Descriptive Gazetteer Entry for Croydon

Croydon, parl. and mun. bor., market town, and par., Surrey -- par. and bor., 9001 ac., pop. 78,953; 3 Banks, 12 newspapers. Market-days, Thursday and Saturday. C. is 10 miles S. of London Bridge, but forms practically a S. suburb of the metropolis, and contains numerous handsome villas of London merchants. It has 6 stations -- Addiscombe Road, Central, East, New, South, West -- connecting the town with the main lines and branches of the London, Brighton, and South Coast and South-Eastern Railways. The weekly corn and cattle markets constitute the chief business of the town. There are no mfrs. C. is a place of great antiquity. It has many traces of the Romans. The archiepiscopal palace, of which the chapel and hall still remain, is supposed to have been founded by Lanfranc (1005-1089); it was the occasional residence of his successors until 1757. C. is the capital of E. Surrey, and assizes are held alternately there and at Guildford. It was made a mun. bor. in 1883, and a parl. bor. in 1885; it returns 1 member.


(John Bartholomew, Gazetteer of the British Isles (1887))

Linked entities:
Feature Description: "parliamentary and municipal borough, market town, and parish"   (ADL Feature Type: "cities")
Administrative units: Croydon St John the Baptist AP/CP       Surrey AncC
Place: Croydon

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