Locals in a neighbourhood dubbed London's "most dangerous" have spoken of living in fear amidst a surge in knife crime.
Croydon regularly tops Met Police league tables for violent crime rates, with some residents claiming they don't leave the house after dark. Even teenagers have expressed worries about the area going downhill, as for many, the memory of Elianne Andam who was stabbed to death on her way to school in September remains fresh in their minds.
Elianne, 15, died after she was stabbed in the neck - she was one of 11 people killed on the streets of Croydon last year, the Daily Star reports. Of those 11, four were aged 20 or younger. Urban explorer and podcaster Wendall visited the borough, once described as "the knife crime capital of England", talking to locals. One 62-year-old man, who had lived in the area all his life, said he had seen the place becoming "a lot worse" in recent years.
Croydon has one of London's highest rates of violent crime (Getty Images)"I was in the Brixton riots in 1980," he said. "This is getting like that." He said that unless something changes, he could see serious civil unrest in Croydon's future. One teenager on the main shopping street speaking to the podcaster claimed the area was "s***", adding there was "a lot of trouble" with constant fighting and regular news of stabbings. He said he had taken the decision to "defend himself".
An older resident echoed his words, saying that life in Croydon was "s***", and had changed tremendously, especially over the past five or six years. "I don't go out after about 7:30," she said. "I wouldn't go out after that time because I'd be too frightened." Despite the fact that the local authorities claim the rate of violent crime in the area was on the decline, rough sleepers on Croydon's litter-strewn streets said they, too, felt in constant danger. Croydon's main shopping mall, the Whitgift Centre is – like many similar retail developments up and down the country – almost empty, with only a small number of units occupied.
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Residents spoke of feeling they needed to take steps to defend themselves because of the area's high crime rate (Wendall/YouTube)People from across South London would at one point travel to Croydon to shop, but with close to 1,000 stabbing incidents in Corydon since the beginning of 2018, it's no longer the attractive prospect it once was. Former Met police officer Norman Brennan is now an anti-knife crime campaigner.
He told the Daily Mail: "Croydon is one of the most dangerous areas in Britain. We have lawless streets that nobody controls apart from the criminal element. There are many gangs in Croydon. Lots of their members carry knives, some won't be in school. These people have no values and no idea of the value of life. That's why so many people are losing their lives or taking those of others. Each knife is a potential murder if you hit an artery or an organ."
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