Shirley Park A new era beckons The most important project undertaken during Headmaster Oliver Berthoud’s tenure was the announcement in 1959 that the school would relocate to Shirley Park, with work expected to finish by 1964. The original building at North End had been designed for fewer than 200 pupils and, by 1959, the school was endeavouring to accommodate over 600 boys. A modern chemistry block with a gym underneath, incongruous alongside the main building at North End, opened in 1958 and eased the situation but the school had clearly outgrown its premises. The powers that be in Croydon were looking to redevelop the centre of the town and the relocation of Trinity School was a principal element in their plans. The school’s 11-acre site at North End, right in the heart of Croydon, was a prime location for redevelopment and thus will have raised a princely sum when it was sold. Concurrently, the search for a new home for the school was underway and in March 1959, an agreement was reached with the owners of the Shirley Park Hotel, a site with well over 25 acres of land, more than double the land at North End. The hotel was to continue to operate until building work was scheduled to commence. By the beginning of 1963, Shirley Park Hotel had been demolished, and the playing fields were beginning to take shape. However, the building work was hampered at the start of the year due to the Big Freeze of 1962-63, one of the coldest winters on record. Further disruption was caused by poor drainage on land that had formerly been a lake in the grounds of Shirley Park Hotel. Architectural plans depicting the new buildings were prominently displayed at the school at North End, but it was to be a model made by the architect George Lowe that captured the imagination of the school community.
This photograph of the model appeared extensively in both local and national press