Latitude: N51:22:42 (51.378301)
Longitude: W0:06:10 (-0.102663)
Turn left out of the exit from the West Croydon railway station and Maplin Electronics is immediately on the corner of North End and Station Road.
This is a normal sized Maplin store, with the usual range of computer, radio, hi fi etc, equipment, tools, spares, components and technical gadgets.
Latitude: N51:22:40 (51.377822)
Longitude: W0:06:11 (-0.103071)
The Forbidden Planet comics and sci-fi bookshop is on the opposite corner of North End and Derby Road, from the Maplins electronics store, next to the West Croydon railway station exit.
175 North End
Croydon
London
CR0 1T
This is a much smaller shop than the Forbidden Planet Megastore at 179 Shaftesbury Avenue in central London, which hosts most of the CyberPunk and Sci-Fi author signing events.
Latitude: N51:22:43 (51.378522)
Longitude: W0:06:11 (-0.102941)
The High Speed Access Internet Cafe is just a couple of doors along at
170 North End,
Croydon,
CR0 1UF
when you turn left out of the main exit from the West Croydon railway station
The front of the shop sells music CDs etc. with a few secluded PCs well out of public view in the back, however with plenty of CCTV and web cameras.
A couple of doors south is the Maplin Electronics store and the Forbidden Planet sci-fi and comics store is across the main road from that.
Further north up the London Road, and especially south down the pedestrianised North End are several mobile phone unlocking / second hand mobile phone concessions counters / stalls within other shops (as well as multiple official mobile phone shops)
Time*Bomb - "Emo, Punk and Rock Clothing, Gothic Emo Punk Rock Clothes & Accessories."
31 High Street
Croydon
Surrey
CR0 1QB
This seem to be the place to get your cyber-goth accessories such as day-glo "womble fur" leggings and also the now notorious Shag Bands.
Latitude: N51:22:22 (51.372702)
Longitude: W0:06:00 (-0.100050)
The dual carriageway east of the main Centrale and Whitgift Centre shopping malls in the centre of Croydon, is Wellesley Road, which is the location for several large office buildings, including those occupied by the Home Office's UK Borders Agency
This is where the government bureaucrats who process asylum seekers and legal immigrants to the United Kingdom, as well as those who try to hunt down illegal immigrants, are based.
Asylum seekers, who dare not complain about the UK Government, are the test subjects for various compulsory Identity Card and Biometric technology schemes, which the Home Office is trying to inflict on the entire United Kingdom population, and on that of the rest of the European Union as well.
View north from Electric House, 3 Wellesley Road, towards Apollo House and Lunar House, the 22 story buildings flying the Union Jack flag.
Apollo House
40 Wellesley Road
This is where the more senior civil service mandarins and managers in the UK Borders Agency have their offices.
Crossing over Sydenham Road, you come to the nearby
Lunar House
36 Wellesley Road
This used to be notorious for long queues of Asylum Seekers and other Immigrants, snaking out of the building, waiting for appointments with the bureaucrats within, but these have now disappeared.
This is still the main Asylum processing centre in the UK, and, like Electric House, has a privately run short term holding facility, for people waiting to be transferred to private Immigration Detention Centres.
Latitude: N51:22:41 (51.377920)
Longitude: W0:05:57 (-0.099115)
The dual carriageway east of the main Centrale and Whitgift Centre shopping malls in the centre of Croydon, is Wellesley Road, which is the location for several large office buildings, including those occupied by the Home Office's UK Border Agency
This is where the government bureaucrats who process asylum seekers and legal immigrants to the United Kingdom, as well as those who try to hunt down illegal immigrants, are based.
Asylum seekers, who dare not complain about the UK Government, are the test subjects for various compulsory Identity Card and Biometric technology schemes, which the Home Office is trying to inflict on the entire United Kingdom population, and on that of the rest of the European Union as well.
Home Office
UK Border Agency
Electric House
3 Wellesley Road
Croydon
CR0 2AT
Electric House is a "reporting centre" for asylum seekers and "failed" asylum seekers, who are frequently interviewed, and then arrested here and then transferred to privately run Immigration Detention Centres, before, eventually being deported.
Croydon played an important part in the history of Punk Rock, but the most famous music venues have shut down and are now only of interest to urban explorers and cultural archaeologists.
The Greyhound, later the Blue Oyster Orchid - defunct punk rock venue on Park Lane, opposite the Fairfield Halls and Croydon College.
Latitude: N51:22:23 (51.373030)
Longitude: W0:05:49 (-0.097005)
This long established (since 1996) cyber café near to the East Croydon railways station appears to have recently closed, possibly following problems with their internet connectivity.
Cyberzone Internet Cafe
1 Dingwall Road
Croydon
Surrey
CR0 2NA
opposite the Warehouse Theatre
For some reason, perhaps connected with the building site opposite, Google Street View manages to avoid the part of Dingwall Road where Cyberzone is located.
Latitude: N51:22:29 (51.374860)
Longitude: W0:05:40 (-0.094515)
The Black Sheep Bar,
68 High Street,
Croydon,
Surrey,
CR0 1NA
touts itself as the only "alternative" music venue left in Croydon.
Latitude: N51:22:17 (51.371372)
Longitude: W0:06:02 (-0.100694)
However, possibly due to the malign influence of the nearby Home Office Borders Agency offices, their decision to turn into a private club, which enforces its door policy, not just with bouncers and CCTV surveillance, but also with Photo ID and a Biometric Fingerprint scanning system and (insecure) database, makes it a place to avoid
The appalling Black Sheep Bar biometric membership web page exceeds the bureaucratic requirements of the most repressive of secret police surveillance state dystopias.
George Orwell's Winston Smith did not have to go through fingerprint scanning in order to be sold his Victory Gin !
Welcome to the Black Sheep Bar's website. We are a members only bar, if you are coming down and you aren't already a member please bring photo ID (driving licence or passport) with you to sign up.
The Intouch system is a biometric door entry system (it recognises fingerprints). In order to become a member we require that you have your photo taken and provide a form of identification (driving licence or passport).
The biometric fingerprint club / pub door entry system seems to be the inTouch system, now marketed by idscan biometrics.
The fact that it is relatively cheap (£700 for the software and one fingerprint scanner), but does not offer any built in strong encryption makes it unlikely that it will be installed with sufficient physical security to prevent the entire system being stolen or copied.
To apply for membership we require such personal data as your full name, postal address, telephone number, date of birth, a photograph of you and your finger characteristics. We will occasionally need to collect and use sensitive personal data about you, for example, your conduct in our premises to ensure a safe and pleasant environment for our customers, staff and members of the public.
We collect and use personal data about you for the general provision of our services, we will disclose any data if required to do so by law or to comply with a legal process or where permitted to protect and defend our rights and property and to protect the personal safety of our customers, staff and members of the public. By providing your personal data to us you agree to these terms.
As with all other fingerprint scanning systems used in public places, what about the biological infection risk from bacteria and viruses which will contaminate the fingerprint scanner ?
Fingerprint scanners never get washed or sterilised, do they, so the risk of spreading pandemic infectious diseases like Swine Flu etc. is substantial.
Cyberpunks and any other freedom and liberty loving or public health conscious people should boycott this totalitarian venue in Croydon.
UPDATE: 5th November 2009
If you look up entry Z8210589 for Bossicks's Restaurants Limited / Black Sheep Bar, on the Information Commissioner's Office Register of Data Controllers you will find only one Data Purpose which has been registered.
This was registered back in 2003, presumably before the fingerprint system was installed, and is only for the CCTV surveillance system, so technically this fingerprint system and club membership database is illegal under the Data Protection Act 1998.
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