Our London rainbow nation

For the past few weeks I have been a regular visitor to West Croydon, where my elderly mother has been an inpatient at Mayday Hospital.  This past week in particular has been eventful.  My son turned 12 on Wednesday and that same day my mother had a major operation.  Nelson Mandela died the next day and in the midst of all this, we have all been sick with some kind of bug.  This also explains why I have been quite quiet on the blogging front, my time and attention having been diverted elsewhere

I have the journey to the hospital by public transport fine tuned now: train connections and platform changes at Clapham Junction honed to a fine art like a seasoned commuter.  The train takes me to West Croydon and from there I usually walk the 20 minutes or so up to the hospital for the exercise.  I’m afraid I still can’t quite call it by it’s grand new name of ‘Croydon University Hospital’ (which university?) and still think of it, and refer to it as Mayday.  I always think name changes and new management teams at institutions are slightly suspicious of things having not gone very well prior to that - coupled with ‘Mayday’ very easily turning into ‘Maydie’ (as it became commonly referred to).  I, of course, make absolutely no allegations about the hospital whatsoever, which I am sure is a very fine place.

The London Borough of Croydon is overall very ethnically diverse.  From the last census data (2011), 14.6% of the population of England are from Black or Ethnic Minority (BME) groups.  The average for London is 40.2% for BME groups and for Croydon it is even higher at 44.9% (up from 30% in 2001).  A minority of people in Croydon – 47.3% - described themselves as White British (1).

Beyond these averages though, Croydon has always been divided from North to South.  The leafy suburbs of South Croydon, where I grew up, are more affluent and solid Conservative-voting, Daily Mail-reading territory.  The 2001 census shows only 15% of the population in Sanderstead as being BME (the 2011 data didn’t seem to be available, but would be roughly similar).   Thornton Heath, however – in the North of the Borough and where Mayday Hospital is situated - has 56% of the population from BME groups (2001 figures) and has always been Labour (to the best of my knowledge).

Growing up in South Croydon, we would always be warned to ‘be careful’ if venturing north of the town centre, preferably not to go there at all – which of course just made it all the more interesting as a destination.  Memories of my teenage years include visiting my half English – half Pakistani friend in West Croydon where he lived with his mother and grandmother; going ice skating at the Streatham rink (a sports option in my all-girls sixth form); browsing in a large Indian supermarket that had opened in Thornton Heath, exploring unfamiliar ingredients and browsing the women’s Asian magazines.

I have not lived in Croydon for many years, so my regular walks from West Croydon station to Mayday Hospital and back have been a bit of a re-acquaintance, or really just getting to know the area properly for the first time.  It would be fair to say I don’t see many other white people around – perhaps one or two, the mix being Caribbean, Indian, Pakistani and possibly some East European now.  The shops reflect this local population, together with evangelical Christian churches, a mosque, an Ayurveda clinic and even a Jain temple – seemingly now inhabiting a former old church.  All in stark contrast to the whiteness of South Croydon.

Mandela faced legally enforced apartheid.  We do not have, nor have ever had apartheid in the UK.  But parts of London are still very segregated along both ethnic and class groupings despite its overall diversity making up our very own ‘rainbow nation’.

(1) Taken from http://www.croydonobservatory.org/population/2011census/56978