Crystal Palace
We should start with the basic geography. What you need to know is that, like the majority of London clubs, Crystal Palace don't play in the part of London which bears that name. Don't go to Crystal Palace. You will not be anywhere near. You do, however, have a dazzling choice of suburban stations to visit. Norwood Junction, Selhurst and Thornton Heath are all about ten minutes away. Selhurst and Thornton Heath are reached by overground trains from Victoria (the underground never penetrated this far south), while Norwood Junction is served by trains from both Victoria and London Bridge, although there is apparently a more frequent service from Victoria. It has also been suggested that you may prefer to avoid London Bridge when Millwall are at home, as there has been some unpleasantness on that station in the past. There are plenty of trains that will get you there on time, and you can get more information from the online timetables on the National Rail website, which are sometimes accurate.
From Thornton Heath the ground is east along Brigstock Road, Thornton Heath High Street and Whitehorse Lane; from Selhurst you go north east up Selhurst Road and then take Park Road on your left; from Norwood Junction, you need Station Road until it joins Selhurst Road, then head left down here, then right when you get to Park Road. Park Road borders the ground, and specifically the away end, although if you get lost you may find yourself wandering around Claret Gardens!
There are drinking options close to all three of these stations. That said, bear in mind that Selhurst Park has a reputation for being a difficult ground to find, so it may be wise to invest a few pounds in a London A-Z, available from any newsagent's. Around the pubs, look out for beer from the two main independent brewers - Young's and Fuller's. Young's main beers are bitter ('Ordinary') and a stronger bitter ('Special'). The Special's good but the Ordinary's great, and in winter you'll also get the fantastic dark, sweet Winter Warmer too. It's just a personal choice, but I'm less keen on Fuller's. I prefer their standard Chiswick beer to the widely known London Pride, while their strong ESB is only for those who want the game to pass them by.
There's an excellent online Palace pub guide at the Holmesdale Online, which includes maps and photos! (We'll get there with our Burnley guide, just you wait and see.) Better still, the author makes "no apologies for real ale bias". Clearly, there's no point in us reproducing it here. Go there and chose 'Selhurst' from the main menu. In fact, since it includes maps, I'd recommend printing it off and taking a copy with you. They'll tell you how to get to the ground, too.
I also have a local source who lived in the area for many years, so without further ado, it's over to the boy Whitto for a whistlestop tour:
The best pub for meeting in I believe is the Goat House, a Fuller's pub, which is about a 15 minute walk to Selhurst Park. Get off the train at Norwood Junction, walk up to the clock tower (you can't miss it), turn right onto South Norwood High Street, straight on through the traffic lights and up to the railway bridge. The pub is at the junction of South Norwood High Street, Penge Road and Sunny Bank.
Other pubs in the area probably worth a visit (all directions from Norwood Junction):
The Cherry Trees, right outside Norwood Junction station. Bit of a theme pub, I'm told, but very welcoming.
The Ship, directions as for Goat House, but on the left hand side just before railway bridge. (Will probably be grateful for business, as it has lost a lot of custom to Wetherspoon's.)
The Portmanor. As for Goat House and Ship, but turn right at traffic lights onto Portland Road, and the pub is just by the railway bridge (a different bridge!).
The Alliance. On the corner of Station Road and South Norwood High Street, basically by the clock tower opposite Norwood Junction station.
The William Stanley (Wetherspoon's), South Norwood High Street. As for Goat House, etc, but on the left before the traffic lights. However, this has a bad reputation, not particularly because of football fans, but more to do with the local clientele.
The Jolly Sailor. No real ale but a wicked pint of Guinness, I'm told. Directions as for Goat House, etc, but on the junction of South Norwood High Street and Portland Road, by the traffic lights.
One to miss: the Albion. This is opposite the Jolly Sailor.
If getting off at Thornton Heath, try the Railway Telegraph (Young's), on the junction of Brigstock Road and Bensham Road. Come out of the station, turn right, and the pub is on the opposite side of road.
If alighting at Selhurst, you could try the Selhurst, right next to the station.
Cheers, Whitto. I have experience of some of these. I made it into the Alliance for our League Cup match in September 2000. This struck me as a decent basic boozer, and a friendly, down to earth place. The standard beer seemed to be Courage Best (now brewed in Yorkshire!), but it was supplemented, or supplanted, by good guests. Before the game it was Hopback Summer Lightning, and after the game Hook Norton Old Hooky. The roster will change, but these two are favourites of mine, and those choices suggested that they knew their stuff. It was a narrow pub, and I could see it getting crowded on a normal Saturday, as our League Cup visit with its sub 6,000 crowd wasn't typical. If you arrive at Norwood Junction with more than 15 minutes to spare, have a look.
I put the Railway Telegraph to the test for our belated but brilliant April 2001 visit to Wimbledon, who used to ground share at Selhurst Park. This is a big pub, impossible to miss from the station and friendly enough. The beer wasn't the best pint of Young's I've ever had, but decent, and as I managed seven pints in there before and after the game, it can't have been too bad. I've been in again since and the beer was better the second time. Allow a minimum of fifteen minutes to walk to the ground from here.
The Portmanor I liked rather less, being a big and rather soulless pub, the kind of place that has American 'Budweiser' signs behind the bar.
Another pub one of my researchers has recommended, but which I haven't had a chance to try, is the Clifton Arms, on Clifton Road, which runs between Whitehorse Lane and Selhurst Road close to the ground. This is apparently the nearest pub to the ground, but I'm told that it's for home fans only when Palace play.
That said, it would seem that to be turned away from a local boozer would be a rare event, as Selhurst Park is, in the main, a welcoming place for the away fan. Most pubs close to the ground are happy to let away supporters in, unless they get too busy - which is a possibility, as Palace have steady support.
A drinking alternative not too far distant is the shiny mini Manhattan of Croydon, famous for being the birthplace of both Ian Cox and Captain Sensible. I have drunk here several times before or after visits to Palace, and I think it has the most to recommend it if you have time to spare and are up for a decent session. The main railway station is East Croydon, and it is served by Thameslink trains, which stop at, amongst other stations, King's Cross, Blackfriars and London Bridge, and by plenty of trains from Victoria. At the time of writing, weekend engineering work is generally curtailing Thameslink's activities, so Victoria would be your best bet. Croydon is south of the area where the ground is, but trains take a handful of minutes from East Croydon to Selhurst and run very frequently.
Come out of East Croydon station on your left and you'll come to the Porter and Sorter. It's not the best in the world, but despite its naff name, this is a decent, large pub with a reasonable beer range. On each visit, it seems to have got even bigger than it was before - where did they get all that dining area space from? - but they sell several beers, which should include something interesting. A handy place to meet, and close to both the station and the post office, in case you were wondering about the name. On one visit there were a load of blokes in Claret and Blue ties drinking there - don't know - and my brother claimed to have seen Sam Ellis when walking past the station. Also in this vicinity is a pub with a hard to resist name, the Grouse and Claret.
Further on around the corner, the pub where we once enjoyed a pre-match pint with Ralph Coates was the Builder's Arms on Leslie Park Road (left out of East Croydon and down Cherry Orchard Road). We also held our sort-of-Christmas social in there after the Palace match in December 2001.This is a long, narrow Fuller's pub with a very pleasant garden. It seems to change hands quite frequently, but has never been less than welcoming. There's never been anything wrong with the beer either, and food is available all day - but be warned that service has been very slow.
Another drinking option for the sentimentally inclined, if you've got time to spare, is the magnificently named Claret Free House, which is in Addiscombe, along Lower Addiscombe Road. You can get there from East Croydon station on Croydon's swish new tram system (Bingham Road stop), and it is an excellent one room locals' boozer. It sells Palmer's IPA, something I've never come across elsewhere.
One to miss is probably the Cricketers, a pub about ten minutes' walk east from the station, and an unwelcoming and miserable place.
It's possible to work your way back to the Builder's Arms from the ground via a couple of pubs, as I did in December 2001, as long as you don't mind a bit of walking. Holmesdale Road or Whitehorse Lane away from the ground will take you to Whitehorse Road, and after a while to Windmill Road.
On the corner there you'll find the Gloucester. This is not one of the world's great Young's pubs, being a basic, squarish 1960s house with a limited range of beers and even more limited service, but the pint was alright.
Along Windmill Street you then have the Fisherman's Arms. This is a bit of a locals' pub, in that everyone - not that 'everyone' constituted too many people - turned round and looked at us when we walked in. But it was another reasonable Fuller's pub of the kind the area offers.
Also in this neck of the woods on Gloucester Road, parallel to White Horse Road, is the Two Brewers, a Shepherd Neame pub that I seem to recall visiting once.
Carry on from here and you'll come to Croydon centre. On one visit our day started there, much earlier, at the Royal Standard, yet another Fuller's pub, tucked unpromisingly under a flyover on a backstreet (Sheldon Street) off the High Street. As it happens, the day started, frustratingly, outside there, as it wasn't bloody open, so we skedaddled to a pub across the road, name forgotten, which sold an okay pint of Fuller's London Pride. Eventually the Standard did bother to open, and although I was determined not to like them, it's a nice pub and the Fuller's was excellent. The plain, wooden bar area was jolly pleasant too.
Also recommended for some quality Young's in a similar vein is the Dog and Bull on Surrey Street, close to the busy Saturday market.
There are in addition the usual Wetherspoon's pubs close by stations - the George on George Street for East Croydon (turn right from the station exit) and the Ship of Fools on London Road for West Croydon.
Croydon is in London Transport zone 5, so an all zones one day travel card is probably your best bet for getting around, or a 4 zone card if you're planning to drink just around the ground.
Over the years there have been many other South London after match ports of call, sometimes utilising that new tram service, which comes in jolly handy for these kind of things. These include for something to eat on a Saturday night the decent, busy Wetherspoon's, the Moon and Stars on Penge High Street; in Carshalton the Windsor Castle on Carshalton Road and the Railway Tavern on North Street, about which I can remember little apart from that I was there; in Sutton two good pubs, the Little Windsor on Greyhound Road for Fuller's and the nearby New Town on Lind Road for Young's; in Beckenham the Jolly Woodman, which wasn't, particularly, on Chancery Lane; and in Cheam the nice and friendly Prince of Wales on New Malden Road and - aha - another Claret Wine Bar on Broadway. There are many more, but I've forgotten more than I can remember as there have been some very long nights out over the years.
Naturally, if you're travelling back to one of the mainline railway stations you may fancy a drink when you get off. If you're going back to London Bridge - having taken due account of the above note of caution - then pick out a pub from our Millwall guide. If it's not the weekend, you may want to take a look at Harvey's only London pub, the Royal Oak, on Tabard Street, about ten minutes' walk from London Bridge station, off Borough High Street. This is a fine pub, but it's closed on Saturdays and Sundays, so you need a midweek match.
Victoria has fewer possibilities, but a handy spot is the Wetherspoon's upstairs on the station itself. Not a great pub, but they always sell an interesting pint of something. Be warned that they now rigorously and ridiculously ban football colours.
As for the ground, away fans are seated in a section of the Arthur Wait stand, which goes down one side of the ground. Naturally, it's one of the oldest parts of the ground, following some recent redevelopment. One thing you need to know is that, on past visits, you've had to buy a ticket first, and haven't been able to pay on the turnstiles. The away end ticket office is next to the turnstiles on Park Road, and that can take an extra five minutes or so.
It's fair to say that Palace is never the most keenly awaited of fixtures, even for London-based fans. It is a drab part of London, rather too suburban, and a long way from anywhere. But we often get a decent result here, and there are more decent pubs than around most London grounds, so get stuck in - and take heart that, since Wimbledon decamped to Kingston and the Combined Counties League, at least we only have to come here once a season these days.
Firmo (with thanks to Whitto)
Last visited: January 2003
Last updated: January 2004
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