THE HISTORY
Allders was an independent department store operating in the United Kingdom.
Established in Croydon by Joshua Allder in 1862, Allders developed into a chain of department stores across England and Wales. Its flagship store in Croydon was the third-largest department store in the United Kingdom. The chain was broken up and sold after it went into administration in 2005, although the Croydon store continued trading until 2012, having been purchased by Harold Tillman, owner of the Jaeger clothing company. On 17 January 2013, the company closed the store along with the website, and the brand ceased to exist. Later that year the Croydon building reopened as "Croydon Village Outlet.
The store is attached to the whitgift center.
The shopping centre is on three storeys — the upper two are for retail and the basement provides vehicle access to any of the retail units with a 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) network of service roads. The office accommodation consists of five tower blocks rising above the shopping centre.
As part of Croydon Vision 2020, plans to develop and expand the centre were formalised by leaseholder and landlord Howard Holdings plc. Construction of the extension was due to start in 2009 and be finished in 2014 in 2010, Howard Holdings went into administration. In January 2013 the Hammerson and Westfield formed a joint venture to redevelop the shopping mall. Under the new agreement, they intend to redevelop and combine the two main Croydon shopping centres, the Whitgift Centre and Centrale. The mixed use scheme of around 200,000 m2 will include retail, leisure and residential use with the potential for hotels and offices.
On 25 November 2013 the redevelopment plan was approved by Croydon Council, subject to final approval by the Mayor of London on 27 November. Demolition and redevelopment work of both allders and whitgift is expected to start in 2016, with completion in 2019. Subsequently, plans were revised again in 2016 with the expected start date for the start of these works is 2017, with completion due by 2020. These were revised again with the planning application now being decided upon in 2017 with demolition and construction to commence in 2018.
THE EXPLORE
So after our third explore of Aylesford newsprint in Kent the following day myself and two non members decided to head over to Croydon to the former Allders store. If anyone knows Croydon you will know what traffic is like
.
After what felt like hours in traffic we arrived, parked up and made our way in. Browsing round the outlet trying to figure a way up to the floors above.
After 10/15 mins of blending in with other shoppers
: we spotted the way up a set of blocked of stairs with signs to the bedroom dept and cafe. The only issue is the security office for Allders is directly opposite the stairs.
We waited and waited for security to come out and up we went very sharpish! we had a good few hours exploring the upper floors avoiding the still working CCTV cameras and the one security guy who patrols the floors.
Once we had finished exploring all the upper floors, cafe, staff areas discovering old Allders employment records dating back to 1980 & 1990 we decided to head onto the roof.
The views over Croydon are not all that special but a roof is a roof right?
We went back in the store to gain access to the Whitgift Center roof after 20 mins on the whitgift roof security found us
and said we had set off a alarm after opening the roof door (which i told the non member not to open) none the less we was escorted to the security office 4 hours after being there..
They said we was going to be arrested and be done for terrorism. The police arrived the usual questions and all that after half an hour the police where happy to let us go but the security where trying to string it out as long as they could. Eventually half later the police asked the security why they where making us all wait. They wanted to get a banning order on all of us and where waiting to hear back from the building owner. Another hour passed by and a representative for the owner arrived and asked us to sign some papers saying that they would not take legal action if we agreed never to return.
After this the police told them at that point they had better things to be doing and they where going to walk us out and that is where our now 6 hour explore of Allders ends. We then went to the nestle tower next door and had a mooch in there..
I have the whole thing from security finding us to the police walking us out on video from the go pro i will upload this at some stage. (How ever a month later we returned and finished what we started)
On with the pictures.. Taken with a canon 600D with 18-55 and Fisheye lens.
Staff room.
This areA is the tech area where you would buy TV's, HIFI's etc there was some Bose sound displays dotted about in here.
Cafe area.
Potato salad please.
This used to be a bar / restaurant area within the store now used as a storage area.
I found these two just chilling on the window ledge after a long day of exploring they must have been shattered to lose there arms and head.
Cafe area.
Bedroom Department area this is where you would buy beds and all the other bits.
Home section this is where you would buy tables, lights etc.
We was on the top floor of allders looking down to the other 5 floors
And this is where we got caught..
Met police welcome party. Taken from GoPro footage.
Getting escorted down stairs. Taken from GoPro footage.
As you can see allders has extensive cctv but we where only caught after opening a fire exit door on the roof a good 4 hours after we where in there.. strange.... Taken from GoPro footage.
This is the other half of the security room. The stairs are opposite the window..Taken from GoPro footage.
On to our next explore of the day....
Thanks for looking.....
Allders was an independent department store operating in the United Kingdom.
Established in Croydon by Joshua Allder in 1862, Allders developed into a chain of department stores across England and Wales. Its flagship store in Croydon was the third-largest department store in the United Kingdom. The chain was broken up and sold after it went into administration in 2005, although the Croydon store continued trading until 2012, having been purchased by Harold Tillman, owner of the Jaeger clothing company. On 17 January 2013, the company closed the store along with the website, and the brand ceased to exist. Later that year the Croydon building reopened as "Croydon Village Outlet.
The store is attached to the whitgift center.
The shopping centre is on three storeys — the upper two are for retail and the basement provides vehicle access to any of the retail units with a 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) network of service roads. The office accommodation consists of five tower blocks rising above the shopping centre.
As part of Croydon Vision 2020, plans to develop and expand the centre were formalised by leaseholder and landlord Howard Holdings plc. Construction of the extension was due to start in 2009 and be finished in 2014 in 2010, Howard Holdings went into administration. In January 2013 the Hammerson and Westfield formed a joint venture to redevelop the shopping mall. Under the new agreement, they intend to redevelop and combine the two main Croydon shopping centres, the Whitgift Centre and Centrale. The mixed use scheme of around 200,000 m2 will include retail, leisure and residential use with the potential for hotels and offices.
On 25 November 2013 the redevelopment plan was approved by Croydon Council, subject to final approval by the Mayor of London on 27 November. Demolition and redevelopment work of both allders and whitgift is expected to start in 2016, with completion in 2019. Subsequently, plans were revised again in 2016 with the expected start date for the start of these works is 2017, with completion due by 2020. These were revised again with the planning application now being decided upon in 2017 with demolition and construction to commence in 2018.
THE EXPLORE
So after our third explore of Aylesford newsprint in Kent the following day myself and two non members decided to head over to Croydon to the former Allders store. If anyone knows Croydon you will know what traffic is like
.After what felt like hours in traffic we arrived, parked up and made our way in. Browsing round the outlet trying to figure a way up to the floors above.
After 10/15 mins of blending in with other shoppers
: we spotted the way up a set of blocked of stairs with signs to the bedroom dept and cafe. The only issue is the security office for Allders is directly opposite the stairs.We waited and waited for security to come out and up we went very sharpish! we had a good few hours exploring the upper floors avoiding the still working CCTV cameras and the one security guy who patrols the floors.
Once we had finished exploring all the upper floors, cafe, staff areas discovering old Allders employment records dating back to 1980 & 1990 we decided to head onto the roof.
The views over Croydon are not all that special but a roof is a roof right?
We went back in the store to gain access to the Whitgift Center roof after 20 mins on the whitgift roof security found us
and said we had set off a alarm after opening the roof door (which i told the non member not to open) none the less we was escorted to the security office 4 hours after being there..They said we was going to be arrested and be done for terrorism. The police arrived the usual questions and all that after half an hour the police where happy to let us go but the security where trying to string it out as long as they could. Eventually half later the police asked the security why they where making us all wait. They wanted to get a banning order on all of us and where waiting to hear back from the building owner. Another hour passed by and a representative for the owner arrived and asked us to sign some papers saying that they would not take legal action if we agreed never to return.
After this the police told them at that point they had better things to be doing and they where going to walk us out and that is where our now 6 hour explore of Allders ends. We then went to the nestle tower next door and had a mooch in there..
I have the whole thing from security finding us to the police walking us out on video from the go pro i will upload this at some stage. (How ever a month later we returned and finished what we started)
On with the pictures.. Taken with a canon 600D with 18-55 and Fisheye lens.
Staff room.
This areA is the tech area where you would buy TV's, HIFI's etc there was some Bose sound displays dotted about in here.
Cafe area.
Potato salad please.
This used to be a bar / restaurant area within the store now used as a storage area.
I found these two just chilling on the window ledge after a long day of exploring they must have been shattered to lose there arms and head.
Cafe area.
Bedroom Department area this is where you would buy beds and all the other bits.
Home section this is where you would buy tables, lights etc.
We was on the top floor of allders looking down to the other 5 floors
And this is where we got caught..
Met police welcome party. Taken from GoPro footage.
Getting escorted down stairs. Taken from GoPro footage.
As you can see allders has extensive cctv but we where only caught after opening a fire exit door on the roof a good 4 hours after we where in there.. strange.... Taken from GoPro footage.
This is the other half of the security room. The stairs are opposite the window..Taken from GoPro footage.
On to our next explore of the day....
Thanks for looking.....
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