London – Croydon (Borough of) – Former Swan & Sugar Loaf

This is a rather beautiful building in South Croydon, built as a pub and hotel in 1896. It was built on the site of another pub and was clearly the pride of Page & Overton, the local brewery. It stopped being used as a pub in 2010 and it was soon taken over by squatters, with concerns that it might be attacked during the Croydon Riots of 2011. Fortunately, the building survived and there were plans to turn it into a pub or restaurant after a restoration. Unfortunately, the restoration was ultimately carried out by Tesco, so the property is now used as a supermarket. Lovely as it is that the building survives, the historic interior has been lost and I can’t truthfully say that Tesco has been entirely sympathetic to the former pub.