In contrast to the vast majority of
London's tallest buildings, most of Croydon's high-rises were constructed in the 1960s and 70s as part of a project to create the South of England's largest office space outside of
Central London. However, since then many of these office blocks have become outdated and some of the early high-rise buildings have subsequently been demolished, to allow for new skyscrapers to be constructed in their place. More recently, a new redevelopment programme for the town centre, called
Croydon Vision 2020 was announced. The town has since witnessed a boom in the construction of high rise apartments, such as
IYLO and
Altitude 25, a former
brownfield site. For 38 years, the tallest building in Croydon was the
No. 1 Croydon (formerly the NLA Tower), a high-rise office block, which was completed in 1970, until 2009, when Altitude 25, a residential high-rise complex, was completed.
Saffron Square became the tallest building in Croydon in 2016 at 134 metres tall, but was overtaken by 101 George Street, the current tallest building in Croydon in 2019. The current tallest building is College Road which topped out in 2022 at 163 metres, and is also the Europe's tallest
modular building. In December 2022, Croydon Council (Conservative run) was warned by Councillor Patricia Hay-Justice (Labour), in a meeting of Council officers and planning officials that Croydon is not
Manhattan and that the suburb should not resemble
New York City in a row over a new skyscraper development. ==Tallest completed buildings==