South Norwood’s Goat House Bridge gets a mural makeover

The amazingly named Goat House Bridge, which passes over the railway tracks in South Norwood, has been given a mural makeover as part of Croydon Council’s ongoing work to revive and regenerate the area.

Goathouse Bridge overlooks the railway and is named after The Goat House pub that once stood at the entrance to the area. The pub is thought to have taken its name from when the site was a clearing in the ‘North Wood’ where a goat herd lived and is marked ‘Goat House’ on an enclosure map of 1797.

When the pub was built here, the landlord kept a goat in the garden to amuse the children. However, the pub closed in 2004 and was demolished in 2007 to be replaced with a block of flats.

The road bridge it gave its name to was rebuilt in circa 2012 to replace a low metal wall with a high brick one, and now that plain brick wall has gained a lot of colour.

The stencil artwork was designed by Europa, a graphic design studio and CarverHaggard Architects in collaboration with Year 9 students from Harris Academy South Norwood and Reaching Higher, a local youth organisation.

Artist Tanguy Bertocchi led the creation of the artwork from Varylab Studios.

The mural project is part of the council’s South Norwood Regeneration Programme, a £2.4 million programme funded by the Mayor of London’s Good Growth Fund and Historic England’s High Street Heritage Action Zone, to revitalise and revive South Norwood High Street.