Zodiac Court at 165 London Road is probably most famous for its use in the early 21st century as a filming location for the sitcom Peep Show . It’s part of a development which also includes office accommodation known as Zodiac House, a ground-floor space originally intended as a garage but now used by Timber Gardens restaurant, a block of seven small shop units, and a large, currently-unused, nightclub space.

As explained in part 1 of this mini-series, these buildings were constructed in the 1960s on the site of Broad Green House, an older property which dated back to the early 19th century. In that article, I discussed Broad Green House from the early 1800s up to the 1890s, when the grounds of the estate were broken up for housing development, and in part 2 I continued the story up to the 1960s.

Here, I describe the demolition of Broad Green House to make way for the Zodiac Court development, and happenings at Zodiac Court, Zodiac House, and the garage space until the present day. Later articles will cover the nightclub space and the block of shops.

1964–1966: Demolition of Broad Green House and construction of the new development

In late 1962, the Land and House Property Corporation purchased an acre and a half of land on London Road, including Broad Green House. Although some initial discussion took place between the company’s managing director and the then-occupant of Broad Green House, Broad Green College, regarding the possibility of the latter remaining on the site, in July 1964 the college moved to new premises in South Croydon and left the site vacant and ready for redevelopment.[1]

Construction proceeded rapidly after the departure of Broad Green College, using plans drawn up by architect William H Robbins of Wigmore Street. Broad Green House was demolished and foundations for the new buildings laid by mid-November 1964, and drainage connections were complete by the end of January 1965. By June 1965 the contractors, H Fairweather & Co, were already warning that they were “behind schedule”, but the bulk of the construction was complete by the end of 1966.[2]

1960s–present: Zodiac Court

Although initial plans had been for “twelve shops with offices over; twenty-four two-bedroom flats, six one-bedroom flats, thirty garages and parking space with service road”, Zodiac Court eventually consisted of 64 flats. Rising up in a tower block at the centre of the site, these were surrounded by a ring of lower-rise offices which took the name Zodiac House, to distinguish them from the residential Zodiac Court.[3]

The flats were distributed over eight floors, with eight flats per floor. Some were designed as studio flats, and others as two-bedroom flats, and each was given a private balcony. As the flats were intended for rented accommodation rather than owner-occupied, they were supplied with district heating, a form of communal central heating in which water is heated in bulk and then circulated to individual homes.[4]

Neil Barker, who moved to Zodiac Court at the age of 9 in the late 1960s, recalls:[5]

At one time they were advertised as luxury flats — a bit of an exaggeration, but for the time they were well built and finished.

Over the years, most of the flats were bought by individuals, but some are still rented today.[6]

1960s–1970s: Zodiac House

Despite the many design possibilities offered by the zodiac concept, the only obvious reflection of this theme is found on the exterior of the office accommodation — Zodiac House. Six plaques on the London Road frontage and another six on the Chatfield Road side carry stylised representations of the twelve signs of the Western zodiac.[7]

By September 1966, “30,000 Sq. Ft.” of “Offices To Let” at Zodiac House were being advertised in The Times , and the first tenants were in place by the end of the year.[8]

Several different companies used the offices over the years, including lock manufacturers Assa-Stenman; engineering firms Drake & Gorham and Drake & Scull; the intriguing-sounding yet somewhat mysterious Plastic Processing Machinery of Italy; and insurance companies Abbey Life, the National Motor & Accident Insurance Union, Malvern Insurance, and Minster Insurance.[9]

John Croudy, who worked in the computer room (“machine room”) at Minster Insurance from 1979 to 1988, shared some memories of the time:[10]

“Minster Insurance [...] did motor insurance, aviation and marine insurance, and other stuff. [...] The computers were used as follows. During the day, people would enter data. I expect this data was about people taking out insurance policies, making claims, or renewing or cancelling their policies. The machines were connected with modems to at least six other places; Manchester, Birmingham, Barnet, Sidcup, Hitchin and Darlington. These other offices would connect to the machine and feed in data. “During the evening and overnight, all this input would be processed, the results printed, and the following day, some of the people who had input data would remotely print their results. The print-outs were sometimes actual insurance policies, schedules, renewals, cheques, etc and they no doubt eventually got sent to the customers who had insured their vehicles etc. “[...] the floor I worked on, the ground floor was a bit different than the other floors. It was more compact, with the machine room taking up much of the space. Towards the middle (the North side) there was a print room where they made the pre-printed stationary that we computer operators fed into the computer printers which produced the insurance documents. Next to that, was a punch room where the ‘punch girls’ punched the cards (yes, they still used punched cards all through the 80s), a tape library and a fire safe. Next to that was Data Control where the various processing jobs were organised before being taken into the machine room for processing. The machine room was on the south side with the IT department (which we called ‘System Support’) the farthest south with their windows looking out onto Chatfield Road. [...] “There were three sets of machines while I was there. The old ICL 1900 (blue) was a 1960s system which was still running in 1980. The ICL 2900 (orange) was designed in the early 1970s but it looked really cool and modern. The DEC VAX (also blue) was brand new but it looked cheap compared to the big iron ICL machines. [...] “Upstairs were two floors. My memory has faded now but I know that at least two departments were up there; the accounts department and the programming department. I’m not sure what ‘accounts’ did up there but sometimes we would have to go up to log out a terminal that they had left logged in, before we could close down the service for the night. The programmers wrote the programs that did the processing. They would write them on paper, have the girls punch them onto cards, and then submit them to us for compiling and printing. It could take a whole day to get one job back. [...] “We used to go upstairs to those offices every now and then. There was a pool table up there which we used on night shift when the work was slow, and we had the office Christmas party up there too.”

Zodiac House was extended at least twice, first by an extra 2,950 square feet in the late 1960s, and again in the late 1970s when extra offices were built in what had until then been a covered courtyard area.[11] Nevertheless, the space seems to have fallen entirely out of use from the late 1980s onwards, and remains vacant today.[12]

1980s–1990s: Plans for a hotel

In early 1987, property company Control Securities bought the entire site, including Zodiac House, Zodiac Court, the nightclub space, and the block of shops, for £3 million (£7.7 million in 2016 prices). The company’s initial intention was “retention and upgrading” of the existing format and uses of the site, but by October 1988 it had “perceived that conversion of the office areas to an alternative hotel use might be more appropriate for the long term future of the complex”.[13]

The subsequent planning application “to convert the ground floor car showroom and the offices above to a business-class hotel, comprising 157 bedrooms, a restaurant, kitchen, four meeting rooms and two function rooms” was answered by a deluge of objections from local residents. One expressed reservations over “the ability of the applicants to maintain a hotel to any standard”, stating that “Since taking over Zodiac Court standards have dropped considerably. Levels of maintenance are negligible [...] A visit to the public areas of Zodiac Court would give anyone concern.” Others cited concerns over parking, “traffic noise and vibration by delivery vehicles, coaches etc”, and the belief that there were “already enough hotels in the area”.[14]

The businesses housed in the complex also expressed concerns. The proprietor of the two nightclubs in the complex, Cinatra’s and Watertown, sent a solicitor’s letter stating that “any attempts to remove him from the premises or to terminate his use of the [basement] car park will be strenuously resisted”.

These concerns were not unfounded; in the same month this letter was sent, Control Securities told Croydon Council that it was considering “the further possibility of extending [...the hotel] to include the Cinatra’s Nightclub area enabling much more extensive facilities for functions and conference use.”[15]

B Newton Motor Company, which had occupied the garage space at the base of Zodiac House for the previous four years, explained that it had spent “a considerable amount of money” improving the site from its original use as a petrol garage into “first class car showrooms selling Honda motor cars”, and that if it were forced to vacate the site it would “almost certainly cease trading as a Honda agent, with the cessation of 25 years of trading and subsequent loss of numerous local jobs.”[16]

Despite all these objections, Croydon Council’s Planning Sub-Committee noted that “It could be argued that this is a more appropriate location for a hotel than for the existing offices, which would be more appropriately located within the [Broad Green] District Centre or Croydon Town Centre.” The application was withdrawn in August 1989 in favour of a revised version, which again drew strenuous objections but was granted in October of that year.[17] For some reason, though, it was never implemented. Yet another revised application was granted in February 1993, but again nothing came of it.[18]

2017: Plans for flats

In July 2017, Croydon Council granted its approval of plans to convert Zodiac House into a total of 115 studio flats. It remains to be seen whether these plans will actually be put into practice.[19]

1960s–1990s: Godfrey Davis / Europcar

Tucked underneath the Zodiac House offices, on the right-hand side of the gates leading through to Zodiac Court, sits a small shop unit. Although this seems to have originally been intended as an actual shop, in May 1968 car hire firm Godfrey Davis Ltd was granted planning permission for illuminated advertising signs at the premises, and by late 1969 it was up and running, offering van and car rental and leasing.[20]

Godfrey Davis Ltd had its origins in a self-drive car hire firm established by the eponymous Godfrey Davis in 1923. It was incorporated as a private company in 1929, expanded into vehicle sales and servicing in 1938, and became a public company in 1959. Its car hire division operated as a national service; that is, one which offered customers the option of one-way rental, allowing them to return their vehicles to locations other than where they originally hired them.

By 1979 it had 195 rental outlets within the UK, including 74 at mainline railway stations and 14 at airports — the largest number in the country, and over three times as many as its next-largest competitor, Avis. Its car fleet was mainly manufactured by Ford, with the remainder consisting of Vauxhall, Talbot, and British Leyland vehicles.[21]

In April 1981, the car hire division of Godfrey Davis Ltd was purchased by Europcar, a French state-owned company that had been expanding internationally via a series of similar takeovers and other agreements since the early 1970s. It continued to operate in the small Zodiac Court shop unit under its new name of Godfrey Davis Europcar until the early 1990s, when it dropped the “Godfrey Davis” part of its name and moved to number 177, the middle of the seven shops in the block to the north of the site.[22]

The unit generally remained out of use following the departure of Godfrey Davis Europcar. It was a florists for a short while, and was later used by the site caretaker, but at the time of writing is vacant.[23]

1970s–1980s: Broad Green Service Station

In contrast to the small size of the unit discussed above, the ground-floor space on the left-hand side of the Zodiac Court gates is much more substantial, being originally intended as a car showroom and petrol filling station.

It’s not clear whether the developers had a specific occupant for this in mind, nor whether they managed to find one particularly swiftly after completion of the complex. However, by 1973, the space was occupied by the Broad Green Service Station, offering car sales, repairs, and enhancements including Ziebart rust protection. This remained until around 1983.[24]

1980s–2000s: B Newton Motor Company / Newton Honda

Next to arrive in the garage space was B Newton Motor Company, a family-run business founded in the mid-1960s at 247 Selhurst Road. It first expanded to West Croydon in the late 1970s, with a car spares shop at 212 London Road and an MOT centre at 156 Handcroft Road. Around 1983 it closed the shop at number 212 and took possession of the garage space and forecourt at Zodiac House.

B Newton remained at both Handcroft Road and Zodiac House until the early years of the 21st century, but departed both premises by the end of 2008. It’s still in business today, though, operating from 409 Brighton Road under the name of Newton Honda.[25]

2000s–2010s: Magic Fruit & Vegetable Market and Magic Carwash

The garage space remained vacant for several years after the departure of Newton Honda. At some point, the space was used by a wholesale and retail greengrocers called Magic Fruit & Vegetable Market, later replaced by a car wash called Magic Carwash & Valeting Services, but it then fell vacant again.[26]

2015–present: Timber Gardens

It might seem an unusual decision to open a greengrocers in a vacant car showroom, but the present occupant of the space is an even more unexpected one. Timber Gardens restaurant opened in February 2015, with a menu focusing on Ghanaian food but also including Chinese and Caribbean dishes.[27]

Echoes of its past as a car showroom can still be seen inside the restaurant: the lack of natural light, the expansive open space stretching back from a wide frontage, and the unusual sliding doors at the entrance. Even the private dining rooms at the back look like they might once have been the managers’ offices. Nevertheless, it’s a perfectly comfortable space for anything from dinner with friends to a night of dancing to live music.[28]