The NLA Tower (or Number 1 Croydon) was created by Richard Seifert, one of the most famous commercial architects of the 1960s, acclaimed for his wide range of office development schemes and the unusual forms he gave his buildings. The best-known of his other developments is Centre Point in London’s West End.

At 270 feet and 24 storeys high, the NLA Tower was the tallest building in Croydon for many years. It was built between 1968 and 1970 and has been given a range of nicknames over the years  – ‘the wedding cake block’, the threepenny bit building, or the 50p building (if you were in Croydon after decimalisation in 1971).  Its full name was Noble Lowndes Associates Tower, the building’s original principal tenant.  After refurbishment in 2000, it was renamed Number 1 Croydon.

The building has become a key landmark for pedestrians, bus passengers and train arrivals at nearby East Croydon Station. A system of subways were constructed to enable pedestrians to access the station, the Post Office and number 10 Addiscombe Road, the only original building left undemolished due to a dispute with its leasehold tenant.

Miss Kathleen Harding, a solicitor and the tenant of East Bridge House, 10 Addiscombe Road, hampered construction of the NLA Tower for several years. Out of respect for her late father, and with legal skills at her command, she resisted all offers from the developers to sell them the property, and it was feared that the entire construction project would have to be abandoned.  Instead, plans for the NLA tower block had to be altered to accommodate her, with a new roundabout carefully carved out around her home. Miss Harding’s house remained standing in the shadow of the tower until it was finally demolished in 1973.