Saravanaa Bhavan, Turtle Bay, three new vape shops, and many other new openings
Openings
Saravanaa Bhavan has opened at 18 George Street. This is the latest branch of a worldwide chain of Indian vegetarian restaurants, serving thalis, dosas, and much more.
A new chapter in the ongoing saga of 63–65 High Street has begun. Comboco, reported as a new opening in our last blog post, has closed down already, and been replaced by a pizza place called Pizza Ora. Notices in the windows promise “Freshly made 12″ Italian pizza from only £3.95”.
Previously reported as “coming soon”, German Doner Kebab at 27 George Street and Cafe Havana at 12a Suffolk House, George Street have both now opened.
54 Surrey Street has been home to three Italian cafes in the past two years. The latest, Eat Well On The Street, sells not only freshly-cooked pizzas but also grilled meats, served in baguettes, with chips, or with rice. Also new on Surrey Street is Real Flavour Caribbean Takeaway at number 38.
A cafe and takeaway has opened at 30–32 Station Road, selling coffee, smoothies, cakes, and savoury buns for eating in, as well as Ghanaian meals to take away.
A branch of Turtle Bay has opened at the old Tiger Tiger premises (16 High Street), a branch of Sam’s chicken shop has opened in the old Bodrum premises at 48 High Street, and a chicken, burger, and kebab shop called Chicago’s has opened at 244 High Street.
Three — three! — new vape shops have opened, thus doubling the number of such establishments in central Croydon: E’Liquidly at 9 Derby Road, Vape King at 212 High Street, and Vape & Mobile at 1 Selsdon Road.
An electronics shop called Orbis Outlet has opened at 29–31 St George’s Walk; a clothes, gifts, and homewares shop called Anesu Kolours has opened at 51 St George’s Walk; and another homewares shop called London Home Outlet has opened at 19–21 High Street.
A gym called Anytime Fitness has opened at The Exchange, 4–6 Scarbrook Road. Despite the name, it has a notice on the door firmly declaring that it’s not a 24-hour gym, and is only open from 7am to 11:30pm.
A hairdressers and beauty salon called Studio Perfect has opened at 4 St George’s Walk (previously Groszek Polish supermarket), another called Allure has opened at 208 High Street, a barber shop called The Barber Shop has opened at 2 St George’s Walk (previously All City London), and a hairdressers called Hairbox has opened at 1015 Whitgift Centre.
A clothes shop called Look Out, Lady! (subtitle: LOL!) has opened at 135a North end, another called Sapphire has opened at Unit 29, Whitgift Centre, an underwear shop called Yaz has opened at 1032 Whitgift Centre, and a jewellery shop called Desire has opened at 142 Whitgift Centre. Those who find their new clothes don’t quite fit the way they like may wish to visit the newly-opened Top Stitch at 15 High Street, which offers clothing alterations and dry cleaning.
A new branch of Superdrug has opened at Units 13–17, Centrale. (This is in addition to the branch at Units 104–106, Whitgift Centre, not a replacement for it.)
A Crisis drop-in centre for homeless people has opened at 11–19 Surrey Street.
Closures
Bar Txt at 73 South End has closed down, following an announcement on Instagram. SLVR at 34 Surrey Street has also closed, but a new nightclub called We’reHouse is due to open in its old premises tonight (Thursday 13 April 2017).
The branch of Subway in the Whitgift Centre has closed, as has RG Caribbean Cuisine at 296 High Street.
Masquerade at 36 St George’s Walk has closed its Croydon shop and relocated to Rye.
Other closures are Bonita at 33 George Street, Chitter Chatter at 92 North End, Plan Personnel at 19 London Road, Avenu Hair at 49 Surrey Street, D’Finest Hair Salon at 3 Overton’s Yard, New Stories at 21–22 Whitgift Centre, Home Living at 94–95 Whitgift Centre, Vodafone at 36 Whitgift Centre, Krisp at 117–118 Whitgift Centre, Secret Curves at 37 Surrey Street, Menkind at 123 Whitgift Centre, Goldhawk Service & MOT Centre at 86 South End, and Easy PC Repair Centre at 14 St George’s Walk (the last of these might have happened some time ago, as it’s a while since we last saw it open).
Coming soon
Panini Cafe at 106 High Street has been replaced by Malaika’s. At the time of writing it operates solely as a daytime British cafe as before, but there are plans to start opening in the evenings to serve East African food.
Other news
Caffe del Ponte at 80–88 High Street has transformed into a cafe-bar called Memory Box. It’s still open for food all day, including breakfast, but now also stays open late to serve cocktails.
Crushed Bean at 81 High Street has had a change of management, and is now offering savoury food as well as sweet.
Big Spoon at 92 High Street has moved across the road to share premises with Wei Dao at 103–105 High Street, though it continues to operate as takeaway/delivery only.
Inegol Home at 79 High Street is now run by a different company, Novita, though at the time of writing Novita seems to be mainly selling off the old Inegol Home stock.
Croydon Cars at 215 High Street now has a sign for Alpha Cars instead, though it’s not entirely clear whether this is open yet.
TaxAssist Accountants at 103 South End has rebranded to Tax4Today Accountants.
Gift shop Petals, previously in Unit 3, Centrale, reopened at 125 North End, but has now closed down again.
Taste of Jamaica at 23 Church Street has been renamed to Jerk & Fried Chicken. We’re not yet sure if there was also a change of management, and in any case, at the time of writing it’s closed and has building work going on inside. It’s not clear whether this closure is permanent or temporary.
Abshar at 67 South End has expanded into next door and hence is now at 65–67 South End.
Several businesses have moved premises: The Magical Haircut has moved across the road from 92 South End to number 97, All Clear Dental Practice has moved from 1072-1073 Whitgift Centre to 5 Norfolk House, Wellesley Road, Berry Recruitment has moved from 291–293 High Street to 1a Selsdon Road, and Body Beautiful has moved from 301–305 High Street to a location that a sign in the window describes as “opposite Tesco”, though we haven’t yet been able to figure out which Tesco.
Finally, Millets will soon be moving from 50–54 High Street just up the road to 3–5 High Street (currently occupied by Blacks).