Purley Information Centre

The Purley Cross Centre opened in October 2002 using a building purchased by Purley Baptist Church. The church is assembling a site to rebuild the church with a strong community emphasis. It seemed good to used the building to discover what Purley needed. The offices on the first and second floors were used to provide affordable space for voluntary and charitable groups. After local research, and encouragment from Croydon Council, the ground floor was used to develop a community information centre, complemented by surgeries held by various advice giving agencies. Staffed by volunteers from local churches, the information centre opened firstly for two hours a day and is now open for four hours each weekday.

In March 2008, because of the impending demolition of the building, the information centre moved to Purley High Street. Age Concern, Croydon, have an office in the new premises and we have a mutually beneficial partnership.

We are now settled in our new premises at 24 High Street and are pleased that new people are using the Information Centre as well as retaining our other clients. We've had encouraging comments about how much they like 24 High Street and how thankful they are for the help we have been able to give to them. A lady who is about to move into the area, visited us with her daughter and commented how much safer she felt about making the move now that she knows we are here.

Age Concern are delighted with their new office and are apparently envied by their colleagues at West Croydon.

In June 2009 we joined with Age Concern to invite our community and agency contacts to an open day. About 60 guests joined us to view our new premises and discover more about the services offered.