From Pease Pottage To Povey Cross — Part 2
Following the Old (and New) A23 Through Crawley From South to North — High Street
I’m now on the High Street and on the traffic island and the four corners all have the hint of curved buildings, even if it is only the feintest hint on the northeast corner, with a bit of a curve on the roof overhang.
Over Pegler Way the historic High Street is celebrated. And rightly so.
The south end has several listed and locally listed buildings, where the fronts hide the internal nature of the medieval buildings.
And down the side of the one that now houses Mansell McTaggart is what used to be the wonderland that was Smiffy’s. It now says it is a dangerous structure, enter at own risk. To me it always was a dangerous structure, only the danger wasn’t that the roof may fall in on me, rather to my wallet as to just what randomness I would buy and struggle out with.
A few paces off the High Street is Crawley’s old parish church of St John’s with the war memorial in front of it.
Whereas the south end of the High Street has Tudor period houses, they look more modern. The central stretch of the High Street’s Tudor buildings are more obvious with The George, Ancient Priors, and Punch Bowl showing the timber and black and white stylings associated with Tudor buildings, even if the black and white was a Victorian adaptation of what they thought Tudor buildings should look like.
The White Hart and Brewery Shades either side of the Broadway are of the same period as well.
Opposite is the Grand Parade, locally listed, which houses the Jubilee Oak, a Wetherspoons with delusions of adequacies, which I’ve avoided pretty much since the first weekend I lived in Crawley, cup final day 2006, when the bouncers wouldn’t let me in because I was wearing a t-shirt. I don’t think I helped matters with my response of ‘are you taking the p155, you do realise you’re only an effing Wetherspoons don’t you?” I think the bouncers must have since moved on or trained the ones at the Punch Bowl and Octopus, who refuse to let us in without ID, despite us being in our fifties. Anyway, across from the pub is the Jubilee Oak, and outside the Grand Parade are two red telephone boxes, which are also listed.
On the west of the High Street are the buildings that were formerly Barclays and Morrisons and are now large empty shells, which seems a shame.
Turtle Bay now occupies what was original a cinema, and then Bar Med, my usual clubbing venue of choice, again somewhere that turned me away on my first weekend living in Crawley. They didn’t care I was wearing a t-shirt; it was the trainers they didn’t like. Shoes only was a bit of a culture shock, as I hadn’t had to wear shoes to get into a club in the five years I had lived in Manchester before moving to Crawley, or for the last eight or nine years I’d lived in Leicester.
Crossing over the Boulevard, there is The Tree, now home to the wonderful Crawley Museum. I may be biased as a member, but it is well worth a visit. Or more than one, as their large exhibition space upstairs has regular changes of displays.
It is the last of three buildings on the High Street to have blue plaques on it. This one to John Leech, illustrator for some of Charles Dickens’ works, and for Punch, whose first editor Mark Lemon is celebrated on the wall of Wildwood (and whose blue plaque was the first one to be dedicated in Crawley). And the other above what is now an estate agent is to Crawley historian, chronicler, and co-founder of the Crawley Festival, Roger Bastable.
Evolve is the last remaining nightclub in Crawley (there are other places which open late and have music, but open as bars during normal drinking hours). Its name being appropriate as the place is constantly evolving, with this being something like its seventy third new name in the last ten years or so.
The most northerly of the High Street’s listed buildings comes along next, and it is another that houses an estate agent, there must be something about listed buildings that estate agents feel will encourage people in to look at their properties for sale or rent, as I find them housing estate agents in a lot of places I visit.
I take a small detour off the main road to go up Northgate Road and to the lovely Dyers Corporation Alms-houses. So easily missed if you don’t know where they are, and locally listed.
Back onto the A23 and across the road I spy what now houses a Harvester, Caddies, and Five Guys, what used to be Brannigan’s. The first club I went into on that first weekend living in Crawley. They weren’t impressed with trainers either, but it wasn’t too far to nip back to my flat and change into shoes and get back there to carry on drinking and to dance a bit.
The leisure park looks as if it is fading in the sun. This area used to be home to Crawley Town before I moved to Crawley. So, they are still just about on the same road now, just quite a bit to the south.
For other pieces on and around Crawley, check out my list
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