The Bird of Pride Inn and the walkway to Spurgeons Bridge
This is the footpath along the railway towards West Croydon. It
must owe its origins to the canal which once ran along here. It is
possible that the towpath afforded a popular route in this area and
the railway may have been obliged to provide a suitable replacement
between Gloucester Road bridge and Spurgeons bridge. At this point,
the Croydon canal was on a low embankment as it crossed this
particular area, known as Croydon Common. The two locks at
Gloucester Road lifted the canal up to this level, and the canal
was legally bound to cross the common in a way so as not to be
injurious to any water sources that may arise on the common.
This pub (formerly the Bird in Hand) was built in 1825, and so
must have served the waterway folk when the canal was in operation.
This is located by Sydenham Road bridge.
In the distance is Sydenham Road bridge, by the Bird of Pride
pub. On the left was the entrance to a dock, and past that towards
the road bridge, a wharf known as Smith's.
Looking back towards the Bird of Pride. The land on the right
was once owned by the canal, thought to be for the purpose of
extracting gravel. This is Spurgeons Bridge, also known as Brick
bridge, possibly the only brick bridge on the canal. It is rumoured
that parts of this bridge were used in the railway bridge, but this
has not been proven. The canal along here was on a low embankment,
at a slightly higher level than the railway, and the present bridge
is not quite in the position that the canal bridge was, because the
elevation and alignment of both canal and railway are
different.
From Spurgeons Bridge, the canal swept round to the left in this
deep cutting, said at the time to be beautifully turfed, to enter
the terminal basin at West Croydon. The right hand side of this
approach was used for stabling trains operating the Southern
railway's abortive overhead eletrification scheme of the early 20th
Century, and the surplus track on the right, that is the headshunt
from this yard, is on the alignment that the canal took towards
West Croydon . In some ways it is
ironic because overhead eletricfication has returned to West
Croydon in the shape of Croydon's new tramway
