Dabners pet shop has been saved from closure after more than 50 years in Croydon, but its future now sits against the backdrop of a town centre in visible decline. Owner Mark Oram had previously announced he would be shutting up shop due to rising costs, shoplifting and shrinking footfall, describing the government’s Autumn Budget changes to business tax relief as the “final nail in the coffin”. Yet new signs on the Surrey Street shopfront confirmed that the business will continue trading, declaring: “Your premier pet shop is here to stay! Serving Croydon’s pets and people for over 50 years and we’re not going anywhere! Your support keeps us fighting strong!”
The news has brought some relief to loyal customers, but challenges for Croydon’s retail landscape remain acute. Many shoppers are already choosing to head to Bromley instead, citing safety concerns and a dwindling range of shops. Local resident Sue Fordham said: “I always go Bromley now, more shops and not so depressing. I actually feel safer there! There’s not a lot left in Croydon. The fruit and veg are better quality on stalls in Bromley.” Others have described Croydon as “an unsafe ghost town” and “finished,” comments that echo Oram’s own frustrations about what he called a “lawless” atmosphere in the town centre.
Those frustrations are reinforced by the crisis engulfing the Whitgift Centre, once the pride of Croydon shopping but now almost unrecognisable. The 60-year-old mall has seen retailer after retailer leave, with Superdry, The Body Shop, Beaverbrooks and The Entertainer among the latest to exit. Management company Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield (URW) has also made the centre less accessible by closing staircases and entrances, and shutting down the long-standing Allders car park without warning tenants. One business owner told Inside Croydon: “I am actually in tears.”mn
Tenants were also given no notice when Croydon Council, with the agreement of Westfield’s management, shut the Wellesley Road pedestrian underpass in December, removing a key access point during the crucial Christmas period. Work has only recently begun on a surface-level replacement crossing, funded by fines imposed on Westfield for failing to deliver previous commitments.
Promises of “meanwhile” kiosks to revitalise the frontage of the former Allders store, closed in 2019, remain unfulfilled. And despite redevelopment schemes being approved as far back as 2012, with a £1.4 billion transformation once expected by 2017, no work has ever begun. In 2023, Westfield directors suggested Croydon’s regeneration could now be delayed until 2038. For those still trading inside the Whitgift, the slow gutting of the centre feels terminal. One trader described it bluntly: “It’s like they’re gutting a fish, but from the inside out first.”
The decline that continues to threaten stores like Dabners has driven even more residents away from Croydon. Susan Davies reflected: “It’s so sad to see the demise of Croydon’s shopping centre. I go to Bromley or Bluewater. Both thriving shopping centres, which just proves there is still a place for shopping centres.” Another former resident, now living in Canada, said she felt “so very sad” to see Croydon reduced to this state.
While the Metropolitan Police have recently increased patrols and launched a crackdown on shoplifting, reducing reported incidents in the town centre from 2,050 in late 2024 to 1,432 in the first half of 2025, many locals believe the reputational damage has already been done. For Oram and Dabners, survival depends not only on loyal customers but also on whether Croydon’s wider retail decline can be slowed.
For now, Dabners continues to stand as a rare constant in a town centre where much-loved independents and major retailers alike have been lost. Its survival story contrasts sharply with the steady dismantling of the Whitgift Centre, symbolising both the resilience of small businesses and the uncertainty facing Croydon’s future.
