Cronx merch: the definitive guide

Local pride isn’t unique to Croydon, but it does go double here.

Our merch is on a mission to tell the world: forget what you think you know! It shows off a borough that is cool, counter-cultural, edgy and subversive, with a creative swagger and attitude. It exemplifies that Croydon is brimming with *actual* community spirit, brutalist urban architecture, beautiful green spaces …and WE LOVE IT!

So stick two fingers up to the non-believers and support your local creatives by stocking up on some of the coolest Cronx merch your money can buy.

Croydon artisans: if we’ve missed something, or if you make something new, let us know.

[Update 6/8/20: added Ameena Rojee’s phtography zine].

Wear your Croydon pride …with pride!

Become a walking advert for London’s deep south, with these pro-Croydon wearables:

Croydon Vs The World

These tees, hoodies and tote bags created by Jonny Rose declare war on everywhere else, and “let the world know that Croydon is in the house”. Follow the brand on instagram to see people wearing them all over the planet.

David Bowie vs Croydon

Bowie studied art here in his youth, didn’t love it, and later said that the most derogatory phrase anyone can say about anything is “God, it’s so fucking Croydon”. Music-inspired artists Dead Format Music Club brilliantly reappropriated this anti-Croydon rant as a positive piece of pro-Croydon cool. Available as a t-shirt and tote bag, as well as A5 and A3 prints (see below). DMFC also stock another great t-shirt that pays tribute to the former Croydon record store, Beano’s.

Time Bomb T-shirts

Time Bomb is a long-established tattoo parlour in central Croydon. They also print phenomenal t-shirts, including parodies of the Coca-Cola and Carlsberg logos, a cool “Skull and Cronxbones” design, a The Clash reference and even a timely, cheeky parody of Croydon Vs The World (Croydon Vs Covid-19). Warning: you might end up buying their whole range.

Croydon Digital

Excuse the self-promotion, but we’ve opened a little merch shop of our own. Bag yourself a t-shirt or hoodie with Croydon Digital branding and slogans to show you’re a member of the London’s friendliest tech collective or just spread the word about the Silicon Flyover and help take the fight to our Shoreditch rivals. You can also get some funky retro web banner designs, inspired by our local municipal web design history, which the council’s digital team blogged about for us a while back.

Cronx Girl earrings

Speaking of Croydon techies, Leo from cutting-edge growth marketing agency Measuregrow also creates exquisite high end jewellery under her brand Leo With Love, often seen on red carpets and in glossy mags. Originally from LA, Leo is a full convert to the Cronx hence designing these stunning Cronx Girl earrings, first featured in The Cronx Effect.

CDN Store

Wes, aka CDN Creative, is an artist and photographer, who among other things designs and sells these lovely pro-Croydon clothes. His range of hoodies, t-shirts, and bags includes a “Croydon Pride” heart design made out of place names, and a very stylish CDN (short for Croydon, obvs) geometric logo print.

Cronx Life, Cronx Love, Cronx Gal by Johnny Howl Club

In their own words: “Designed with Giselle Rambaran, Cronx Life is a celebration of the community spirit of both long-time residents and new members of Croydon’s community, who are working together to breathe new life into the area.” Nuff said.

Sportsbanger

Croydon gets a shout out fairly frequently in Jonny Banger’s range of bootleg rave scene clothing (maybe because Skream was an early adopter?). The range currently includes a design with Kate Moss as “Queen of Croydon”, a “Make Croydon Bait Again” slogan tee, and a tribute to “Josh”, the Croydon teen who lost a finger at a rave but kept dancing “because the bass was hard”. Love it!

Croydon Spaceport

From the author of the Ad Astra Per Croydon zine – inexplicably the only document of Croydon’s forgotten space exploration history – this t-shirt featuring the 50p building as a rocket to the stars is guaranteed to get you noticed … and raise some questions you may struggle to answer! Also available as a tote bag.

Art Club Croydon

The simple, striking typographic design of these totes and tees is a delight. Grab some and show your support for Art Club Croydon. (Follow them on Instagram and read this piece in the Croydonist if you are curious to know more).

Others

Notable other sources of pro-Croydon fashion include: Chicken Shop Clothing, South London Club, Nonsense Tees & Tings, Crystal Palace FC shop, innit clothing, Hometown Merch, and – if you ask Clive and Phoebe nicely, you might be able to buy a very cool Croydon FM logo t-shirt too.

Let’s drink to the Cronx!

Raise a toast to CR0 every time you take a sip from these inspired and inspiring drinking vessels.

East Croydon Cool mugs

Every Croydonite (or Croydonian – or whatever) needs at least a couple of these sassy and beautiful mugs in their cupboard. Featuring slogans with such diverse inspirations as Samuel Johnson, Stormzy, and the fashion capitals of the world. And only a tenner each!

Made by Mrs M water bottles…?

Textile designer Kate Marsden makes and sells gorgeous prints (see below), many of them inspired by Croydon architecture. She recently shared a conceptual mock-up of one of her prints on a Chillys bottle. You can’t actually buy these yet but we’re hoping Kate finds a way to bring these to market soon!

I heart Croydon / Straight Outta Croydon mugs

Stone-cold classics for your hot Cronx drinks, from South London Club.

We’ve Seen the Nuns / Croydon Spaceport

Two mug designs from Tom Murphy of Collossive Press. Read the zine, and it will all make perfect sense. Sort of.

Home is where the Cronx merch is!

Clear some wall space, you’re going to need it.

The Town that Love Built

Gavin Kinch’s retro-fantasy artwork is exquisite and wonderfully original, including fanciful scenes inspired by sci-fi films, and art inspired by Croydon’s history – like the release of the first punk single (New Rose by The Damned) and the first across-the-world solo flight by Amy Johnson. Just gorgeous.

Croydon Pride, Cr0yd0n Metam0rph0sis and Crystal Palace

Glenn Foster aka The Croydon Photographer is a born-and-bred Croydon boy, photographer for hire and your go-to source for Croydon stock imagery. Lately, he’s been evolving his craft to create art based on Croydon’s changing architecture and landscapes using progressive editing techniques. There are more where these came from, including the brilliant CR0bot and Croydon Skulls – and recently Glenn was selling cost-price jigsaws of some of his best work to get people through lockdown – so make sure you follow him on instagram here and also here to see what he creates next.

David Bowie vs Croydon

So good it’s on our merch list twice! Display this A5 or A3 print of Bowie’s anti-Croydon rant with maximum irony to show your love (and yeah, sometimes your frustration too – cos it’s complicated!) See above for the t-shirt version.

Made by Mrs M prints and fabric

Kate Marsden aka Made by Mrs M’s beautiful designs feature various Croydon landmarks, and you can buy them as art prints and fabric – so if your walls are full you can Cronxify your soft furnishings instead! As seen adorning the walls inside the Fairfield Halls.

Scene in Croydon

A growing range of bright, cheerful illustrative artworks based around Croydon scenes, by Samantha Warren and Danni Livett. (Find out more about them and their inspiration here and give them a follow on Instagram). Really nice work.

Matt Banister

Local artist Matt depicts wonderfully atmospheric scenes of people and places in a graphical style, many of which will be familiar to Cronx-dwellers. Not all of them are for sale but there are some gems to be had in his shops on Etsy and Bigcartel.

Bev Jones Art

In a similar vein, Bev paints these colourful Croydon scenes that portray “the brighter side of city living”, perfectly capturing little moments and the movement of Croydoners as they go about their business in town.

Brutalist London: One Croydon
Brutalism One Croydon NLA Tower
Croydon NLA Tower

Not one, not two, but three stunning artworks inspired by what is inarguably Croydon’s most photographed, painted and drawn landmark: One Croydon aka the NLA Tower aka the 50p building (aka the threepenny bit building in old money). Good luck choosing one of these, they’re all so strong.

A-Z Croydon by A Chapman Design.

You’ll find another terrific portrayal of the 50p building in this collection of strikingly minimalist, monochrome posters that distill Croydon architecture down to a few shapes and lines. There’s no online shop, so you’ll have to request these directly from Abi if you want them.

Cr0nx Croydon

By the same artist as one of the 50p building prints above, featuring the Ikea towers instead. Something very cool indeed about this one!

Roland Nissan

Prolific urban sketcher Roland has a range of Croydon-inspired pencil and watercolour artworks both on his website and Instagram. There’s no online shop, but they are for sale. Like he says on his Twitter bio, if you want to buy any please ask!

Louise Gough photography

Lifelong Croydon-dweller Louise is an award-winning photographer, and brutalist architecture is a recurring theme in her work. Before the coronavirus lockdown, a selection of Louise’s photography was exhibited and available to buy in Byte Cafe, in TMRW. You may have to wait for that to reopen to buy these. Check out her Instagram too.

“C” for Croydon

A nifty piece of letter art “made up of beautiful illustrations of Croydon’s best bits” by Lucy Loves This.

Other bits and bobs

Run out of wardrobe and wall space? Don’t panic, here are more ways you can indulge your Croydon pride.

The Great North Wood

An absolutely delightful graphic novel that takes you through the history and present remains of the Great North Wood that used to dominate these lands. It’s a wonderful read, not to be missed.

The Beginner’s Guide to Croydon

A booklet of Croydon hotspots and history illustrated by Kate Marsden (Made by Mrs M). She says: “This is not intended to be a comprehensive guide to Croydon, rather a positive little introductory book, highlighting some of the best things to see and do”.

A Love Letter to Croydon (photography zine)

Freelance photographer Ameena Rojee has created this 8-page zine featuring photos from her collection celebrating Croydon. She writes: “they show an unseen side to Croydon; a beautiful, delicate, poetic side. I hope you can see what I see.”

Cronx beer

Double award-wining The Cronx Brewery deliver their range of excellent beers to all Croydon postcodes, or you can pop into the Cronx Bar when they’re open again post-lockdown.

Croydon Spaceport notebook

Like it says: “Follow some of the greatest minds in history and jot down your brilliant ideas in a Croydon Spaceport soft-touch pocket notebook”.

The end

That’s it! Our definitive, exhaustive and – let’s face it – exhausting guide is done. Now get shopping!

And do let us know if we’ve missed anything off the list here.