Here David Adair and Patrick Rodgers explain Why They Love Thornton Heath.

“We moved to Thornton Heath some 20 years ago from Brixton to get a house with a garden and at first thought it might be too suburban.

However, we soon settled in and now with 5 fruit trees we technically have an orchard, growing peaches, plums, cherries, apples and pears. 

Our garden is such an oasis, in the summer, you could be in deepest Kent listening to the birds and the bees amongst the flora and fauna. 

We even heard an owl a couple of weeks ago, yet walk outside the front door and you have the lively multi-cultural buzz of the Heath, Thornton Heath that is.

We have a dog from Battersea Dogs home and love walking him locally in Grangewood Park, The Rec and Mitcham Common but also have Crystal Palace Park, Addington Hills and South Norwood Country Park close at hand.

We have made great friends through dog walking, including Iain and Simon who we spend many a happy New Years Eve with watching the many fireworks around the area.

One of us runs a Corporate Charitable Foundation and the other is in IT so it is important to be able to get into town easily if we need to. 

We have been lucky enough to support local charities such as ASKI who run amazing support programmes for the over 50’s locally.

We love the annual festivals such as those from the Sakthy Ghanapathy temple and the Thornton Heath Festival which reminds us of Brixton in the 90’s before it was gentrified.

We only hope Thornton Heath doesn’t get too gentrified as the thing that makes it so special is the people with the range of cultures and ethnic diversity including the food. 

The people are unpretentious and friendly, as the song says it is important ‘to be real’ and there is plenty of realness here!”