Crawley is surely the most-maligned town in Sussex, with the Crap Towns website rather cruelly suggesting ‘it has a cultural life that makes Milton Keynes look like the Weimar Republic’. The snooker player Ronnie O’Sullivan, stated in 2019, during the English Open at the K2 Leisure Centre: ‘every day I spend in Crawley is a day lost in my life’. And, let’s face it, it isn’t Petworth or Arundel: no-one’s going to go there for a relaxing stroll round country houses, antique shops or bijoux galleries followed by a meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant and a sleepover in a historic hotel.

And yet, as one of the very first New Towns to be built after WW2 (second only to Stevenage) Crawley has a fascinating 20th-century history. In the 1950s and 60s it was billed as a Utopia, where working-class former Londoners could live in well-designed, mostly semi-detached houses – with gardens – and enjoy plentiful local amenities, in one of its nine (now 14) new districts, each with its own local shopping parade, park, church, primary school, pub and social centre. And all within walking distance of the historic town centre.

So we wouldn’t recommend the town as a place for a weekend break, but we would suggest it as a day trip for those curious enough to find out more about this bold post-war social experiment, and how everything has panned out in the 21st century. There are a few hidden gems to enjoy, too.

History

Crawley, from Anglo Saxon ‘crawe leagh’ (crow-infested clearing), dates back to the Iron Age. The village grew as a centre for ironworking in the Roman era, then a market town in medieval times (attested to by a handful of half-timbered houses in the historic centre). Almost exactly halfway between London and Brighton, after the opening of the turnpike road in 1770 it became a hub for several coaching inns; in 1841 the railway arrived, and an explosion in population and prosperity.

Nothing, however, compared with what happened a century later. In May 1946 Crawley was identified in the New Towns Act as being a suitable location for development, to fill the spaces between the existing settlements of Crawley, Ifield and Three Bridges. Over the next 20 years, nine districts were constructed around the town centre: West Green, Northgate, Southgate, Three Bridges, Langley Green, Glossops Green, Ifield Green and Tilgate.

This enormous undertaking, meticulously planned, catered for a young population, a quarter of whom were of school age. And at first it seems to have worked: there were plenty of social amenities including theatre societies, scores of sports clubs, a swimming pool, branch libraries, and the Starlight Ballroom in the town centre, with capacity for 1,500 revellers. Work was plentiful, as light industries flocked to the Manor Green industrial centre in the north of the town (opened by a young Queen Elizabeth in 1958); by 1960, when the population had reached 51,000, only 76 Crawley residents were registered as unemployed.

Alas, as Crawley expanded even further in subsequent decades, with five new districts being built, living standards weren’t given such close attention by planners and the town has suffered as a result. Ironically, in a settlement designed to house a rapidly increasing population, there is now a chronic shortage of accommodation. It’s worth pointing out that Crawley has in the last 15 years or so opened its arms to thousands of immigrants, with 38.2% of the population now consisting of ethnic minorities. A notable addition in recent years has been the biggest community of Chagossians in the country (3,500 and counting). The Chagossians were forced to move from their island home of Diego Garcia in the 60s and 70s (largely to Mauritius) to make way for a US military base, and many have recently been granted British passports. Two thirds of those subsequently arriving in the UK have made Crawley their home.

Culture

You can learn all about the development of the New Town, as well as its more distant past, at Crawley Museum, housed in The Tree, on the High Street, one of Crawley’s oldest buildings, dating back to the 14th century. The Tree is named after a mighty elm – said to be the height of nine giraffes –which used to stand outside, its hollow trunk wide enough to accommodate benches inside for coachmen to sleep on overnight. It’s also worth visiting the Windmill Museum in Ifield, with a working watermill and displays concerning iron and corn milling.

Crawley’s biggest arts venue is The Hawth, set in 38 acres of woodland on the outskirts of town, an entertainingly ugly postmodern building, opened in 1988. The Hawth puts on popular theatre, live music, and comedy in its main auditorium and more alternative fare in its much smaller Studio. There’s also a grass-banked amphitheatre in a clearing in the woods behind the main theatre, where you can catch summertime alfresco theatre. We happened upon a rehearsal of As You Like It when we visited, and were allowed to sit and watch, a charming visual vignette. The amphitheatre hosts the annual Crawley Folk & Real Ale Festival, and world music events.

We chose to build our visit around the opening of the Around the Lake Festival, an annual mid-July event organised by Crawley’s Creative Playground. We were rowed around said lake – in beautiful Tilgate Park, to the south of the town, with its cypresses, maples, chestnuts and oaks – by broadcaster Julian May and artist Luke Jerram, listening to one of twelve available recorded oral narratives, a Kurdish girl’s account of being smuggled across the Channel in a small boat. Creative Playground, run by residents of the town, is also responsible for a series of colourful murals throughout the town, designed by local and international artists, celebrating Crawley’s diversity. Also look out for Dreamy Place digital arts festival in October (see pg 18 in ROSA #10).

Architecture

A 15-minute walk back to the town centre allowed us to appreciate the pleasant Tilgate residential district, constructed in the mid-fifties, with its pitched-roofed two-storey semis reminding us how mid-century social housing was built very much on a human scale. A row of shops built between pillars underneath two-storey flats cater for just about every daily need: there’s a Chinese and an Indian takeaway, a Co-op, a newsagent, a hairdresser, a chemist, a baker, and more.

Adjacent to Tilgate Park, the Shrublands and Forestfields housing estates, built between 1965 and 1971 in the Furnace Green district, have been designated as a conservation area. Shrublands, known to locals as ‘The Cheese Houses’ is well worth exploring to understand how careful planning can lead to a harmonious environment. Each house has a southfacing living room, with gardens giving access to pathways which lead to the green in the middle of the estate.

We imagined that a walk around the modern centre of Crawley would satisfy our nerdish appetite for post-war Brutalist buildings. But we were sadly disappointed as, beyond the openair Queens Square shopping centre (reminiscent of Churchill Square in Brighton before its redevelopment) there was little left. The façade of Crawley’s railway station, its entrance incorporated within a six-storey Brutalist office block, is overwhelmingly ugly, and has been earmarked for demolition (while in the meantime offering cheap office space, ideal for artists’ studios). Also doomed, sadly, is the former epicentre of the New Town, the old town hall, now a fenced-off shell, in the shadow of its flashy high-rise successor, completed last year. Opened with much fanfare in 1958, this elegant, well-proportioned building was twice denied Grade-II listing status, deemed not to be ‘of sufficient architectural merit’. This is a shame: if there is a tangible symbol of Crawley’s post-war dream, this is it. The building was spared the wrecking ball in February, when a planned redevelopment – turning it into a nine-storey block of flats –ground to a halt. But go see it while you can: with it will die the spirit of Crawley New Town.

Eating and drinking

For tasty vegan mezze, washed down with freshly made lemonade, try Sage, on the High Street; for a more carniverous (and significantly more expensive) experience try the Aged Steakhouse, housed in a half-timbered Tudor building opposite. Also recommended to us were the Anatolian/Mediterranen Turkuaz, just up the road, and, for English pub grub and curries a little way out of the centre, The Parson’s Pig. For a quick coffee and pastel de nata (or a plate of piri-piri chicken, eaten in front of a Portuguese-language TV) try the tiny Estrelicia on Church Walk. The best pub we found, hands down, was the Brewery Shades linking the High Street with Queens Square shopping centre, built around a 15th-century timberframed hall house. Serving a wide range of real and craft ales and ciders, this establishment came narrowly second in CAMRA’s 2024 North Sussex pub of the year award, having been given first place from 2021-2023.

Travel and accommodation

With Gatwick Airport just a couple of miles away, easy access to the M23 and train lines to London, Brighton and Chichester, it isn’t hard to make your way to Crawley. And there’s no shortage of accommodation, either, mostly catering for the needs of airport users. For a country pile experience with fine dining and a spa try Alexander House in nearby Turners Green, once home to Percy Bysshe and Mary Shelley. If you’re looking for somewhere in Crawley town centre, the four-star Arora Hotel is a Brutalist-style building (constructed in 2001) right next to the train station.

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