An intensely green pocket within the borough of Croydon, this area covers the villages and hamlets of Shirley, Coombe, and Addington. Surprisingly, and in contrast to the vast space directly west of Croydon, minimal urbanisation has taken place around these hamlets. The only reminder of the proximity to the restless Croydon town is the Tramlink Route 3 service running through the south-western-most corner of Lloyd Park. The line runs parallel to Coombe Road – a live exhibition of the gradation of housing to be found in the area. Comfortable flats turn into impressive mock-Victorian and mock-Edwardian detached houses while further along towards Addington, the now country lane passes through the historic grounds of the Coombe estate. On the northern side, Shirley is a charming collection of rustic cottages, bungalows, pubs, churches and a grade-II listed windmill from the early 19th century. The area contains plenty of sports clubs, dotted around the parks, as well as two secondary schools, Archbishop Tenison’s (CofE) and Shirley High School (performing arts), both rated ‘good’ by Ofsted.

Over the centuries, the area has been characterised by a history of estates and manors, each built by one family dynasty or another. For example, the Coombe complex featured Coombe House, (now the Ceders Independent Catholic School), Coombe Lodge (now a Beefeater restaurant), Coombe Wood House and Coombe Farm – all built in the 19th century. In the 1890s, Frank Lloyd inhabited the estate, christening the surrounding land under the family name. The Lloyds were media tycoons whose Daily Chronicle was an early ancestor of the Daily Mail. It is probable that the Lloyds pervaded much of the Croydon area. Born in Thornton Heath, Edward Lloyd brought Sweeney Todd to the London public. North of the fields in Shirley, Lewis Lloyd’s Monks Orchard mansion was likely to be one of the most prominent in the Croydon area during the 1850s.

The comedy legend Ronnie Corbett, best known for his charming, yet satirical sketches with his double act Ronnie Barker – such as 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.

The earliest records of an estate at Coombe date back to 1221 and older still is a route known as the Pilgrim’s Way, which passed not too far from the area. This was a historical road from Winchester, Hampshire to Canterbury, Kent – the location of Thomas Becket’s shrine – taken by pilgrims during the first half of the previous millennium. A 145 ft-deep well at the house is likely to have been used by the travellers and it can still be found to this day.

One cost of such large countryside expanses as Lloyd and Coombe Park, is that some neighbourhoods within the area are not as hyper-connected as the more central parts of Croydon. The southern part of Shirley, for example, has buses leaving to Croydon centre about once every 15 minutes.

Neighbouring New Addington was a recipient of the Outer London Fund as of June 2011, launched to reanimate the main square at Central Parade. £516,000 was allocated to improve footpaths, parking spaces, common spaces, a new swimming pool, and to generally create a more pleasant community environment. This was followed up with more funding, as part of the Mayor’s Regeneration Fund. However, being the tranquil hideaway that this cluster of hamlets is, it is not projected to undergo major transformations in future years. Inhabited by mainly middle-class property owners and with little by way of business occurring directly in the area there aren’t particularly many forces of change at play. More recently, as part of plans to sustainably upgrade six of Croydon’s parks, Croydon Council worked with urban planners and landscape designers to make Lloyd Park an even more attractive recreational space.