Paul Meakin has been
an estate agent in Croydon
for more than 30 years.
These papers show particulars
of some of the properties
he helped to sell.

Paul talks about the effect
of the recession
on housing in Croydon:

"I remember
being on holiday,
I always tended to go away
at Christmas and New Year
because it was quiet.
I remember phoning in
from wherever I was on holiday,
phoning the four offices
and asking,
you know,
how many sales they'd made
in December
and the four offices
and like twenty members of staff
had made six sales [laughs]."

"I remember thinking,
'oh my God',
you know and that's how it was,
we'd gone from boom one minute
to no sales the next.

The recession,
I think,
lasted seven years
from August the 19th 1988,
it was a Thursday I think,
I'll have to check that.
From then
right the way through
'til the tail end of 1995."
<page/>
"I think Croydon was
right up at the top
of the repossession list

mainly because of
the vast area that it covers."

"South Norwood,
Thornton Heath,
a huge amount of conversion flats
and of course
it was the flat market as such
that got hit the hardest.
It's that much easier for a family
with two children
expecting a third child
to live in a three bed semi,
than it is
to have three kids in a two bed flat,
or one child in a one bed flat
so I think people in houses
fared slightly better
in terms of being able to
hang in there."

The British economy boomed
in the late 1980s.
People were encouraged
to buy their own homes
and mortgage companies were happy
to lend.
In the early 1990s
there was a severe
economic recession.
Housing prices crashed.
Many found themselves
in 'negative equity',
when their mortgage was higher
than the value of their house.

If they were unable
to keep up repayments
on their mortgages,
their houses were repossessed.
In 1991,
more than 75,000 homes
were repossessed.
London and the South East,
including Croydon,
were particularly badly hit.

We are working hard to write
an ‘Explore’ page for every object
in the Museum of Croydon.

If you would like to suggest
a visit, website or book
which would help people
find out more about this object
then please contact us:

Museum of Croydon
Croydon Clocktower
Katharine Street
Croydon
CR9 1ET
Tel: 020 8253 1022
Email: museum@croydon.gov.uk