Hotel in Croydon, London

Laying some claim to being the capital of south London, Croydon is in-between central London and Gatwick and has excellent transport connections and some of the capital’s best shopping outside of the West End.

Sometimes maligned for not being the prettiest of places, Croydon is basically a city in its own right, replete with major shopping centres, a number of arts venues and London’s third largest business district centred around the looming Nestle Tower.

Retail therapy is the main entertainment in this part of south London: the Whitgift Centre (www.thewhitgiftcroydon.co.uk) and Centrale (www.centrale.co.uk) are twin temples to the gods of commerce. Centrale has a bit more chi-chi with branches of Uniqlo, Zara and French Connection, and the Whitgift offers up hundreds of high street names and some interesting independent stores. Elsewhere, Purley Way is a huge retail park with an Ikea store and multiplex cinema, and there’s a good daily market in Surrey Street.

Cultural Croydon starts with Fairfield Halls (Park Lane, 020 8688 9291, www.fairfield.co.uk), a much-loved arts centre with a programme of theatre, comedy, art-house films, gigs and often touring West End musicals. The Warehouse Theatre (Dingwall Road, 020 8680 4060, www.warehousetheatre.co.uk) has new writing and plays for young people, and Croydon Clocktower (Katharine Street, 020 8253 1030, www.croydonclocktower.org.uk) is another multi-faceted cultural centre with Croydon’s only independent filmhouse, the David Lean Cinema. It’s a multi-cultural area and you can eat everything from Argentinian to authentic sushi nearby, and the nightlife’s pretty good too.

Croydon lays claim to being the b irthplace of many a well known face including that of the model Kate Moss

East Croydon station (Zone 5) is the busiest outside out central London and trains will whisk you the ten miles to Victoria or London Bridge within twenty minutes; there’s also extensive connections to Brighton, Eastbourne, Hastings and many more destinations south of London. As well as two smaller stations, North and West Croydon, the town has its very own Tramlink network connecting Beckenham in the south east to Wimbledon in the south west – East Croydon is the main depo

Croydon: Tube (underground)

Croydon: Rail (overground)