"Thornton Heath has a desperate kind of mid-19th-century artisan character,' states Pevsner's Buildings of England series, adding that there is little to enjoy in this 'relentless suburban sprawl'. Walking along the shambolic, piecemeal Brigstock Road, past the 'Best Hand Car Wash in the UK', the Cheap and Cheerful furniture store and the Braids 'R'Us beauty salon, you can see why Pevsner finds this Croydon suburb so hard to like. Despite a solid Victorian and 1920s townscape, which mixes terraces with commercial yards and semi-detached villas, it's a crazy jumble: road signs, shopfronts, street lamps and cars - hundreds and hundreds of cars.
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