Cafés, diners, beauty salons and DIY stores form a typical high street at east Addiscombe. Just south and towards Shirley is the Shirley Park Golf Club which holds competitions, socials and offers many discounts for membership. Passing the DnR Vinyl record store (a must for garage heads), head north-east up the A222 towards Ashburton. You pass through Ashburton Park and Playing fields, both well-equipped for runners and other outdoor sports. Before reaching the Glade, a long and wide road lined with large semi-detached houses, Long Lane Wood appears on your right, featuring a fenced-off bird sanctuary and an open space kept mowed in the summer months. The eastern- most part of the area contains Orchard Way Primary School and Edenham high school. Monks Orchard towards Shirley is more well-to-do, having served as an outpost for Londoners wanting to build a country home, while neighbouring Spring Park’s urban development occurred in the interwar period, with social housing filling the gaps post-WWII.

Addiscombe was probably part of some large grouping of land as early as the 13th century and was probably owned by a landlord who gave his name to the area as well as nearby Addington. In 1703, Addington Place, a relic of the short-lived English Baroque architectural style, was erected by the son-in-law of the diarist John Evelyn, to whom present-day knowledge of 17th century English history is owed. The area also had connections with the East Indian company, Addiscombe was a place housing a military seminary for a good part of the 19th century. As a result, the estate at Ashburton Park took the exotic name of Byculla Park, after a suburb of Bombay. In 1871, the area saw a brief period of popularity when a race-course was built on the Ashburton grounds. However, the area was fated to remain quiet and undisturbed when the Mayor of Croydon insisted on the closure of the race-course to prevent the influx of trouble-makers.

The comedy legend Ronnie Corbett, best known for his charming, yet satirical sketches with his double act Ronnie Barker. The Two Ronnies spent the last years of his life at Shirley. Corbett would leave his audience in stitches with his winding tangents and his radiating warmth, as recalled by thousands of his admirers and his lifelong comedy companions.

Although today Greenview Avenue in Monks Orchard blends smoothly with the idyllic suburbia, in the 1930s the houses of the neighbourhood were built in Tudor style and notably included kitchenettes, a contemporary feature advertised as the “housewife’s dream” at the time. Today, the area has a much wider and more compelling range of selling points.

Although one local who has lived in Addiscombe for 13 years admits to there being some roads which are best to stay clear of, generally the area is very family orientated, with most families being quite young. The proximity to London and the hyper-connectedness of Croydon (featuring bus, train and tram services) much outweigh its unfortunately ‘dodgy’ reputation for many locals.

One example of the future shape of the area is the facelift that Ashburton Park will receive with the regeneration of the former convent library building, itself a remnant of the Asburton Park estate mentioned earlier. Having stood unoccupied for some time, the council has invested heavily into the building and to transform it into a learning and community hub. In late Summer 2022, the council held an exhibition of £1m plans to restore the former library, with the intent of placing it on sale. The council’s plans intend to add an outer extension, provide flexible rooms available for community events, and install new toilets for all park users. The council has already received initial expressions of interest from over 40 groups, which hopefully means that the library’s restoration and enlivement is not too far in the future. In other related news, Ashburton Park is expected to receive a significant upgrade from the £500,000 Playground Investment Programme (PIP) to refurbish and modernise its play spaces.