Still no date for promised immersive theatre at Croydon’s Allders buildings

By Tara O’Connor, Local Democracy Reporter

A new immersive theatre experience that would bring an iconic Croydon building back to use still has no date for when it will come to the town centre.

The Allders building is due to be taken over by LOST, which is headed up by the creator of Secret Cinema, Fabian Riggal.

The project was announced to much fanfare in July 2022 when it was claimed it would open that autumn.

A recent Croydon council report hints that another option for the building is now being searched for as works to clear the building are still ongoing.

Croydon Mayor Jason Perry blamed the condition of the building, which has been empty since 2019, and suggested it could not open up again until this summer.

However, a representative of the Croydon Partnership, which combines Westfield and Hammerson, stressed the experience is still due to come to the building, though no date was given.

Mr Perry said: “The Croydon Parnership are now reactivating the ground floor, they are in the process of working through that. They tried to get it off the ground before Christmas but it was difficult because the building was in a worse condition than they thought.”

Most recently, the building was home to the Croydon Village Outlet. in 2019, the building was taken over by Croydon council – workers turned up to find the locks changed one morning without warning.

It was cleared out to make way for a promised transformation of the town centre by Westfield, and came a few months after the company announced it was dropping a £1billion mall in favour of fewer shops and more restaurants.

At the end of January the partnership was told to make £4m of improvements to the town centre by the council.

The group is expected to start work on a new masterplan for Croydon this year, after which a fresh planning application would be submitted.

Pictured top: The Allders building in Croydon has been empty since July 2019 (Picture: Darren Pepe)