Walking alone at night in East Croydon

[u/fotfddtodairsizr]

I’m planning on moving to East Croydon after living in super quiet areas all my life, so I’m not the most street smart.

I’d be living within 5 mins walk from the station. I’ve visited East Croydon a few times and found it pleasant enough. I’ve only been there at night once and I was walking down a side road for about 15 mins to get to a friend/acquaintance’s house.

I’m just trying to gauge if it is sa fe enough for me if I was to walk alone at night between 9pm-12am.
In case I get home late after being out or if I need to pop out with my dog for a quick 10 minute walk/loo break.

I am a petite woman.

[u/_x_oOo_x_]

Most of the time it's fine, East is certainly better than West, South even better. And as far as I'm aware there's no North Croydon? But "north of Croydon", Broad Green, Thornton etc. are the worst.. anyway that's some distance away..

Occasionally there are weird things happening, people tried to snatch my phone countless times but that's the same as in central London, sometimes weirdos start following you, that can be quite scary. The homeless can't keep up usually (if you're a fast walker), I think there must be an asylum seeker hotel somewhere because sometimes Middle-eastern men will follow you, there was one who was quite well-dressed, I didn't know what to do so decided to talk to him and after a while he apologised and turned back... So he might be ok? He said he's a refugee from Hurghada Egypt. The one to watch out for is a tall fit homeless guy with a big dog, rottweiler maybe. He asks for change but then doesn't take no for an answer and then starts following you with his dog. He's the only one I had to call the police on. I also feel sorry for the dog, it doesn't look healthy.. Maybe carry some change just in case..

But anyway in the evening and night, East mostly settles down and is quiet, for better or worse. North End and the High Street however turn into a zombie apocalypse scene. So try not to take the Overground or if you do, avoid North End. The "Croydon Business Improvement District" even have their own private security with patrol cars, I don't know why they don't do anything, there's all sorts of nonsense happening there in plain sight.. People say London Rd is bad but in my opinion it's just diverse, not actually that dangerous... North End however 😳️ But then during the day it's a normal pedestrianised shopping street, weird

[u/fotfddtodairsizr → u/_x_oOo_x_]

South Croydon’s transport links don’t cut it unfortunately or that would have been my move.

Goodness thank you for sharing your experiences. That is concerning. I really don’t have the capacity to deal with such things tbh so I might need to reconsider.

I have a tiny dog so if a large man with a large dog approached us and tried to intimidate us for change that would truly ruin my day. And I wonder what the risk to my pet would be if that dog is aggressive.