This is for @octogenarian who asked, "why Surrey Street Market is so wide when it dates from the Thirteenth Century?" In the late Nineteenth Century, the streets were widened to accommodate a department store called Grants, and the new townhall. This plaque is on the corner of Surrey Street and Croydon High Street, but I also found someone else's photo of it on a webpage called "boring plaques". A few hundred years ago, Surrey Street used to be called Butchers Row, and was the site of a jail. Thankfully it has changed a lot since then, although you can still meet descendants of the prisoners in Croydon. In fact, I saw two of them arguing in the Post Office queue at lunchtime.
How wonderful to see measurements in good old feet 'n inches! All this metric stuff really gets up my nose! That's one thing I like the Americans for - no compromise!! Enough already - not a boring plaque at all, very interesting even - shows a bit of recent history. Is it the new-fangled trams you have there that's causing the whole thing to develop cracks?
Thank you. Excellent to provide historic information on the site.
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If the plaque didn't have a date MDCCCXCVI, I might think that it was erected prompted by my question. ;-)
@jon_lip Thanks Jon. I don't think the trams caused the cracks, as they don't pass too close to that end of the road. Hopefully this special monument will be restored one day.
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If the plaque didn't have a date MDCCCXCVI, I might think that it was erected prompted by my question. ;-)