"Croydon For A Pretty Girl": Croydon's Surprising Literary Connections

by Liz Seyi Digital marketing manager

There's a case to be made that Croydon's place in literary heritage has been too readily overlooked. In fact, the borough has inspired many respected writers and even been the residence of many, including Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and D. H. Lawrence.

This is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to explaining why Croydon represents an attractive habitat for bookworms, right through to the present day. Here's a rundown on why a place in the area's prestigious ISLAND accommodation excites so many 21^st-century scribes.

Have you read a novel or poem about Croydon recently?

Croydon has appeared as a setting in various literary works. Sir John Betjeman, who served as the UK's Poet Laureate from 1972 until 1984, chose the south London borough as the backdrop for two of his poems, "Croydon" and "Love in a Valley".

More than two decades before its closure in 1959, Croydon Airport appeared in two detective fiction works: the Freeman Wills Crofts novel The 12.30 from Croydon, published in 1934, and the Agatha Christie novel Death in the Clouds, which saw publication the following year.

The latter novel starred Christie's legendary detective HerculePoirot, but he's certainly not the only fictional detective to be associated with Croydon. The town of Croydon even gets mentions in some of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's mystery stories starring – yes – Sherlock Holmes.

Which literary titans have lived in Croydon?

Staying on the subject of Doyle, he spent time residing in the Norwood area of the borough, as did the French novelist Émile Zola. While exiled in London in the 1890s, Zola stayed in the Queen's Hotel, which you can still check out today in Upper Norwood. 

D. H. Lawrence, the famed writer of Lady Chatterley's Lover, not only lived in Croydon in the early 20^th century, but also taught at Davidson Road School from 1908 to 1911. This school later became the Davidson Road campus of Croydon Sixth Form College.

Lawrence reminisced about his Croydon days when writing the short story The Witch à la Mode, which mentions The Swan and Sugarloaf – a public house that has since been converted into a Tesco Express in South Croydon.

Croydon is also mentioned in a rhyme first written in the 18^th century and revised during the following century. The line citing the area advocates going to "Croydon for a pretty girl" – and you can enjoy staying in the area for a while yourself when you snap up one of our few remaining available ISLAND Apartments For Sale In Croydon.

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Created on Sep 24th 2019 01:28. Viewed 377 times.

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