Ken Towl

It’s the final countdown as Rowland reflects on our mortality KEN TOWL considers Plato, kingfishers and Ian McKellen’s balls in an hour-long Croydonites Festival performance which could never over-run James Rowland is dead. Well, sort of. The end was in…

It's the final countdown as Rowland reflects on our mortality insidecroydon.com/2025/10/19/i...

Croydonites provides a front-row seat for hard-hitting comedy The 2025 Croydonites Festival is well underway, and KEN TOWL could not resist the chance to go along to see the sold-old Dick’s Picks (geddit?!) Dick Denham had been tasked with curating a ra…

Croydonites provides a front-row seat for hard-hitting comedy insidecroydon.com/2025/10/13/c...

Ghosts that stalk our streets and the history we learn from them KEN TOWL sets off to find as many ghost signs as he can According to Historic England, ghost signs are “typically historic hand-painted advertising signs or old shop signs preserved on buildings th…

Ghosts that stalk our streets and the history we learn from them insidecroydon.com/2025/10/07/g...

Alan Partridge might not cope with his £1 breakfast at Ikea Hej!, as they say in Sweden, the latest cut-priced customer offer at the large homeware store could keep KEN TOWL returning to Ampere Way all the way until Christmas When a colleague who often take…

Alan Partridge might not cope with his £1 breakfast at Ikea insidecroydon.com/2025/09/29/a...

Does Jeremy know?

Davis’s big launch might have been good, if only I could hear it POLITICAL SKETCH: Ever been invited to a party when you’ve been expected to pay for your food? Or a launch event which is set up so you can neither see nor hear clearly the speakers on stage?…

Davis's big launch might have been good, if only I could hear it insidecroydon.com/2025/09/22/d...

iC writers go on a quest: find a way through the Whitgift Centre For the past year, one of Croydon’s MPs has worked from an office deep inside the Whitgift Centre. But just where? With the shopping centre’s managers blocking off entrances and removin…

iC writers go on a quest: find a way through the Whitgift Centre insidecroydon.com/2025/09/01/i... You can't find anything in the Whitgift any more...

At the Tate Britain: "Orange, White and Black Composition" or a pint of Guinness on a bar?

From Westerham to Bletchingley, we retrace our walker’s steps WEEKEND WANDERINGS: Continuing our tradition of providing guides to readily accessible walking routes in and around Croydon, KEN TOWL set off in the footsteps of this website’s original guide…

From Westerham to Bletchingley, we retrace our walker's steps insidecroydon.com/2025/08/15/f...

Do you think the new Corbyn/Sultana group (supposedly on around 10% of the national vote) will be chasing Labour votes in mostly the same wards/constituencies? Is there a danger that, in chasing the progressive vote, the Greens and Corbyn cut each other in half?

It’s a red-letter day for our ‘covid generation’ of school pupils CROYDON COMMENTARY: Secondary school teacher KEN TOWL on the sense of anticipation gripping the nation’s teens, and their parents and tutors, ahead of tomorrow’s big A-levels results re…

It's a red-letter day for our 'covid generation' of school pupils insidecroydon.com/2025/08/13/i...

Trout, Clarkson’s lager and scotch eggs on a cathedrals walk KEN TOWL, Inside Croydon’s regular walks guide, took a diversion last weekend, and with a group of old mates made a 20-mile pilgrimage between two of the finest medieval cathedrals in the wor…

Trout, Clarkson's lager and scotch eggs on a cathedrals walk insidecroydon.com/2025/08/08/t...

The review is in. Don't just take our word for it, the best amateur theatre is on your doorstep now. Read the review and then book tickets at twcoulsdon.org.uk

insidecroydon.com/2025/07/31/t...

Costa Del Croydon offers beach experience unlike any other Westfield’s latest sop for failing to deliver the long-promised regeneration of the town centre has been to have tons of sand dumped on the top of a shopping centre’s multi-storey car p…

The best beach in South London? insidecroydon.com/2025/08/01/c...

There’s a revolution going on in a wooded glade in Coulsdon ‘Man is the only creature that consumes without producing’ wrote George Orwell 80 years ago, but as the Theatre Workshop Coulsdon has shown once more, they certainly know how to produce…

There's a revolution going on in a wooded glade in Coulsdon insidecroydon.com/2025/07/31/t...

There’s a revolution going on in a wooded glade in Coulsdon ‘Man is the only creature that consumes without producing’ wrote George Orwell 80 years ago, but as the Theatre Workshop Coulsdon has shown once more, they certainly know how to produce…

There's a revolution going on in a wooded glade in Coulsdon insidecroydon.com/2025/07/31/t...

Pregnant with vulnerability, Gwilliam sets the scene for festival KEN TOWL ventured deep into an abandoned building site while full of hopeful expectation for a workshop performance ahead of the 2025 Croydonites Fringe I had seen Amy Gwilliam’s evil alter-ego, pr…

Pregnant with vulnerability, Gwilliam sets the scene for festival insidecroydon.com/2025/07/08/p...

Podcast: Our Croydon Insider panel looks at council’s crisis What will the appointment by government of Commissioners to run Croydon Council mean to you as a resident? After five years of ever-increasing bail-outs for Croydon’s cash-stapped council, wh…

Podcast: Our Croydon Insider panel looks at council's crisis insidecroydon.com/2025/06/30/p... #Croydon #CroydonInCrisis #Podcast @kentowl.bsky.social

How a lawyer and an artist are responding to the genocide in Gaza...

Vote Ant, get Dec.

Blurb on the back: 'if you only read one book about Croydon this year...'

We had all better keep a look out for whatever Katie does next The play that takes its title from Bowie’s dismissal of the town where he went to art school is nearing the end of its run. KEN TOWL took the chance to glimpse at the brilliance of the one-wo…

We had all better keep a look out for whatever Katie does next insidecroydon.com/2025/05/19/w...

The Labour Party risks becoming an island of strangers.

Changing times, and quieter nights, for Croydon’s oldest pub Our dogged culture correspondent KEN TOWL spent the night, and nearly six quid a pint, checking out the refurbed Dog and Bull, with its ‘banging’ tunes, new high security and its not-so…

I'll be in the doghouse for this... insidecroydon.com/2025/05/10/c...

Sir Keir Starmer says "all decent British people" have a "deep and enduring love" for Sir Winston Churchill. Given that my love for Winnie is neither deep nor enduring, I am beginning to doubt my own decency.

Teachers in England move a step closer to striking Union members will vote on whether or not to strike if the government stands by its pay offer.

I mean, we don't have to strike. The government could offer us inflation, and, you know, fund it, rather than do what they are doing now, which is reducing teachers' pay and reducing funding for education... www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Justin Welby, on Kuennsberg says he did nothing about abuse in the church because there was too much abuse in the church and it was 'overwhelming'. Never heard of prioritising?

Judging by the news coming out of the Trump/Putin phone call, Trump will recognise Russia's claim to the Crimea and promise to give no more aid to Ukraine, and Putin will offer the US team a hockey match.

Talented company offers Feelgood factor on Southwark stage KEN TOWL reviews a new play with music about the enigmatic but brusque, uxorious and faithless John Wilkinson, and his band of other Johns Collective nouns. They’re great, aren’t they? “An em…

Re-animated Feelgood factor... insidecroydon.com/2025/02/26/t...

Hastings councillor offers a way through the political brambles How should we counter the rise of the far-right? As KEN TOWL found out when he arrived on time at the Croydon School of Philosophy, by offering some truth and understanding In the School of Philoso…

Hastings councillor offers a way through the political brambles insidecroydon.com/2025/02/24/h...