Southgate, Crawley
Encyclopedia
Southgate is one of the 13 residential neighbourhoods in Crawley
, a town and borough
in West Sussex
, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town
after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. Southgate was one of the four in the "inner ring" closest to the town centre, and was intended to be the largest of the nine designed in the original master plan. It was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s, but retains some older buildings from before the New Town era and has "significant areas of pre-New Town character".
The area was settled by pre-Roman people, and industrial and other artefacts from that era were found during construction of the neighbourhood. In the 19th century, after Crawley was connected to the national railway network, housing developed south of the line around the Brighton Road
, which divides the modern neighbourhood in two. New Town-era expansion produced a large residential area with a high proportion of terraced house
s and a range of schools
, places of worship and community facilities; but some historic buildings and areas of open space remain, including an award-winning park. The population at the time of the 2001 United Kingdom Census was 8,016.
, the area now covered by West Sussex was ruled by the Atrebates
, a Belgic
tribe led by Commius
. They were found to have been present in the area now covered by Southgate when building work took place in 1969. The Southgate West development was underway on land covered by Hogs Hill Farm, which occupied a ridge of land between the Horsham and Brighton Roads. Land clearance revealed two ditches filled with debris such as bones and pieces of pottery. The next year, a large house on Horsham Road was demolished to make way for a new road of houses; the builders discovered similar pits, and the remains were identified as pre-Roman using carbon dating
techniques. The remains of crucible
s, slag
and other ironworking materials were also discovered; these were confirmed as being from the same era, the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. It was later confirmed that the Hogs Hill Farm remains dated from the Roman era, meaning that the ironmaking and pottery-producing activities of the Atrebates were continued by their conquerors. By the time the excavations and investigation finished, evidence of three iron bloomeries
, a small flint
mine, roof tiles (possibly from a building on the site) and many pieces of pottery had been found and catalogued.
These discoveries confirmed for the first time the existence of Iron Age
, pre-Roman ironmaking and industrial development in the area of northern Sussex now occupied by Crawley. Despite this, investigation and analysis were initially discouraged. The Commission for the New Towns, responsible for the town's development at that stage, did not want building work to be delayed, and tried to prevent archaeologists, other professionals, enthusiasts and the general public alike visiting the Hogs Hill Farm site and searching for remains. Workers on the site were expressly forbidden from doing so, although the first discovery had in fact been made by one. By the time the second site was developed in 1970, attitudes had changed, and professional groups were involved from the beginning.
Crawley began to develop slowly from the 13th century, when it was granted a royal charter for a market. Its ecclesiastical parish, centred on St John the Baptist's Church
, was tiny in comparison to neighbouring Worth
and Ifield. The parish had an unusual shape: very narrow, long from north to south, and gradually widening to the north until it met the county boundary with Surrey
. This directed development northwards along the High Street, part of the ancient London to Brighton road which had provided the impetus for development to begin. The road was partly turnpiked
after an Act of Parliament
in 1696, and became fully turnpiked in 1770. By this time the distinction between the name "London Road" (the section north of the church) and "Brighton Road" (southwards) had been made; and tollgates
were built north and south of the town: these became known as the North Gate and South Gate.
Crawley was connected to the railway network in 1848 when a line
was built from Three Bridges to Horsham. It crossed the High Street at a level crossing
at the south end of the built-up area. The provision of fast, regular trains to London and other destinations stimulated residential and commercial development, especially around the station. South of the line, around the Brighton Road, there was plenty of land for building; in the second half of the 19th century, two building firms—the most important in Crawley's pre-New Town history—exploited it by building two areas of housing which still exist today, forming the northernmost part of the Southgate neighbourhood. Richard Cook set up a building firm next to the railway line soon after its completion; in the early 1870s he built some streets of mainly terraced house
s west of Brighton Road. Confusingly in the context of Crawley's later history, this area was called "New Town", a name which persisted for many years; it had no connection with the later establishment of the New Town of Crawley under the New Towns Act 1946
, the name being merely a coincidence. Based around Springfield Road and West Street, at the junction of which was Cook's yard, the "New Town" area had 43 houses in 1875. In the early 1880s, James Longley established his building company nearby, which by 1909 had built an estate of houses east of the Brighton Road. The roads East Park and Malthouse Road had a mixture of terraced cottages
, semi-detached
houses, detached houses and large villa
s, all built from red brick. Large houses were also built down both sides of the Brighton Road. Goffs Park Road, between the Brighton and Horsham Roads, began to be built up in 1895, and saw more residential development in the interwar period
.
Apart from these residential buildings, farms and their associated land, there was little else in the area now known as Southgate until the Development Corporation started building the neighbourhood in the 1950s. Some shops, a corn merchant's premises and a brewery were built near the level crossing in the late 19th century. Crawley's first permanent cinema, the Imperial, was established nearby in 1911, replacing a temporary structure; it burnt down in 1928 but was rebuilt, only to be superseded by a larger building in the town centre in the 1930s. It has been a car dealership since the 1940s. Further down the Brighton Road, near the Hogs Hill Farm where Iron Age remains were later found, the Half Moon Inn and Hotel was built in the late 19th century, and rebuilt in 1890. To the west, Goffs Park was established as a parkland and recreational area by the early 20th century. It covers more than 50 acres (20.2 ha), and its recreational features now include play areas for children, playing fields, sports pitches, lakes, a golf course and a miniature railway.
During World War II
, the Crawley area was hit by about 50 high explosive bombs and 2,000 incendiary bombs
. The attack which caused the greatest loss of life happened on 10 July 1944, when Southgate's Victorian streets were hit by two V-1 flying bomb
s. One landed in Malthouse Road and did not detonate
, but another destroyed 15 houses, killed seven people and injured 44 more when it exploded at the junction of Oak Road and West Street.
identified it as a suitable site for one. A Development Corporation was formed, led by the architect Thomas Bennett
, and planner
Anthony Minoprio provided a master plan for the town's development. He proposed a double ring of nine neighbourhoods surrounding an extended town centre. Southgate was to form the southern part of the inner ring, between the town centre and the southern section of the planned Crawley ring road
(which already existed, formed by Crawley and Southgate Avenues). Its built-up area, excluding Goffs Park—which would lie within the neighbourhood's northwest corner—was to be 138 hectares (341 acre).
The development was intended to take place in two stages: Southgate East, east of the Brighton Road, was to have been built in the early 1950s, and land west of Brighton Road (Southgate West) was to be reserved for expansion of the neighbourhood in the early 1960s. Both stages were delayed: the Development Corporation did not finalise their plan for Southgate East until 1954, several years after building should have started. Work was eventually carried out between 1955 and 1957, making Southgate the seventh neighbourhood to be started.
Southgate West suffered even longer delays, partly because of problems with the planned construction processes. Work should have started in 1961 but had to wait until 1968; plans were not submitted until 1966. The archaeological discoveries in 1969 and 1970 caused further delays, and Southgate West was not complete until 1972.
The master plan proposed that a neighbourhood centre, consisting of community centre, public house, school, church and shopping parade, should be an integral part of each neighbourhood. Initially the Development Corporation provided temporary community centre buildings; West Sussex County Council provided a permanent facility in 1974. A shopping parade was built on Wakehurst Drive in Southgate East in the mid-1950s; the Development Corporation tried to provide some architectural diversity between the neighbourhoods, and as such it was designed as an arcade
. St Mary's Church was built opposite the parade in 1958; and infant and junior schools were provided in both halves of the neighbourhood.
In the early 21st century, commercial development spread along Southgate Avenue south of the railway line: a series of seven-storey office blocks were built. The Arora International Hotel Gatwick/Crawley also stands nearby.
forms the boundary. Gossops Green lies to the west, Broadfield is to the southwest, Tilgate is to the south and Furnace Green shares a small border to the east. These are separated from Southgate by the A23 (Crawley Avenue)
—part of the Crawley bypass
built in the 1930s—and the A2004 Southgate Avenue. The A2219 Brighton Road, part of the original turnpike, coaching
route and later main road from London
to Brighton
, runs through the heart of Southgate from north to south. The neighbourhood is roughly pentagon
al and covers 181 hectares (447.3 acre).
When the New Town was planned, each neighbourhood was allocated a colour, which appears on street name signs together with the neighbourhood's name. Southgate's colour is dark brown.
s whose boundaries were identical with those of eight of the extant and planned neighbourhoods. By 1983, nine years after the district became a borough
, the town had thirteen wards. This position remained the same until an electoral review in 2002, which created two new wards. Throughout these changes, Southgate's ward boundaries remained the same, and they are still coterminous with those of the neighbourhood. The ward elects three councillors.
of the same name, which is one of the fifteen wards in Crawley. These divisions are used for collecting census
and other statistical and demographic data. Southgate's population of 8,106 at the time of the 2001 United Kingdom Census
made it Crawley's fifth most populous neighbourhood. Based on its 181 hectares (447.3 acre) area, its population density was 44.75 PD/ha—more than twice as high as the 22.18 PD/ha density for Crawley overall.
At the census date there were 3,421 households, of which 2,317 (68%) were owned by the occupier, 756 (22%) were rented from Crawley Borough Council
or another public-sector landlord, 274 (8%) were rented privately and 74 (2%) were occupied rent-free. These proportions are almost identical to the housing tenure
mix of Crawley as a whole. The relatively high population density is partly explained by the relatively high proportion of residents who live in purpose-built flats
or maisonettes of various types: 16% compared to the Crawley figure of 11%. Many low-rise blocks of flats were built in Southgate West in the 1970s—in particular the extensive Caburn Heights development of three-storey blocks. The most prevalent housing type in Southgate, in which 52% of residents live, is the terraced house
. The proportion is about ⅔ in Southgate West.
According to the census, 90.6% of Southgate residents were White, 6.3% were Asian or Asian-British, 0.8% were Black or Black-British, 1.5% were mixed-race and 0.7% were from another ethnic background. The proportion of white people was slightly higher, and that of Asian people slightly lower, than in Crawley overall; other proportions were comparable to Crawley as a whole. Southgate's age profile at the census date was older than that of Crawley as a whole, in common with the other inner neighbourhoods: 1,609 residents (19.8%) were under 18 years old, 4,853 (59.9%) were between 18 and 64 years old, and 1,644 (20.3%) were 65 years old or older. The corresponding figures for Crawley were 23,748 (23.8%), 61,338 (61.5%) and 14,658 (14.7%).
In common with other areas around Crawley, the land to the south was held by several large farms. Malthouse Farm had its own small-scale brickworks as well; Hilltop Farm was at the highest point in the area, 315 feet (96 m) above sea level; and Hogs Hill Farm, named after the herds of pigs farmed there, stood on a ridge east of the Brighton Road.
Crawley's two main building firms had their yards and works in the Victorian streets near the railway line. Richard Cook's firm, which built the houses and streets of the 19th-century "New Town" development, was founded in 1861 and was based at the corner of two of the new streets. The works included a brickyard; poor drainage led to soil and dirty water from it polluted the surrounding area. The Crawley and Ifield Vigilance Committee, an amateur pressure group, demanded improvements for several years, and proper drains were eventually laid. Cook and Sons' advertisements revealed the range of products manufactured: the works made bricks, tiles, pipes and pottery, and his team of labourers carried out all types of building and contracting work. James Longley and Sons became the most famous business in Crawley and one of its largest: in 1898 more than 700 people worked for it. Longley moved his small firm from Turners Hill
in 1881 when he bought Malthouse Farm and its brickworks. Expansion was rapid, and they received commissions for Christ's Hospital
school near Horsham, the King Edward VII sanatorium
in Midhurst
, Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester
, the choir stalls in Westminster Abbey
and almost every railway station owned by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
. Longley and Sons, which soon became Longley and Company, quickly became one of southeast England's main building firms; but it was nearly ruined on 20 March 1924 when the joinery and timber works, all stock inside it and sixty machines were destroyed by fire. The firm recovered, though, and was able to tender for a wide range of contracts in the New Town era, including Hazelwick School
, much of the Manor Royal industrial estate, Crawley fire station, the Queen's Square shopping area and Crawley College's tower block extension.
Neither building firm survives. Cook's lasted into the New Town era but wound down after that; their work survives in the streets of Southgate and at St Peter's Church in West Green, a school in Handcross
, the churchyard of St Margaret's Church, Ifield
and elsewhere. Longley and Company ceased trading in 2000, and the works and associated buildings were demolished soon afterwards to make way for the housing and a hotel. The Arora International Hotel Gatwick/Crawley, which has conference facilities, a large health and fitness suite and restaurant, was built on the site at the end of East Park in 2001. The 4-star
hotel has 432 bedrooms.
parish church
of Southgate. The churches in the Broadfield, Furnace Green and Tilgate neighbourhoods are linked to it as daughter churches. Architects Henry Braddock and D.F. Martin-Smith designed it in 1958. The concrete and glass structure has a small flèche
on top of a bell tower
, and has an adjoining hall which can be opened out to increase the capacity of the church. It is on Wakehurst Drive opposite the main shopping parade. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a meetinghouse on Horsham Road; it was designed by the chief architect of the town, Sir Thomas Bennett
, and built in 1964 on land provided by Crawley Development Corporation. The Gateway Church International on Brewer Road is a non-denominational church associated with the New Covenant Ministries International
movement; its barnlike building has a semicircular roof. A Charismatic
Evangelical
Christian group, the Crawley Community Church, worship in a converted house on Springfield Road.
St Wilfrid's Catholic School
is a 900-pupil voluntary aided
secondary school
, which opened in 1952 in the former Oakwood House next to Goffs Park. It was extended several times and became a comprehensive
in 1967. Former pupils include Robert Smith
of rock band The Cure
. A Roman Catholic primary school, St Francis of Assisi School, is located on Southgate Drive. Southgate Primary School was formed in 2004 from a merger between a first school
and a middle school
on the same site. These had in turn been formed from the original Southgate County Infant and Junior School, opened in 1956. Residential development in Southgate West resulted in the opening of first and middle schools there, in 1969 and 1970 respectively; these closed in 2004 and were replaced by Hilltop Primary School.
The Development Corporation set up a sub-committee in 1953 to decide how public house
s should be provided in the New Town neighbourhoods. The Downsman pub was built shortly afterwards next to the shopping parade. Elsewhere, Goffs Manor pub and restaurant is near Goffs Park, and the Half Moon remains on the Brighton Road.
St Catherine's Hospice, a charity which provides hospice
care to patients throughout West Sussex and Surrey, is based on Malthouse Road in the 19th-century part of Southgate. Crawley's new skatepark
was built on playing fields at Southgate Avenue in 2007.
owned and lived in it. The building is timber-framed
, as many Crawley houses of the time were, although little of this is now visible. The upper floor is hung with red tiles. The roof is made of slabs of Horsham stone. An original open fireplace remains inside. The signal box
next to the level crossing
on Crawley High Street, another Grade II-listed building, is just on the Southgate side of the railway line. It was built in about 1860 and has a hipped roof
.
Crawley Borough Council has designated a Conservation Area
around the level crossing on Brighton Road. Part of this falls within Southgate's boundaries. Elsewhere, Goffs Park Road has been given the status of an Area of Special Environmental Quality. Goffs Park itself was given a Green Flag Award
in July 2008 in recognition of its high standards.
Crawley Museum is based in Goffs Park House in Goffs Park, although in March 2010 plans were announced to move it elsewhere in the town—possibly to Tree House
, a vacant council-owned listed building in the town centre.
and Horsham
respectively. The nearest railway station is Crawley
, which has a rear entrance on East Park Road in the north of the neighbourhood.
Levels of vehicle ownership, as measured by the 2001 census, are lower than in Crawley as a whole. At the census date, the mean number of vehicles per household was 1.09 (the overall Crawley figure was 1.21), and 25.4% of households had no transport of their own, compared to 20.4% in Crawley overall.
Crawley
Crawley is a town and local government district with Borough status in West Sussex, England. It is south of Charing Cross, north of Brighton and Hove, and northeast of the county town of Chichester, covers an area of and had a population of 99,744 at the time of the 2001 Census.The area has...
, a town and borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
in West Sussex
West Sussex
West Sussex is a county in the south of England, bordering onto East Sussex , Hampshire and Surrey. The county of Sussex has been divided into East and West since the 12th century, and obtained separate county councils in 1888, but it remained a single ceremonial county until 1974 and the coming...
, England. Crawley was planned and laid out as a New Town
New towns in the United Kingdom
Below is a list of some of the new towns in the United Kingdom created under the various New Town Acts of the 20th century. Some earlier towns were developed as Garden Cities or overspill estates early in the twentieth century. The New Towns proper were planned to disperse population following the...
after the Second World War, based on the principle of self-contained neighbourhoods surrounding a town centre of civic and commercial buildings. Southgate was one of the four in the "inner ring" closest to the town centre, and was intended to be the largest of the nine designed in the original master plan. It was built in two stages between the 1950s and the 1970s, but retains some older buildings from before the New Town era and has "significant areas of pre-New Town character".
The area was settled by pre-Roman people, and industrial and other artefacts from that era were found during construction of the neighbourhood. In the 19th century, after Crawley was connected to the national railway network, housing developed south of the line around the Brighton Road
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
, which divides the modern neighbourhood in two. New Town-era expansion produced a large residential area with a high proportion of terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
s and a range of schools
Schools in Crawley, West Sussex
Education in Crawley, West Sussex is co-ordinated by West Sussex County Council. Since 2004, provision for compulsory education has been made wholly through primary and secondary schools, following the closure of the town's Middle schools earlier that year...
, places of worship and community facilities; but some historic buildings and areas of open space remain, including an award-winning park. The population at the time of the 2001 United Kingdom Census was 8,016.
History
In the century before the Romans arrived in BritainRoman conquest of Britain
The Roman conquest of Britain was a gradual process, beginning effectively in AD 43 under Emperor Claudius, whose general Aulus Plautius served as first governor of Britannia. Great Britain had already frequently been the target of invasions, planned and actual, by forces of the Roman Republic and...
, the area now covered by West Sussex was ruled by the Atrebates
Atrebates
The Atrebates were a Belgic tribe of Gaul and Britain before the Roman conquests.- Name of the tribe :Cognate with Old Irish aittrebaid meaning 'inhabitant', Atrebates comes from proto-Celtic *ad-treb-a-t-es, 'inhabitants'. The Celtic root is treb- 'building', 'home' The Atrebates (singular...
, a Belgic
Belgae
The Belgae were a group of tribes living in northern Gaul, on the west bank of the Rhine, in the 3rd century BC, and later also in Britain, and possibly even Ireland...
tribe led by Commius
Commius
Commius was a historical king of the Belgic nation of the Atrebates, initially in Gaul, then in Britain, in the 1st century BC.-Ally of Caesar:...
. They were found to have been present in the area now covered by Southgate when building work took place in 1969. The Southgate West development was underway on land covered by Hogs Hill Farm, which occupied a ridge of land between the Horsham and Brighton Roads. Land clearance revealed two ditches filled with debris such as bones and pieces of pottery. The next year, a large house on Horsham Road was demolished to make way for a new road of houses; the builders discovered similar pits, and the remains were identified as pre-Roman using carbon dating
Radiocarbon dating
Radiocarbon dating is a radiometric dating method that uses the naturally occurring radioisotope carbon-14 to estimate the age of carbon-bearing materials up to about 58,000 to 62,000 years. Raw, i.e. uncalibrated, radiocarbon ages are usually reported in radiocarbon years "Before Present" ,...
techniques. The remains of crucible
Crucible
A crucible is a container used for metal, glass, and pigment production as well as a number of modern laboratory processes, which can withstand temperatures high enough to melt or otherwise alter its contents...
s, slag
Slag
Slag is a partially vitreous by-product of smelting ore to separate the metal fraction from the unwanted fraction. It can usually be considered to be a mixture of metal oxides and silicon dioxide. However, slags can contain metal sulfides and metal atoms in the elemental form...
and other ironworking materials were also discovered; these were confirmed as being from the same era, the 2nd and 1st centuries BC. It was later confirmed that the Hogs Hill Farm remains dated from the Roman era, meaning that the ironmaking and pottery-producing activities of the Atrebates were continued by their conquerors. By the time the excavations and investigation finished, evidence of three iron bloomeries
Bloomery
A bloomery is a type of furnace once widely used for smelting iron from its oxides. The bloomery was the earliest form of smelter capable of smelting iron. A bloomery's product is a porous mass of iron and slag called a bloom. This mix of slag and iron in the bloom is termed sponge iron, which...
, a small flint
Flint
Flint is a hard, sedimentary cryptocrystalline form of the mineral quartz, categorized as a variety of chert. It occurs chiefly as nodules and masses in sedimentary rocks, such as chalks and limestones. Inside the nodule, flint is usually dark grey, black, green, white, or brown in colour, and...
mine, roof tiles (possibly from a building on the site) and many pieces of pottery had been found and catalogued.
These discoveries confirmed for the first time the existence of Iron Age
British Iron Age
The British Iron Age is a conventional name used in the archaeology of Great Britain, referring to the prehistoric and protohistoric phases of the Iron-Age culture of the main island and the smaller islands, typically excluding prehistoric Ireland, and which had an independent Iron Age culture of...
, pre-Roman ironmaking and industrial development in the area of northern Sussex now occupied by Crawley. Despite this, investigation and analysis were initially discouraged. The Commission for the New Towns, responsible for the town's development at that stage, did not want building work to be delayed, and tried to prevent archaeologists, other professionals, enthusiasts and the general public alike visiting the Hogs Hill Farm site and searching for remains. Workers on the site were expressly forbidden from doing so, although the first discovery had in fact been made by one. By the time the second site was developed in 1970, attitudes had changed, and professional groups were involved from the beginning.
Crawley began to develop slowly from the 13th century, when it was granted a royal charter for a market. Its ecclesiastical parish, centred on St John the Baptist's Church
St John the Baptist's Church, Crawley
St John the Baptist's Church is an Anglican church in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the parish church of Crawley, and is the oldest building in the town centre, dating from the 13th century—although many alterations have been made since, and only one wall remains of...
, was tiny in comparison to neighbouring Worth
Worth, West Sussex
The civil parish of Worth, which includes the villages of Copthorne, West Sussex and Crawley Down, covers an area of and has a population of 9888 persons. The ecclesiastical parish was one of the larger West Sussex parishes, encompassing the entire area along the West Sussex/Surrey border between...
and Ifield. The parish had an unusual shape: very narrow, long from north to south, and gradually widening to the north until it met the county boundary with Surrey
Surrey
Surrey is a county in the South East of England and is one of the Home Counties. The county borders Greater London, Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Berkshire. The historic county town is Guildford. Surrey County Council sits at Kingston upon Thames, although this has been part of...
. This directed development northwards along the High Street, part of the ancient London to Brighton road which had provided the impetus for development to begin. The road was partly turnpiked
Turnpike trust
Turnpike trusts in the United Kingdom were bodies set up by individual Acts of Parliament, with powers to collect road tolls for maintaining the principal highways in Britain from the 17th but especially during the 18th and 19th centuries...
after an Act of Parliament
Act of Parliament
An Act of Parliament is a statute enacted as primary legislation by a national or sub-national parliament. In the Republic of Ireland the term Act of the Oireachtas is used, and in the United States the term Act of Congress is used.In Commonwealth countries, the term is used both in a narrow...
in 1696, and became fully turnpiked in 1770. By this time the distinction between the name "London Road" (the section north of the church) and "Brighton Road" (southwards) had been made; and tollgates
Toll house
A tollhouse or toll house is a building with accommodation for a toll collector, beside a tollgate on a toll road or canal. Many tollhouses were built by turnpike trusts in England, Wales and Scotland during the 18th and early 19th centuries...
were built north and south of the town: these became known as the North Gate and South Gate.
Crawley was connected to the railway network in 1848 when a line
Arun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
was built from Three Bridges to Horsham. It crossed the High Street at a level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
at the south end of the built-up area. The provision of fast, regular trains to London and other destinations stimulated residential and commercial development, especially around the station. South of the line, around the Brighton Road, there was plenty of land for building; in the second half of the 19th century, two building firms—the most important in Crawley's pre-New Town history—exploited it by building two areas of housing which still exist today, forming the northernmost part of the Southgate neighbourhood. Richard Cook set up a building firm next to the railway line soon after its completion; in the early 1870s he built some streets of mainly terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
s west of Brighton Road. Confusingly in the context of Crawley's later history, this area was called "New Town", a name which persisted for many years; it had no connection with the later establishment of the New Town of Crawley under the New Towns Act 1946
New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...
, the name being merely a coincidence. Based around Springfield Road and West Street, at the junction of which was Cook's yard, the "New Town" area had 43 houses in 1875. In the early 1880s, James Longley established his building company nearby, which by 1909 had built an estate of houses east of the Brighton Road. The roads East Park and Malthouse Road had a mixture of terraced cottages
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
, semi-detached
Semi-detached
Semi-detached housing consists of pairs of houses built side by side as units sharing a party wall and usually in such a way that each house's layout is a mirror image of its twin...
houses, detached houses and large villa
Villa
A villa was originally an ancient Roman upper-class country house. Since its origins in the Roman villa, the idea and function of a villa have evolved considerably. After the fall of the Roman Republic, villas became small farming compounds, which were increasingly fortified in Late Antiquity,...
s, all built from red brick. Large houses were also built down both sides of the Brighton Road. Goffs Park Road, between the Brighton and Horsham Roads, began to be built up in 1895, and saw more residential development in the interwar period
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....
.
Apart from these residential buildings, farms and their associated land, there was little else in the area now known as Southgate until the Development Corporation started building the neighbourhood in the 1950s. Some shops, a corn merchant's premises and a brewery were built near the level crossing in the late 19th century. Crawley's first permanent cinema, the Imperial, was established nearby in 1911, replacing a temporary structure; it burnt down in 1928 but was rebuilt, only to be superseded by a larger building in the town centre in the 1930s. It has been a car dealership since the 1940s. Further down the Brighton Road, near the Hogs Hill Farm where Iron Age remains were later found, the Half Moon Inn and Hotel was built in the late 19th century, and rebuilt in 1890. To the west, Goffs Park was established as a parkland and recreational area by the early 20th century. It covers more than 50 acres (20.2 ha), and its recreational features now include play areas for children, playing fields, sports pitches, lakes, a golf course and a miniature railway.
During World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, the Crawley area was hit by about 50 high explosive bombs and 2,000 incendiary bombs
Incendiary device
Incendiary weapons, incendiary devices or incendiary bombs are bombs designed to start fires or destroy sensitive equipment using materials such as napalm, thermite, chlorine trifluoride, or white phosphorus....
. The attack which caused the greatest loss of life happened on 10 July 1944, when Southgate's Victorian streets were hit by two V-1 flying bomb
V-1 flying bomb
The V-1 flying bomb, also known as the Buzz Bomb or Doodlebug, was an early pulse-jet-powered predecessor of the cruise missile....
s. One landed in Malthouse Road and did not detonate
Unexploded ordnance
Unexploded ordnance are explosive weapons that did not explode when they were employed and still pose a risk of detonation, potentially many decades after they were used or discarded.While "UXO" is widely and informally used, munitions and explosives of...
, but another destroyed 15 houses, killed seven people and injured 44 more when it exploded at the junction of Oak Road and West Street.
New Town era
Crawley was designated as a New Town in January 1947 after the New Towns Act 1946New Towns Act 1946
The New Towns Act 1946 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which allowed the government to designate areas as new towns, and passing development control functions to a Development Corporation. Several new towns were created in the years following its passing...
identified it as a suitable site for one. A Development Corporation was formed, led by the architect Thomas Bennett
Thomas Bennett (architect)
Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was a renowned British architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage....
, and planner
Urban planning
Urban planning incorporates areas such as economics, design, ecology, sociology, geography, law, political science, and statistics to guide and ensure the orderly development of settlements and communities....
Anthony Minoprio provided a master plan for the town's development. He proposed a double ring of nine neighbourhoods surrounding an extended town centre. Southgate was to form the southern part of the inner ring, between the town centre and the southern section of the planned Crawley ring road
Ring road
A ring road, orbital motorway, beltway, circumferential highway, or loop highway is a road that encircles a town or city...
(which already existed, formed by Crawley and Southgate Avenues). Its built-up area, excluding Goffs Park—which would lie within the neighbourhood's northwest corner—was to be 138 hectares (341 acre).
The development was intended to take place in two stages: Southgate East, east of the Brighton Road, was to have been built in the early 1950s, and land west of Brighton Road (Southgate West) was to be reserved for expansion of the neighbourhood in the early 1960s. Both stages were delayed: the Development Corporation did not finalise their plan for Southgate East until 1954, several years after building should have started. Work was eventually carried out between 1955 and 1957, making Southgate the seventh neighbourhood to be started.
Southgate West suffered even longer delays, partly because of problems with the planned construction processes. Work should have started in 1961 but had to wait until 1968; plans were not submitted until 1966. The archaeological discoveries in 1969 and 1970 caused further delays, and Southgate West was not complete until 1972.
The master plan proposed that a neighbourhood centre, consisting of community centre, public house, school, church and shopping parade, should be an integral part of each neighbourhood. Initially the Development Corporation provided temporary community centre buildings; West Sussex County Council provided a permanent facility in 1974. A shopping parade was built on Wakehurst Drive in Southgate East in the mid-1950s; the Development Corporation tried to provide some architectural diversity between the neighbourhoods, and as such it was designed as an arcade
Arcade (architecture)
An arcade is a succession of arches, each counterthrusting the next, supported by columns or piers or a covered walk enclosed by a line of such arches on one or both sides. In warmer or wet climates, exterior arcades provide shelter for pedestrians....
. St Mary's Church was built opposite the parade in 1958; and infant and junior schools were provided in both halves of the neighbourhood.
In the early 21st century, commercial development spread along Southgate Avenue south of the railway line: a series of seven-storey office blocks were built. The Arora International Hotel Gatwick/Crawley also stands nearby.
Location within Crawley
Southgate is south of the Northgate neighbourhood (which includes Crawley town centre) and West Green; the Arun Valley railway lineArun Valley Line
The Arun Valley Line, also known as the Mid Sussex Line, is part of the Southern-operated railway services. For the initial part of the route trains follow the Brighton Main Line, and at a junction south of Three Bridges the route turns westwards...
forms the boundary. Gossops Green lies to the west, Broadfield is to the southwest, Tilgate is to the south and Furnace Green shares a small border to the east. These are separated from Southgate by the A23 (Crawley Avenue)
A23 road
The A23 road is a major road in the United Kingdom between London and Brighton, East Sussex. It became an arterial route following the construction of Westminster Bridge in 1750 and the consequent improvement of roads leading to the bridge south of the river by the Turnpike Trusts...
—part of the Crawley bypass
Bypass (road)
A bypass is a road or highway that avoids or "bypasses" a built-up area, town, or village, to let through traffic flow without interference from local traffic, to reduce congestion in the built-up area, and to improve road safety....
built in the 1930s—and the A2004 Southgate Avenue. The A2219 Brighton Road, part of the original turnpike, coaching
Coach (carriage)
A coach was originally a large, usually closed, four-wheeled carriage with two or more horses harnessed as a team, controlled by a coachman and/or one or more postilions. It had doors in the sides, with generally a front and a back seat inside and, for the driver, a small, usually elevated seat in...
route and later main road from London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
to Brighton
Brighton
Brighton is the major part of the city of Brighton and Hove in East Sussex, England on the south coast of Great Britain...
, runs through the heart of Southgate from north to south. The neighbourhood is roughly pentagon
Pentagon
In geometry, a pentagon is any five-sided polygon. A pentagon may be simple or self-intersecting. The sum of the internal angles in a simple pentagon is 540°. A pentagram is an example of a self-intersecting pentagon.- Regular pentagons :In a regular pentagon, all sides are equal in length and...
al and covers 181 hectares (447.3 acre).
When the New Town was planned, each neighbourhood was allocated a colour, which appears on street name signs together with the neighbourhood's name. Southgate's colour is dark brown.
Governance
When Crawley Urban District was formed in May 1956, it was divided into eight wardWards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
s whose boundaries were identical with those of eight of the extant and planned neighbourhoods. By 1983, nine years after the district became a borough
Borough status in the United Kingdom
Borough status in the United Kingdom is granted by royal charter to local government districts in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. The status is purely honorary, and does not give any additional powers to the council or inhabitants of the district...
, the town had thirteen wards. This position remained the same until an electoral review in 2002, which created two new wards. Throughout these changes, Southgate's ward boundaries remained the same, and they are still coterminous with those of the neighbourhood. The ward elects three councillors.
Demography
The neighbourhood is coterminous with the administrative wardWards of the United Kingdom
A ward in the United Kingdom is an electoral district at sub-national level represented by one or more councillors. It is the primary unit of British administrative and electoral geography .-England:...
of the same name, which is one of the fifteen wards in Crawley. These divisions are used for collecting census
Census in the United Kingdom
Coincident full censuses have taken place in the different jurisdictions of the United Kingdom every ten years since 1801, with the exceptions of 1941 and in both Northern Ireland and the Irish Free State in 1921; simultaneous censuses were taken in the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man, with...
and other statistical and demographic data. Southgate's population of 8,106 at the time of the 2001 United Kingdom Census
United Kingdom Census 2001
A nationwide census, known as Census 2001, was conducted in the United Kingdom on Sunday, 29 April 2001. This was the 20th UK Census and recorded a resident population of 58,789,194....
made it Crawley's fifth most populous neighbourhood. Based on its 181 hectares (447.3 acre) area, its population density was 44.75 PD/ha—more than twice as high as the 22.18 PD/ha density for Crawley overall.
At the census date there were 3,421 households, of which 2,317 (68%) were owned by the occupier, 756 (22%) were rented from Crawley Borough Council
Council house
A council house, otherwise known as a local authority house, is a form of public or social housing. The term is used primarily in the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland. Council houses were built and operated by local councils to supply uncrowded, well-built homes on secure tenancies at...
or another public-sector landlord, 274 (8%) were rented privately and 74 (2%) were occupied rent-free. These proportions are almost identical to the housing tenure
Housing tenure
Housing tenure refers to the financial arrangements under which someone has the right to live in a house or apartment. The most frequent forms are tenancy, in which rent is paid to a landlord, and owner occupancy. Mixed forms of tenure are also possible....
mix of Crawley as a whole. The relatively high population density is partly explained by the relatively high proportion of residents who live in purpose-built flats
Apartment
An apartment or flat is a self-contained housing unit that occupies only part of a building...
or maisonettes of various types: 16% compared to the Crawley figure of 11%. Many low-rise blocks of flats were built in Southgate West in the 1970s—in particular the extensive Caburn Heights development of three-storey blocks. The most prevalent housing type in Southgate, in which 52% of residents live, is the terraced house
Terraced house
In architecture and city planning, a terrace house, terrace, row house, linked house or townhouse is a style of medium-density housing that originated in Great Britain in the late 17th century, where a row of identical or mirror-image houses share side walls...
. The proportion is about ⅔ in Southgate West.
According to the census, 90.6% of Southgate residents were White, 6.3% were Asian or Asian-British, 0.8% were Black or Black-British, 1.5% were mixed-race and 0.7% were from another ethnic background. The proportion of white people was slightly higher, and that of Asian people slightly lower, than in Crawley overall; other proportions were comparable to Crawley as a whole. Southgate's age profile at the census date was older than that of Crawley as a whole, in common with the other inner neighbourhoods: 1,609 residents (19.8%) were under 18 years old, 4,853 (59.9%) were between 18 and 64 years old, and 1,644 (20.3%) were 65 years old or older. The corresponding figures for Crawley were 23,748 (23.8%), 61,338 (61.5%) and 14,658 (14.7%).
Economy
Modern Southgate is primarily residential, and the area was mostly undeveloped before the New Town was created. Nevertheless, some commercial and industrial development existed around the Brighton Road and railway line, and farming provided employment. Two sets of local shops serve the modern neighbourhood, but its proximity to Crawley town centre and main transport routes mean that, as intended in Anthony Minoprio's masterplan, residents travel outside Southgate for most of their employment and shopping requirements.In common with other areas around Crawley, the land to the south was held by several large farms. Malthouse Farm had its own small-scale brickworks as well; Hilltop Farm was at the highest point in the area, 315 feet (96 m) above sea level; and Hogs Hill Farm, named after the herds of pigs farmed there, stood on a ridge east of the Brighton Road.
Crawley's two main building firms had their yards and works in the Victorian streets near the railway line. Richard Cook's firm, which built the houses and streets of the 19th-century "New Town" development, was founded in 1861 and was based at the corner of two of the new streets. The works included a brickyard; poor drainage led to soil and dirty water from it polluted the surrounding area. The Crawley and Ifield Vigilance Committee, an amateur pressure group, demanded improvements for several years, and proper drains were eventually laid. Cook and Sons' advertisements revealed the range of products manufactured: the works made bricks, tiles, pipes and pottery, and his team of labourers carried out all types of building and contracting work. James Longley and Sons became the most famous business in Crawley and one of its largest: in 1898 more than 700 people worked for it. Longley moved his small firm from Turners Hill
Turners Hill
Turners Hill is a village and civil parish in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. The civil parish covers an area of , and has a population of 1,849 ....
in 1881 when he bought Malthouse Farm and its brickworks. Expansion was rapid, and they received commissions for Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital
Christ's Hospital is an English coeducational independent day and boarding school with Royal Charter located in the Sussex countryside just south of Horsham in Horsham District, West Sussex, England...
school near Horsham, the King Edward VII sanatorium
Sanatorium
A sanatorium is a medical facility for long-term illness, most typically associated with treatment of tuberculosis before antibiotics...
in Midhurst
Midhurst
Midhurst is a market town and civil parish in the Chichester district of West Sussex, England, with a population of 4,889 in 2001. The town is situated on the River Rother and is home to the ruin of the Tudor Cowdray House and the stately Victorian Cowdray Park...
, Graylingwell Hospital in Chichester
Chichester
Chichester is a cathedral city in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, South-East England. It has a long history as a settlement; its Roman past and its subsequent importance in Anglo-Saxon times are only its beginnings...
, the choir stalls in Westminster Abbey
Westminster Abbey
The Collegiate Church of St Peter at Westminster, popularly known as Westminster Abbey, is a large, mainly Gothic church, in the City of Westminster, London, United Kingdom, located just to the west of the Palace of Westminster. It is the traditional place of coronation and burial site for English,...
and almost every railway station owned by the London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
London, Brighton and South Coast Railway
The London, Brighton and South Coast Railway was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1846 to 1922. Its territory formed a rough triangle, with London at its apex, practically the whole coastline of Sussex as its base, and a large part of Surrey...
. Longley and Sons, which soon became Longley and Company, quickly became one of southeast England's main building firms; but it was nearly ruined on 20 March 1924 when the joinery and timber works, all stock inside it and sixty machines were destroyed by fire. The firm recovered, though, and was able to tender for a wide range of contracts in the New Town era, including Hazelwick School
Hazelwick School
Hazelwick School is an Academy Co-educational Comprehensive School for pupils aged 11 to 18, located in Crawley, West Sussex.-History:Hazelwick School is a Secondary school for pupils aged 11-18. The school was finished being built in 1952 although it did not officially open until 1953 as a...
, much of the Manor Royal industrial estate, Crawley fire station, the Queen's Square shopping area and Crawley College's tower block extension.
Neither building firm survives. Cook's lasted into the New Town era but wound down after that; their work survives in the streets of Southgate and at St Peter's Church in West Green, a school in Handcross
Handcross
Handcross is a village in the Mid Sussex District of West Sussex, England. It lies on the A23 road 4.2 miles south of Crawley.Nymans Garden, of parklands run by the National Trust, is near to Handcross, as are of woodland and water gardens at High Beeches Garden.Handcross has two public houses,...
, the churchyard of St Margaret's Church, Ifield
St Margaret's Church, Ifield
St Margaret's Church is an Anglican church in the Ifield neighbourhood of Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the ancient parish church of the village of Ifield; the medieval settlement was expanded to form one of the New Town of Crawley's 13 neighbourhoods, and the church's...
and elsewhere. Longley and Company ceased trading in 2000, and the works and associated buildings were demolished soon afterwards to make way for the housing and a hotel. The Arora International Hotel Gatwick/Crawley, which has conference facilities, a large health and fitness suite and restaurant, was built on the site at the end of East Park in 2001. The 4-star
Star (classification)
Stars are often used as symbols for classification purposes. They are used by reviewers for ranking things such as movies, TV shows, restaurants, and hotels. For example, one to five stars is commonly employed to categorize hotels.-Restaurant ratings:...
hotel has 432 bedrooms.
Public buildings and facilities
St Mary's Church is the AnglicanChurch of England
The Church of England is the officially established Christian church in England and the Mother Church of the worldwide Anglican Communion. The church considers itself within the tradition of Western Christianity and dates its formal establishment principally to the mission to England by St...
parish church
Parish church
A parish church , in Christianity, is the church which acts as the religious centre of a parish, the basic administrative unit of episcopal churches....
of Southgate. The churches in the Broadfield, Furnace Green and Tilgate neighbourhoods are linked to it as daughter churches. Architects Henry Braddock and D.F. Martin-Smith designed it in 1958. The concrete and glass structure has a small flèche
Flèche
A flèche is used in French architecture to refer to a spire and in English to refer to a lead-covered timber spire, or spirelet. These are placed on the ridges of church or cathedral roofs and are usually relatively small...
on top of a bell tower
Bell tower
A bell tower is a tower which contains one or more bells, or which is designed to hold bells, even if it has none. In the European tradition, such a tower most commonly serves as part of a church and contains church bells. When attached to a city hall or other civic building, especially in...
, and has an adjoining hall which can be opened out to increase the capacity of the church. It is on Wakehurst Drive opposite the main shopping parade. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has a meetinghouse on Horsham Road; it was designed by the chief architect of the town, Sir Thomas Bennett
Thomas Bennett (architect)
Sir Thomas Penberthy Bennett KBE FRIBA was a renowned British architect, responsible for much of the development of the new towns of Crawley and Stevenage....
, and built in 1964 on land provided by Crawley Development Corporation. The Gateway Church International on Brewer Road is a non-denominational church associated with the New Covenant Ministries International
New Covenant Ministries International
New Covenant Ministries International is Christian ministry team.an Ephesians 4:11-13 -based trans-local team of men and women working together for the benefit of advancing the 'Kingdom of God' through working with local autonomous churches throughout the world whether they 'relate' to the NCMI...
movement; its barnlike building has a semicircular roof. A Charismatic
Charismatic movement
The term charismatic movement is used in varying senses to describe 20th century developments in various Christian denominations. It describes an ongoing international, cross-denominational/non-denominational Christian movement in which individual, historically mainstream congregations adopt...
Evangelical
Evangelicalism
Evangelicalism is a Protestant Christian movement which began in Great Britain in the 1730s and gained popularity in the United States during the series of Great Awakenings of the 18th and 19th century.Its key commitments are:...
Christian group, the Crawley Community Church, worship in a converted house on Springfield Road.
St Wilfrid's Catholic School
St Wilfrid's Catholic School, Crawley
St Wilfrid's Catholic School is a voluntary aided comprehensive Catholic secondary school in Crawley, West Sussex, England for pupils aged 11 to 18. It caters for around 900 pupils in years 7 to 13, including around 100 in its sixth form...
is a 900-pupil voluntary aided
Voluntary aided school
A voluntary aided school is a state-funded school in England and Wales in which a foundation or trust owns the school buildings, contributes to building costs and has a substantial influence in the running of the school...
secondary school
Secondary school
Secondary school is a term used to describe an educational institution where the final stage of schooling, known as secondary education and usually compulsory up to a specified age, takes place...
, which opened in 1952 in the former Oakwood House next to Goffs Park. It was extended several times and became a comprehensive
Comprehensive school
A comprehensive school is a state school that does not select its intake on the basis of academic achievement or aptitude. This is in contrast to the selective school system, where admission is restricted on the basis of a selection criteria. The term is commonly used in relation to the United...
in 1967. Former pupils include Robert Smith
Robert Smith (musician)
Robert James Smith is an English musician. He is the lead singer, guitar player and principal songwriter of the rock band The Cure, and its only constant member since its founding in 1976...
of rock band The Cure
The Cure
The Cure are an English rock band formed in Crawley, West Sussex in 1976. The band has experienced several line-up changes, with frontman, vocalist, guitarist and principal songwriter Robert Smith being the only constant member...
. A Roman Catholic primary school, St Francis of Assisi School, is located on Southgate Drive. Southgate Primary School was formed in 2004 from a merger between a first school
First School
First school and lower school are terms used in some areas of the United Kingdom to describe the first stage of primary education. Some English Local Education Authorities have introduced First Schools since the 1960s...
and a middle school
Middle school
Middle School and Junior High School are levels of schooling between elementary and high schools. Most school systems use one term or the other, not both. The terms are not interchangeable...
on the same site. These had in turn been formed from the original Southgate County Infant and Junior School, opened in 1956. Residential development in Southgate West resulted in the opening of first and middle schools there, in 1969 and 1970 respectively; these closed in 2004 and were replaced by Hilltop Primary School.
The Development Corporation set up a sub-committee in 1953 to decide how public house
Public house
A public house, informally known as a pub, is a drinking establishment fundamental to the culture of Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. There are approximately 53,500 public houses in the United Kingdom. This number has been declining every year, so that nearly half of the smaller...
s should be provided in the New Town neighbourhoods. The Downsman pub was built shortly afterwards next to the shopping parade. Elsewhere, Goffs Manor pub and restaurant is near Goffs Park, and the Half Moon remains on the Brighton Road.
St Catherine's Hospice, a charity which provides hospice
Hospice
Hospice is a type of care and a philosophy of care which focuses on the palliation of a terminally ill patient's symptoms.In the United States and Canada:*Gentiva Health Services, national provider of hospice and home health services...
care to patients throughout West Sussex and Surrey, is based on Malthouse Road in the 19th-century part of Southgate. Crawley's new skatepark
Skatepark
A skatepark is a purpose-built recreational environment made for skateboarding, BMX, aggressive inline skating and scooters. A skatepark may contain half-pipes, quarter pipes, spine transfers, handrails, funboxes, vert ramps, pyramids, banked ramps, full pipes, pools, bowls, snake runs stairsets,...
was built on playing fields at Southgate Avenue in 2007.
Heritage
Two of the 100 listed buildings and structures in the Borough of Crawley are in Southgate. Goffs Manor, in Goffs Park, is a Grade II-listed 16th-century farmhouse which is now a restaurant and pub. Before its conversion, actor Peter VaughanPeter Vaughan
Peter Vaughan is an English character actor, known for many supporting roles in a variety of British film and television productions. He has worked extensively on the stage, becoming known for roles such as police inspectors, Soviet agents and similar parts...
owned and lived in it. The building is timber-framed
Timber framing
Timber framing , or half-timbering, also called in North America "post-and-beam" construction, is the method of creating structures using heavy squared off and carefully fitted and joined timbers with joints secured by large wooden pegs . It is commonplace in large barns...
, as many Crawley houses of the time were, although little of this is now visible. The upper floor is hung with red tiles. The roof is made of slabs of Horsham stone. An original open fireplace remains inside. The signal box
Signalling control
On a rail transport system, signalling control is the process by which control is exercised over train movements by way of railway signals and block systems to ensure that trains operate safely, over the correct route and to the proper timetable...
next to the level crossing
Level crossing
A level crossing occurs where a railway line is intersected by a road or path onone level, without recourse to a bridge or tunnel. It is a type of at-grade intersection. The term also applies when a light rail line with separate right-of-way or reserved track crosses a road in the same fashion...
on Crawley High Street, another Grade II-listed building, is just on the Southgate side of the railway line. It was built in about 1860 and has a hipped roof
Hip roof
A hip roof, or hipped roof, is a type of roof where all sides slope downwards to the walls, usually with a fairly gentle slope. Thus it is a house with no gables or other vertical sides to the roof. A square hip roof is shaped like a pyramid. Hip roofs on the houses could have two triangular side...
.
Crawley Borough Council has designated a Conservation Area
Conservation Area (United Kingdom)
In the United Kingdom, the term Conservation Area nearly always applies to an area considered worthy of preservation or enhancement because of its special architectural or historic interest, "the character or appearance of which it is desirable to preserve or enhance," as required by the Planning ...
around the level crossing on Brighton Road. Part of this falls within Southgate's boundaries. Elsewhere, Goffs Park Road has been given the status of an Area of Special Environmental Quality. Goffs Park itself was given a Green Flag Award
Green Flag Award
The Green Flag Award is the benchmark national standard for parks and green spaces in the United Kingdom. The scheme was set up in 1996 to recognise and reward green spaces in England and Wales that met the laid down high standards...
in July 2008 in recognition of its high standards.
Crawley Museum is based in Goffs Park House in Goffs Park, although in March 2010 plans were announced to move it elsewhere in the town—possibly to Tree House
Tree House, Crawley
Tree House, also known as The Tree, is a mediaeval timber-framed house on the High Street in Crawley, a town and borough in West Sussex, England. It is the original manor house of Crawley, and was built in the early 15th century and rebuilt in the mid-16th century. It now has a modern exterior...
, a vacant council-owned listed building in the town centre.
Transport
Metrobus, which operates all local bus services in Crawley, serves several stops in Southgate on route 1. Route 6, a circular service to and from Crawley bus station, operates less frequently. Longer-distance routes 23 and 24 run via the Horsham Road to WorthingWorthing
Worthing is a large seaside town with borough status in West Sussex, within the historic County of Sussex, forming part of the Brighton/Worthing/Littlehampton conurbation. It is situated at the foot of the South Downs, west of Brighton, and east of the county town of Chichester...
and Horsham
Horsham
Horsham is a market town with a population of 55,657 on the upper reaches of the River Arun in the centre of the Weald, West Sussex, in the historic County of Sussex, England. The town is south south-west of London, north-west of Brighton and north-east of the county town of Chichester...
respectively. The nearest railway station is Crawley
Crawley railway station
Crawley railway station is a railway station serving the town of Crawley in West Sussex. The station is 47 km south of London Victoria and is owned and operated by Southern...
, which has a rear entrance on East Park Road in the north of the neighbourhood.
Levels of vehicle ownership, as measured by the 2001 census, are lower than in Crawley as a whole. At the census date, the mean number of vehicles per household was 1.09 (the overall Crawley figure was 1.21), and 25.4% of households had no transport of their own, compared to 20.4% in Crawley overall.