The computer-generated visuals, recently published on developer Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield’s (URW) consultation website, provide an updated view of the practice’s 10.5ha masterplan to overhaul a large swathe of Croydon town centre, ahead of an expected planning application later this year.

Several newly published CGIs add further detail to the plans put out to public consultation in April.

The new visuals come weeks after URW officially acquired the Whitgift Centre freehold from the John Whitgift Foundation for £31.5 million, consolidating ownership of the key redevelopment site. URW had already held the shopping centre’s long leasehold.

Allies and Morrison’s masterplan includes redeveloping the Whitgift Shopping Centre, the Centrale shopping centre – where BDP is working on separate detailed plans – and the surrounding retail district between Croydon’s old town and East Croydon station.

Allies and Morrison’s summer 2026 visuals for Croydon

Source: Allies and Morrison

The masterplan includes between 2,500 and 3,000 homes of mixed tenures to the north of the site, across low-rise, mid-rise and towers, and between 65,000m2 and 93,000m2 of flexible retail space.

It also includes new public green spaces and improved walking routes, while the Allders department store, which dates back to 1862, will be retained and restored. The building has been shut since 2013.

Unlike earlier plans for the town centre, also by Allies and Morrison, the latest scheme adapts and reuses more of the existing urban fabric, such as the basement of the Whitgift Shopping Centre and shops to the north of the site. However, it is likely involve demolishing the 1960s above-ground structure.

URW and Allies and Morrison said, in consultation documents, that the project team was ‘aiming to retrofit’ the 1970s Centre Tower and to ‘reuse some of the structure of Green Park House’, a 1980s office building, as part of a renewed commitment to reusing existing buildings.

Last February, Croydon Council signalled its support for Allies and Morrison’s masterplan framework for redeveloping the town centre. The move came 12 years after the council approved the practice’s previous, never-delivered proposals for the area.

The architect was reappointed to draw up fresh plans in November 2024, with a focus on delivering housing and pedestrian-friendly public spaces to create ‘a more sustainable and better-connected town centre’, URW said.

URW took full ownership of the site in May 2023 after buying out its 50 per cent joint venture partner Hammerson, which once had its own Terry Farrell-designed scheme to regenerate Croydon. 

In January, BDP submitted detailed plans for refurbishing entrances to the Centrale shopping centre, which will remain open throughout the projects.

The site is home to 177,000m2 of shops on the masterplan site. Allies and Morrison said its proposals responded to high vacancy rates in recent years and changing shopping habits.

Plans for Croydon town have been in limbo for almost a decade. A previous £1.4 billion plan drawn up by Leonard Design Architects was axed in 2021 after Croydon Council deemed it ‘no longer appropriate’.

Allies and Morrison’s summer 2026 visuals for Croydon