The Addington

Architects: JF Abercromby & HS Colt
Restoration: Frank Pont, Mike Clayton, Mike DeVries & Edward Cartwright
 

Built in 1913 on a hill just outside Croydon and boasting wild topography with stunning views of the City of London, Kent and Surrey, The Addington is widely regarded as John Abercromby’s masterpiece. Soon after WWII, the club’s second course was requisitioned for housing and the original course began to suffer from benign neglect, its chairman (Abercromby) having died in 1935.

CDP was retained in 2019 to author a long-term plan for its restoration. Detailed research was undertaken into the course’s history and design principles leading to specific recommendations for the reclaiming of lost green surfaces, revising of mowing lines, reinstating of lost bunkers, and the reintroduction of a lost hole.

A six year project was devised, its mission being to reinstate the course as one of England’s premier heathland layouts. After a hiatus caused by the pandemic, work is now well advanced. Despite the project not yet having been completed, it has already begun to gain plaudits. Having not appeared in rankings of its peers in Great Britain and Ireland for many years, it is now rated at #51 by GOLF Magazine.