CROYDON, a municipal, county and parliamentary borough of north-east Surrey, England, suburban to London. Pop. (1891), 102,695 ; (1931), 233,115. The borough embraces a great resi dential district. It has f our stations on the main and branch lines of the S.R. It stands near the sources of the river Wandle, under Banstead Downs. The original site was further west than the present town and is mentioned in Domesday. Still earlier settle ment is indicated by the prehistoric remains near Addington Park. There are a number of springs in the neighbourhood which are im portant determinants of settlement in a chalk country. The manor of Croydon was presented by William I. to Archbishop Lanfranc, founder of the archiepiscopal palace in which his successors lived occasionally till 1750, and of which the chapel and hall remain. The church associated with the archiepiscopal residence is Nor man and Early English in style. Croydon is a suffragan bishopric in the diocese of Canterbury. The parish church of St. John the Baptist, 14th and 15th centuries, contains remains of an older building. It was extensively restored after fire in the 19th century. In 1S96 Archbishop Whitgift founded the hospital or almshouse which bears his name. It was saved from destruction in connec tion with a road-widening scheme after a long dispute in 1925. His grammar-school was housed in new buildings in 1871. The town hall contains a public library. At Addiscombe in the neigh bourhood was formerly a mansion dating from 1702, and acquired by the East India company in 1809 for a military college, which on the abolition of the company became the Royal Military col lege for the East Indian army, and was closed in 1862. The Gov ernment civil customs aerodrome, operated by the civil aviation department of the Air Ministry, is at Waddon, 2m. S.W. of Croy don town hall. It is officially known as the London Terminal Aerodrome, Croydon, and is one of the busiest air ports in the world (see AERODROMES) with direct regular services to several Continental capitals, air connections to more distant European cities being obtained by special interworking.
Croydon was formed into a municipal borough in 1883, a par liamentary borough, returning one member, in 1885, and a county borough in 1888. It now returns two members.