Thursday, April 19, 2018

Leaving Crocus Valey


A demolition site in the centre of Croydon has been the home to a pop-up saffron farm for the last two and a half years. The heritage project, initially started with a crowd funding campaign, was kept going by donations and an army of volunteers. It’s been a real community effort led by Ally McKinlay who had the idea in the first place, inspired by the legend that the town’s name originated as ‘Crocus Valley’.


These are the drawings I made on the last weekend before the developers took back the site. All the plants and containers were given away to community groups and schools with local people coming along to collect the rest. Some of the remaining gardening equipment and water tanks are being stored, in the hope that a new, more permanent site can be found in the future. I’m hoping to continue drawing there and follow the progress of the new concrete growth on the site, as four tower blocks take the place of the tiny corms.


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