Glimpsed from afar – as far away as possible is best – Croydon’s concrete-and-glass skyline shimmers almost dreamily in the sunshine.
As my train nears the station, it is fleetingly possible to conjure the town’s Sixties heyday as a mini-Manhattan, a bold experiment in post-war modernisation.
Close up, though, and it’s obvious why locals call it a ghost town.
The well-known 24-storey Nestlé Tower is a symbol of urban decay. All around it shops are closing and violent crime keeps rising. And nothing gets fixed because the council – which has declared bankruptcy three times in six years – is at least £1.4billion
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