derby, which trains in Carshalton. The team was established in the early part of this decade and has played both national and international teams including Roller Derby Madrid, Stuttgart Valley Rollergirlz and Oxford Roller Derby. The sport is full-contact and played on quad skates with players skating round an elliptical track.

Heavy Rail
Croydon is served by East Croydon, South Croydon and West Croydon railway stations. East Croydon and South Croydon are served by Govia Thameslink Railway, operating under the Southern and Thameslink brands via the Brighton Main Line. West Croydon is served by London Overground and Southern services. The largest and busiest of the three stations is East Croydon, although West Croydon is located closer to Croydon's main shopping district.

Light Rail
The Tramlink tram system opened in 2000; Croydon is its hub. Its network consists of two main lines, from Elmers End or Beckenham to Wimbledon, and from New Addington to West Croydon, with all trams running via a loop in central Croydon. It is the only tram system in Greater London. It serves Mitcham, Woodside, Addiscombe and the Purley Way retail and industrial area.

The system was previously known as the "Croydon Tramlink", having been established under the Croydon Tramlink Act 1994.

Road
A few miles to the south of Croydon is a small gap in the North Downs, a route for transport from London to the south coast. The London to Brighton road used to pass through the town on North End before the A23 Purley Way was built to the west. Transport for London operates many bus routes in and around Croydon. Most buses serve West Croydon bus station, next to the railway station and tram stop.

Croydon's early transport links
The horse-drawn Surrey Iron Railway was an early public railway. It was opened in 1803, had double track, was some 8.5 mi long and ran from Wandsworth to Croydon, at what is now Reeves Corner. In 1805 it was extended to Merstham as the Croydon, Merstham, and Godstone Railway. The railway boom of the 1840s brought superior and faster steam lines and it closed in 1846. The route is followed in part by the modern Tramlink. The last remaining sections of rail can be seen behind railings in a corner of Rotary Field in Purley.

With the opening of the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway line to London Victoria in 1860 extra platforms were provided at East Croydon, which the LBSCR treated as a separate station named New Croydon. The South Eastern Railway (SER) was excluded from this station, which ran exclusively LBSCR services to London at fares cheaper than those the SER offered from the original station. In 1864, the LBSCR obtained authorisation to construct a $1/2$-mile long branch line into the heart of the town centre near Katharine Street, where Croydon Central station was built. The line opened in 1868 but enjoyed little success and closed in 1871, only to reopen in 1886 under pressure from the Town Council before finally closing in 1890. The station was subsequently demolished and replaced by the Town Hall. In 1897–98, East Croydon and New Croydon were merged into a single station with three island platforms, which remain today, but the two stations kept separate booking accounts until 1924.

The Croydon Canal ran for 9.5 mi from what is now West Croydon station. It travelled north largely along the course of the present railway line to New Cross Gate, where it joined the Grand Surrey Canal and went on into the River Thames. It opened in 1809 and had 28 locks. It had a strong competitor in the Surrey Iron Railway and was never a financial success. It sold out to the London & Croydon Railway in 1836. The lake at South Norwood is the former reservoir for the canal.

Croydon Airport on Purley Way was the main airport for London until it was superseded by Heathrow Airport and Gatwick Airport. It opened on 29 March 1920 by combining two smaller airfields used for defence in World War I. It developed into one of the great airports of the world during the 1920s and 1930s. It welcomed the world's pioneer aviators in its heyday. As aviation technology progressed and aircraft became larger and more numerous, it was recognised in 1952 that the airport would be too small to cope with increasing air traffic and its role was decreased.. The last scheduled flight departed on 30 September 1959. The air terminal, now known as Airport House adjoining Purley Way to the west of the town, has been restored and has a museum open one day a month. The name "Croydon Airport" is still used as a landmark and as a bus stop designation.

RAF Kenley was another significant airfield during the war years and now is used for gliding.

Notable people

 * Peggy Ashcroft (1907–1991), actress, was born in Croydon, lived in George Street as a child and attended Croydon High School; honoured in the name of the Ashcroft Theatre, part of the Fairfield Halls
 * Lionel Atwill (1885–1946), stage and screen actor, was born in Croydon
 * Robert Barclay (1833–1876), an English Quaker historiographer
 * Jon Benjamin (1964–), Chief Executive of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, born and grew up in Croydon
 * Alex Brooker (1984–), Journalist, born in Croydon
 * Raymond Chandler (1888–1959), American detective fiction writer, lived in Upper Norwood as a schoolboy
 * Anne Clark (1960–), electronic music artist and poet, was born in Croydon
 * Carlton Cole (1983–), English footballer, born in Croydon
 * Kit Connor (2004–), Actor known for Rocketman and Heartstopper on Netflix, born and raised in Croydon
 * Roger Ward Crosskey (1930–2017), entomologist, born in Croydon
 * Sir Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930), Scottish-born fiction writer, lived at No. 12 Tennison Road, South Norwood and featured the area in some of his Sherlock Holmes detective stories
 * Jane Drew (1911–1996), modernist architect, born in Thornton Heath and head girl at Croydon High School
 * Havelock Ellis (1859–1939), sexologist, born in Croydon
 * Russell Floyd (1962-), actor & director
 * Paul Garelli (1924–2006), French Assyriologist, born in Croydon
 * Ben Haenow (1985–), pop singer, winner of The X Factor (UK series 11), born in Croydon
 * Roy Hodgson (1947–), Crystal Palace and former England manager, born and grew up in Croydon
 * Tom Holland (1996–), actor in five Marvel Cinematic Universe films, educated at the BRIT School
 * William Forster Lanchester, FRSE (1875–1953), zoologist, born and raised in Croydon
 * Eden Kane (born Richard Graham Sarstedt) (1940–), singer and older brother of Peter and Robin Sarstedt
 * Rachel Khoo (1980–), cook, editor-in-chief of online lifestyle magazine Khoollect, with her own BBC series
 * George Knowland (1922–1945), Victoria Cross recipient, went to Elmwood Junior School
 * Nish Kumar (1985–), comedian, born in Wandsworth and raised in Croydon
 * D. H. Lawrence (1885–1930), novelist, lived at 12 Colworth Road, Addiscombe, 1908–1912 whilst a teacher at Davidson Road School
 * David Lean (1908–1991), film director, born in Croydon
 * Mike Leeder, Hong Kong based Casting Director and Film Producer, born and raised in Croydon. Worked at Allders of Croydon, before relocating to Hong Kong in 1989.
 * Miles Malleson (1888–1969), actor, playwright. (Born in Avondale Road)
 * Kirsty MacColl (1959–2000), singer and songwriter, born and grew up in Selsdon, Croydon
 * David McAlmont (1967–), singer, songwriter, writer, historian; born at St Mary's Maternity Hospital, attended Broadmead Primary
 * Ralph McTell (1944–), musician, composer of "Streets of London", was brought up in Croydon
 * Katie Melua (1984–), musician, singer and songwriter, attended the BRIT School
 * Kate Moss (1974–), model, attended Riddlesdown High School
 * Malcolm Muggeridge (1903–1990), author and media personality, the son of H. T. Muggeridge, a prominent Croydon Labour councillor, and taught at John Ruskin Central School in the 1920s
 * Sue Perkins (1969–), broadcaster, comedian. Raised in Croydon.
 * Lucy Porter (1973–), comedian, born in Croydon
 * Jason Puncheon (1986–), professional footballer playing in midfield for Pafos FC (Cyprus)
 * Flora Sandes (1876–1956) British WW1 Sergeant Serbian Army lived in Thornton Heath
 * Peter Sarstedt (1941–2017), singer, winner of Ivor Novello Award, lived in Croydon as a teenager
 * Robin Sarstedt (1944–), singer and younger brother of Peter
 * Hannah Schmitz (1985–), Principal Strategy Engineer at Red Bull Racing, attended Croydon High School
 * Captain Sensible (born Raymond Burns) (1954–), guitarist with The Damned, attended school in South Norwood
 * Ashraf Sinclair (1979–2020), Malaysian actor, born in Croydon
 * Emile Smith Rowe (2000–), professional football player, born in Thornton Heath before relocating to North London
 * Dan Stevens (1982–), actor, born in Croydon
 * Stormzy (1993–) UK grime rapper, born in Croydon
 * Aaron Wan-Bissaka (1997–), English footballer, born in Croydon
 * Alfred Russel Wallace (1823–1913) naturalist, scientist lived in Croydon for three years
 * Algy Ward (born Alaisdair Terry Mackie Ward) (1959–2023), bass guitarist and musician with The Saints, The Damned, and Tank, born in Croydon
 * Amy Winehouse (1983–2011), singer, attended the BRIT School
 * Edward Woodward (1930–2009), actor, born and for many years lived in Croydon
 * Wilfried Zaha (1992–), professional football player, grew up in Thornton Heath and attended Selsdon High School

Education
The town is home to Croydon College, with its main site on Park Lane and College Road near East Croydon station. It has over 13,000 students attending one of its three sub-colleges. The sub-colleges were created in 2007. The three sub-colleges are the Croydon Sixth Form College, Croydon Skills and Enterprise College and the Croydon Higher Education College. The Higher Education College offers university-level education in a range of subjects from Law through to Fine Art. Croydon Skills and Enterprise College delivers training and education opportunities.

The town has several fee-paying schools, three of which are part of the Whitgift Foundation. Two are boys' schools (though Trinity School has a co-educational sixth form): Whitgift School was situated near the Almshouses until 1931 when it moved to its current site in Haling Park in South Croydon, the Middle School (renamed Trinity School of John Whitgift in 1954) remained on the site until 1965 when it moved to Shirley Park. A direct grant grammar school until 1968, it is now a member of the Headmasters' Conference. Old Palace School, an independent girls' school situated in the old Summer Palace of the Archbishops of Canterbury, joined the Whitgift Foundation group of schools in 1993. Croham Hurst School, an independent girls' school in South Croydon, became part of Old Palace in 2007 and its old buildings are now used as the Old Palace junior school. The site of the old Whitgift grammar school is now the Whitgift shopping centre whose freehold is owned by the Whitgift Foundation.

Croydon is also home to three single-sex Catholic state schools. The formerly independent John Fisher School in Purley has not charged fees since the late 1970s, but during the 1990s was selective, choosing boys via exams, interviews, tests, previous school reports and written statements.. The school ended its selection policy in 1999, and now accepts pupils under a points system, which favours those who have high mass attendance. Coloma Convent Girls' School is a Catholic girls' school formerly a grammar school, it has now, like John Fisher, adopted points-based admission criteria. St. Joseph's College, on Beulah Hill in Upper Norwood, is a boys' school with a mixed sixth form. Thomas More is a Catholic mixed state school.

Croydon High School for Girls is an independent (fee paying) girls' school in Selsdon, and a member of the Girls' Day School Trust.

Royal Russell School is a co-educational independent (fee paying) boarding and day school in South Croydon and is a member of the Headmasters' Conference.

title: Croydon


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William Sherlock

William Sherlock (c. 1639/1641 – June 19, 1707) was an English church leader.

Life
He was born at Southwark, the son of a tradesman, and was educated at St Saviour's Grammar School and Eton, and then at Peterhouse, Cambridge. In 1669 he became rector of St George's, Botolph Lane, London, and in 1681, he was appointed a prebendary of St Paul's. In 1684 he was made Master of the Temple.

In 1686, he was reproved for his antipapal preaching and his controversy with the king's chaplain, Lewis Sabran; his pension was stopped. After the Glorious Revolution, he was suspended for refusing the oaths to William III and Mary II but yielded before losing his position.

He became Dean of St Paul's in 1691.

About this time he became involved in the Socinian controversy over Unitarian ideas. In 1690 and 1693, he published works on the doctrine of the Trinity, which ironically helped rather than injured the Socinian cause and involved him in a controversy with Robert South and others. His doctrine was even condemned as heretical at Oxford University. Sherlock defended himself in The Distinction... and Present State... (both 1696), which however practically gave up on the positions that had been impugned.

He died at Hampstead in 1707. By his wife, Elizabeth (née Gardner), he was the father of Bishop Thomas Sherlock.

Works

 * The Knowledge of Jesus Christ and Union with Him (1674), which showed his tendencies toward controversy by an attack on Puritan theologian John Owen.
 * A Practical Discourse of Religious Assemblies (1681)
 * The Case of Resistance of the Supreme Powers Stated and Resolved According to the Doctrine of the Holy Scriptures (1684), which drew the distinction between active and passive obedience, and was generally accepted by the High Church clergy.
 * The Protestant Resolution of Faith (pamphlet) (1687)
 * A Preservative Against Popery: Being Some Plain Directions to Unlearned Protestants, How to Dispute With Romish Priests. (1688)
 * A Practical Discourse Concerning Death (1689), written during the period of his suspension, which became very popular.
 * A Vindication of the Doctrine of the Holy and Ever Blessed Trinity (1690), in response to Socinianism.
 * The Case of the Allegiance Due to Sovereign Powers Stated and Resolved According to Scripture and Reason and the Principles of the Church of England (1691), justifying his change of attitude toward William and Mary.
 * A Discourse Concerning the Divine Providence (1694)
 * The Distinction Between Real and Nominal Trinitarians Examined, and the Doctrine of a Real Trinity Vindicated From the Charge of Tritheism (1696)
 * A modest examination of the authority and reasons of the late decree of the vice-chancellor of Oxford, and some heads of colleges and halls: concerning the heresy of three distinct infinite minds in the Holy and Ever-blessed Trinity (1696)
 * ''Present State of the Socinian Controversy’' (1696/1698)
 * A Discourse Concerning the Happiness of Good Men, and the Punishment of the Wicked, in the Next World, &C.
 * A Practical Discourse Concerning a Future Judgment.

His sermons, collected in two volumes, went through several editions.

title: William Sherlock


text:
Chef!

Chef! is a British situation comedy starring Lenny Henry that aired as twenty episodes over three series from 28 January 1993 to 30 December 1996 on the BBC. The show was created and primarily written by Peter Tilbury based on an idea from Lenny Henry and produced for the BBC by Henry's production company, Crucial Films.

Plot
Henry starred as Gareth Blackstock, a talented, arrogant, tyrannical and obsessed chef who has endlessly inventive insults for his staff, unknowing customers, and almost anyone else he encounters. Chef Blackstock's traditional French cuisine with an eclectic flair is served at "Le Château Anglais," a gourmet restaurant in the English countryside that is one of the few in the United Kingdom to receive a two-star rating from Michelin. The chef's quest for perfection and his lack of awareness about the costs of that perfection mean that the restaurant is on the brink of financial collapse when he and his wife Janice (played by Caroline Lee-Johnson) buy it early in the first series. The establishment mostly remains on that brink, despite Janice's best efforts as manager, eventually coming under the control of the boorish Cyril Bryson (Dave Hill) in the final series.

Although focused on the restaurant's kitchen, the countryside (with its black market suppliers) and the Blackstocks' home life are also backdrops for the show; the chef's long hours mean that Janice is routinely neglected in the bedroom, and their plans for a family remain delayed.

Cast
Besides Gareth and Janice Blackstock, a third character, Everton Stonehead (played by Roger Griffiths), appears throughout all three series. Stonehead went to school with the chef and dreams of becoming a top chef himself. He bumbles through his early days in the kitchen, but eventually even develops a signature dish of his own.

Production
According to Lenny Henry:
 * The first episode of Chef! was developed over two years, and so Peter Tilbury and I were really put through loads of hoops about character motivation. Why is this character such an arsehole? Is this the right kind of character for Lenny Henry to be playing? All that kind of stuff. Once we got through that and they greenlit the series, Peter then had something like eight or nine weeks to write the rest of it. The remaining five episodes were much easier to write because we'd had every argument about who, what, where, and how. The world had been mapped out. Actually, the very first episode of Chef! was the hardest one to watch for me because we'd worked so hard on it and you could see all the things that had been rewritten in the first episode.

Lenny Henry was coached in cooking techniques at the L'Ortolan Restaurant, in Shinfield, Reading, Berkshire. The restaurant was modelled on, and many scenes were filmed at, Le Manoir aux Quat' Saisons, a restaurant in Oxfordshire owned by chef Raymond Blanc. Many other scenes were filmed at Nether Winchendon House, in Buckinghamshire. The third series was shot at Teddington Studios in Middlesex. Celebrity chef John Burton Race acted as food consultant for the show.

The first two series were shot on film and directed in the style of a drama series, with the finished episodes shown to screening audiences.

Lenny Henry stated on his website that he and Tilbury had worked on a storyline for another series, but that nothing came of it.

Reception
According to the Museum of Broadcast Communications, the show was "highly critically acclaimed for its high production values, its comic-drama scripts, and its lead performances. Most of all, perhaps, the series [was] a landmark programme in the sense that Henry plays a character who just happens to be black; the fact of his blackness does not limit the narrative or the audience the series reaches."

BFI's screenonline noted that "what really marked out Chef!, however, was Henry's development as an actor. As the kitchen tyrant Gareth Blackstock, he proved himself capable of representing a multifaceted character far beyond the caricatures of his sketch shows." It also noted that Chef! "managed some acute observations on food and contemporary Britain: the celebritisation of cuisine, the pathological obsession with hygiene, the near impossibility of securing genuinely excellent produce in a culture dominated by industrial farming and supermarket giants."

Some contemporary critics were less positive, however. Reviewing the second series in the Evening Standard, Victor Lewis-Smith described it as "...not funny enough to be classed as sit-com, nor believable enough to be classed as drama, forensic science has been unable to detect any trace of humour or subtlety in this dismal hybrid".

Home release
All three series were released on Region 1 DVD on 30 August 2005. The Region 2 DVDs have been available since 2 October 2006. Several minutes of the first series episode "The Big Cheese" were missing from the Region 2 DVD release. This was due to a mastering error; corrected replacement discs were later offered by the BBC. The Region 1 release is full and uncut.

title: Chef!


text:
Talk:Coimbatore

Which causes I don't have government job
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title: Talk:Coimbatore