Victorian villas, interwar semis and 1970s estates, all inside one postcode
The Waldrons and Croham Road are lined with Victorian and Edwardian villas, plenty of them now flats, and their sashes, deep bays and leaded panels are what brings us over from Waddon most weeks. As glaziers in South Croydon we are based at the JM Glass & Glazing workshop at 24 Waddon Close, Croydon CR0 4JT, two miles away. Sanderstead and Selsdon are different again, misted units in 1930s timber bays.
South Croydon was laid out across two old manors, Croham and Haling, and the Whitgift Foundation has owned a good part of it since it bought Croham Manor in 1601. You can still read that history in the windows. The valley roads running south from the town centre are large Victorian and Edwardian villas (The Waldrons is the obvious one), with tall sliding sashes, deep bays and a lot of stained and leaded glass. Plenty of them are flats now, so one job can mean a freeholder, a managing agent and three leaseholders.
Move out from there and the stock changes twice more. Croham Manor Road is a planned run of interwar houses sitting against Croham Hurst. Sanderstead and Selsdon are almost wholly 1920s and 1930s semis, most still carrying their original curved or square timber bays with leaded top-lights above them. Forestdale is 1960s and 70s estate housing with wide picture windows and patio doors. Four building eras inside one postcode, and each one fails in its own way.
What fails, and where
- The Waldrons, Croham Road and Haling Park. Cracked sash panes, broken cords, and leaded or stained panels that have bowed with age. We take the pane out and put the new one back into the original frame, see glass replacement.
- Sanderstead and Selsdon. Timber bays where the putty has finally gone, and an enormous stock of 1990s sealed units that have misted. Misted double glazing in South Croydon is the single most common call we get.
- Brighton Road flat conversions. Communal stair and landing glass, and replacement units for windows that also have to work for ventilation and escape.
- Forestdale and the later estates. Wide picture windows and patio doors that are past a repair, where the sensible answer is the whole unit rather than another patch.
A misted unit almost never means new windows. The frame is usually sound. It is the seal between the two panes that has failed. We measure the failed unit, order the glass and fit it, and the window works again. On a 1930s Sanderstead bay that can be six or seven odd-shaped units in one visit, which is the sort of job we do most weeks.
The rest is smaller and quicker. Window repairs in South Croydon: handles, hinges, locks, a sash that will not hold. Glass cut to size in South Croydon for a shelf, a table top, a cabinet or a picture frame, measured off your template or ours. Mirrors for the tall hallways in the villa conversions, where a standard size never quite works.
We do the bigger pieces here too: splashbacks in the kitchen extensions that go up behind the villas, glass balustrades on the open stairs of loft conversions, and shower enclosures in the awkward top-floor bathrooms these houses always end up with. Edge Building Products named us their Installation of the Month for July 2025 for a roof light refurbishment, 44 shaped double-glazed units into Edge 50mm capped aluminium glazing bars. Shaped glass is a normal week for us.
South End is Croydon's restaurant quarter: a long, dense run of independent restaurants, cafes and bars, one frontage after another, most of them glass from the pavement up. It is the best source of commercial glass work in CR2 and it does not keep office hours. A pane goes through in a door on a Saturday night and it needs making safe before it needs replacing. We board up first and glaze after, and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can.
There is more of it than people think. The Brighton Road and Selsdon Road parades. Selsdon's high street along Addington Road, with the Sainsbury's at 130 and the Aldi at 232 to 236 either end of it and the Sir Julian Huxley in between. The Sanderstead parade on Limpsfield Road. The Whitgift Foundation's school buildings at Haling Park. Add the small offices and converted commercial premises spread along Brighton Road and that is a lot of glass in a two-mile strip. Toughened entrance doors, replacement shop front panes, frosted office partitions and internal screens are all normal work.
The Waldrons, Croham Manor Road and what the conservation rules mean
Two conservation areas cover a good part of CR2. The Waldrons was designated in 1973 and carries an Article 4 direction covering front-garden hard surfacing along with walls, fences and gates, so frontages, boundaries and plots there are all closely controlled. Croham Manor Road, the planned interwar run beside Croham Hurst, is the second. What that means in practice is that the front of the house is the sensitive part, and window work has to look right as well as fit. Speak to Croydon Council's planning team before you change the appearance of a frontage in either area.
Most of what we do in those roads changes the look of nothing. Re-glazing a sash with a matching pane, replacing a failed unit inside an existing timber bay, repairing a leaded light instead of scrapping it. The house looks exactly as it did and only the glass is new. In a conservation area that is usually the right answer, and it is nearly always the cheaper one.
Getting to South Croydon from Waddon
We are at 24 Waddon Close, CR0 4JT, about two miles from South End. Out of Waddon, along Duppas Hill Road and down through Old Town, and you are on Brighton Road in ten minutes or so. Sanderstead and Selsdon are a few minutes further up Selsdon Road or Croham Road. We are in CR2 most weeks anyway, so looking at a job here rarely needs a special trip. For an emergency glazier in South Croydon, call 020 8680 8334 or the mobile on 07956 138 582.
Glazing services we provide in South Croydon
Most South Croydon work falls into a handful of jobs. Here is what we get called out for in CR2, and where each one usually lands.
Areas near South Croydon
We also cover Croydon, Purley, Sanderstead, Selsdon, Shirley, Waddon. See every area on our areas covered page.
Frequently Asked Questions
Yes. That takes in South End and The Waldrons, Croham and Croham Manor Road, Haling Park, Purley Oaks, Croham Valley and Ballards, and out to Sanderstead, Selsdon and Forestdale. We are two miles away in Waddon, so CR2 is one of the closest areas we work in. CR0 sits on the other side of us.
South Croydon is about ten minutes from our base at Waddon Close, down Duppas Hill Road and through Old Town. For a broken window we board up first and glaze after, and we aim to make a property safe the same day where we can. Call 020 8680 8334, or 07956 138 582 for the mobile and WhatsApp.
Replacing the glass in an existing frame does not change how the house looks, which is usually the simplest route in a conservation area. The Article 4 direction there covers front-garden hard surfacing, walls, fences and gates, and frontages are closely controlled. If you are changing the style of a window or the frame itself, check with Croydon Council's planning team first.
Yes, and it is our most common job in CR2. Those bays usually have several odd-shaped panes rather than one, so we measure every failed unit, order the glass shaped to match and fit them in one visit. The timber frame stays where it is. Curved bays and leaded top-lights are no problem.
Yes. Shelves, table tops, cabinet panels, picture glass and replacement panes, cut to your measurements or measured off a template. We also make mirrors to size, which is worth knowing in the villa conversions along Croham Road and The Waldrons where the hallways are tall and nothing off the shelf fits.
Yes. South End is a dense run of restaurant, cafe and bar frontages and it is where most of our commercial CR2 work comes from. We handle shop front panes, toughened entrance doors, internal screens and frosted office partitions, along the Brighton Road and Selsdon Road parades and on Addington Road and Limpsfield Road too.
Yes. The Victorian and Edwardian villas on The Waldrons, Croham Road and Haling Park are full of stained and leaded panels, and plenty have bowed or cracked with age. Where a panel can be saved we take it out, repair it and put it back in the original frame. Where it cannot, we make a matching panel. Many of those villas are flats now, so tell us whether a freeholder or managing agent has to agree the work.
Only the glass part of it. On the Croham Manor Road interwar houses and the Sanderstead and Selsdon bays, what fails is nearly always the sealed unit or the putty rather than the timber, so the frame stays put and only the glass changes: a shorter job and a much smaller bill than a new window. The Forestdale picture windows and patio doors go the same way. Where a frame really has gone, you need a replacement-window firm; we supply and fit glass, not windows.