45 Squared 28) SAFFRON SQUARE, CRO
Borough of Croydon, 80m×70m×40m
You'll know this one even if you can't put a name to it because it stands out on the Croydon skyline like a bruised thumb.
This 43-storey tower was completed in 2016 and marks perhaps the last hurrah for variegated colourful panelling rather than the current pretend-brick default. It's the tallest part of a Berkeley-led residential development, supposedly decorated to resemble a pixellated crocus, at the foot of which lies Saffron Square. This site on Wellesley Road had previously been occupied by Pembroke House and Randolph House, two large modernist office blocks typical of Croydon's commercial upthrust in the 1960s, but demolished without replacement in 1993. A lot of the rest of the street is in similar flux at present, including adjacent Lunar House and Apollo House which used to be Home Office Immigration Central, as Croydon's second vertical assault spreads in earnest.
It's less appealing at ground level, unless you like heavily overshadowed colonnades and dead-end artificial courtyards. Apartments in the 134m tower use an entrance on the main road labelled Pinnacle Apartments. Everyone in the four other podium blocks uses a separate entrance within the square itself, which I'm sad to report is very much triangular and not quadrilateral. The developers got round the 'poor doors' controversy by building their 104 social rented homes offsite, only some of which are located nearby. Flats in the main tower are currently selling for £200,000-£300,000, even for the two-bedders, so I hope nobody grabbed an original leasehold for investment purposes.
To enter Saffron Square you have pass a triangular pool with several fountains, whose water is supposed to flow seamlessly over the rim and quietly recycle. Alas on my visit the wind was up, perhaps exacerbated by a tunnelling effect beneath Tennyson Apartments, the end result being errant spray and a considerable wet patch puddling off towards the main road. By contrast the two triangular pools in the main square were both empty, I presume drained given the hosepipe weaving across from a utilities cupboard. A few scattered individuals were seated around the edge enjoying a quiet lunch, just as the developers hoped when they planned "a new town square", although it'd be more convincingly civic if there were a second exit at the far end.
The somewhat-artificial courtyard includes two raised beds containing bleached shrubbery and a few stripling birches, also a perimeter of not quite pristine hedges. I'm not quite sure what the two gouged boulders on metal poles are supposed to represent, but that's cheaply-installed box-ticking street art for you. The commercial flank is on the side that misses out on direct sunlight and includes the three things that every development of this scale thrives on - a coffee shop, a residents-only gym and an estate agents. The cafe is called Coffee Village and has no character, which is a reflection on the sterilised locale and not the independent tenant. For anything more substantial you want the Tesco Express slotted in out front, hopefully dodging the rogue fountains' spray on the way past.
As regeneration goes Saffron Square feels like a lost opportunity. As a means of cramming 800 homes into a tiny footprint between two well-connected stations it's a triumph. As a harbinger of Croydon's second highrise wave it's merely a warning of what's due to be coming next. But if you've ever wondered what's below the weird purple skyscraper - still one of the UK's 100 tallest buildings - I hope I've confirmed there's no need to come and look.
