Hotels around Croydon
Tap the map for prices and availability.
About Croydon Pride
Croydon Pride is the Pride event for the South London borough of Croydon, run by the registered charity Croydon Pride Ltd. Unlike many other UK Pride events, entry is free, which makes it one of the more accessible dates on the South London calendar.
The day opens with a march that sets off from outside the Marks & Spencer store on North End and heads south through the pedestrianised shopping street. At the junction with the High Street it crosses the tram line before finishing outside the Grants building on the High Street. The whole route is step-free, so it works well for wheelchair users and anyone with a pushchair or walking frame.
Afterwards, the event moves to BOXPARK Croydon, a food and events venue just a short walk from East Croydon station. There, live music, drag performances and dance acts fill a stage programme that runs into the evening, alongside street food stalls and several bars. Numbers inside BOXPARK are managed through a one-in, one-out system once the venue reaches capacity.
Croydon Pride is run entirely on volunteer effort and donations, and keeping entry free is something the organisers treat as central to the event's purpose — a way of making sure Pride stays open to everyone in the borough, regardless of what they can afford. For an area that often sits in the shadow of central London's Pride scene, that's a deliberate statement.
About Croydon
Croydon is a large town in South London, about fifteen kilometres south of Charing Cross, and part of the London Borough of Croydon. Its Pride is called Croydon Pride, and the main day is branded Croydon PrideFest. It is run by Croydon Pride, a registered charity that relies on volunteers and each year looks for performers, stallholders and groups to walk in the parade.
The parade sets off from the pedestrianised North End outside Marks & Spencer, turns into Church Street and finishes about three quarters of an hour later in Wandle Park. The festival there has several stages with live music and drag, plus food vendors and stalls run by community groups. Entry is free, but visitors have to register in advance for a free ticket. PrideFest usually takes place in July. The council supports the event and has reported crowds of several thousand. In one year with tight funding the charity held a smaller version in the High Street instead of the park.
Pride in its current form has been held since the mid-2010s. The first edition used the streets around Surrey Street market; the move to Wandle Park came later.
Queer organising in Croydon goes back further. In the late 1980s the Gay Health Link was set up in Shirley and grew into the ACE Project (AIDS, Care and Education). It paired gay men living with HIV with volunteer buddies from the gay community and ran the ACE Players theatre group, a lunch club and a self-help group called Croydon Body Positive. A local gay tennis group raised money for two community health centres through tournaments, shows and auctions. In the early 1990s a Croydon Pride Organising Group held fundraisers in bars around the area and laid on coaches to the Pride march in central London. None of those bars is still open. Today's charity is a separate, later organisation.
Around Pride there are pre-parties and after-parties in local pubs, for example at the Oval Tavern, home of the monthly drag night Their Majesties.
Croydon Pride – frequently asked questions
The parade starts in front of Marks & Spencer on the North End and moves south. At the intersection with High Street/George Street/Church Street, it crosses the tram line and ends on High Street before Grants. The entire route is step-free.
East Croydon Station is about a minute's walk from the main venue BOXPARK.
Nearby Prides
Birmingham Pride 2027
Nottingham Pride 2027
From the magazine
Brenda Howard and the Pride Week: Who Turned a Memorial March into a Tradition
After Stonewall, a march marked the anniversary in 1970, and later a whole week. Brenda Howard is named as one of the people behind it. What is documented and where the title Mother of Pride stays disputed.
Compton's Cafeteria 1966: The Uprising That Began Three Years Before Stonewall
In August 1966, trans women and drag queens in a San Francisco cafeteria fought back against police harassment. What is documented, what is not, and why the story came back so late.
Barcelona 1977: Spain's First Pride March on La Rambla
On 26 June 1977, several thousand people marched without permission up La Rambla in Barcelona and demanded the end of a law that criminalised homosexuality. What happened and what came of it.