The placename Croydon is recorded as early as 809 and is listed in the 1086 Domesday Book,[1] where it is described as the land held in Demesne by Lanfranc, the Archbishop of Canterbury in Waletone (that is Wallington) hundred.

[3] The southernmost marker, Hern Cross, was cut in an elm tree at the southern end of the High Street.

[7] The Whitgift Foundation was and remains a charity providing care for the elderly and education for young people in Croydon.

Stables were built in South Croydon at Crunden Place, near the Red Deer inn on the Brighton Road; these were used by the coaching business.

[13] Croham Hurst was bought as an open space for local people from the Whitgift Foundation by Croydon Corporation in 1901, an area of 34 hectares.

Thereafter the old parish boundary roughly follows the railway south as far as the Red Deer public house, beyond which lies Purley Oaks.

[14] The much larger postal district of South Croydon includes Sanderstead, Selsdon and two remnants of Addington, Croham Valley and Monks Hill.

[15] Green space is provided to the west by the Purley Way Playing Fields[16], Croham Hurst[17] and the hidden green space with gardens that is Haling Grove sandwiched between Pampisford Road and the A23:[18] the extensive Whitgift School playing fields frequently host international cricket and rugby matches.

[19] The Wandle river, a tributary of the Thames, found its source in South Croydon in modern times.

Extraction of water from chalk aquifers, however, has caused the spring to dry up and the Wandle is culverted and not visible within South Croydon.

[31] The site is a steep hill, which is ancient woodland, although there are few very old trees because until the railways made cheap coal available, the timber was used for fuel.

On the lower slopes there is a diverse community of plants dominated by oak and hazel on rich soils overlying chalk.

The top is mainly bare of trees, with rounded pebbles made when the area was the base of shallow seas in the Eocene epoch around 50 million years ago.

[2]: 9  Built by the London General Omnibus Company, the garage was handed over to Thomas Tilling upon opening on 23 January 1916 as part of an agreement between the two operators.

The building was decorated with the Archbishop's arms, which were a cone or sugarloaf hat and a crook, which resembled in shape the curve of a swan's neck.

It was this resemblance that led to local people misunderstanding the heraldic symbols and the farmstead became known as the Swan and Sugarloaf, a name that was retained when it was later licensed as a public house and hotel.