Croydon’s popular Lloyd Park café has re-opened under new management and with a new name – ‘Parklife’.
Opening from 7.30am to 5.30pm seven days a week throughout the winter, Parklife is the result of months of hard work from local entrepreneur, Clair Murphy.
With support from the council’s parks team, Clair has plans for the café to become the heart of the local community.
Clair said: “I’m a local girl, born and bred in Croydon. All my immediate family also live, work and attend schools here. I’m very proud of my Croydon roots and I can trace them back for hundreds of years.
“I’ve spent the last five years managing another local café and restaurant, but my dream has always been to open my own in my local community.”
“I want Parklife Café to breathe life back into the park and hopefully it will become the hub of the community. We’ll be getting involved in the numerous sporting events that take place here, such as the Park Runs which are held every weekend and are getting really popular. Then there’s the well-established tennis club, disc golf, the outdoor gym, and many others.”
There will be a variety of weekly clubs at the café, including the Krafty Kids Club every Thursday morning and a children’s’ ceramics session in the future.
“I’m really pleased to have Clair taking over the Lloyd Park café. She’s already shown such a huge amount of enthusiasm for the project and I know she’ll make a success of this venture.
Top quality facilities like this really encourage regular use of our fabulous green spaces. I hope residents will use this new attraction as another reason to visit Lloyd Park”
Councillor Timothy Godfrey, cabinet member for culture, leisure and sport
Parklife offers a variety of breakfast dishes, including the ever-popular full English. During the day there’s a wide selection of hot or cold lunch choices to suit all tastes as well as a children’s menu. Clair will be serving locally produced homemade cakes 
and, of course, a selection of regular and specialist coffees and teas.
Vegetarian, vegan and gluten free options are also available.
Clair wants to keep the café’s carbon footprint as low as possible by avoiding buying products that have to be shipped from many miles away, or, especially as Croydon is a Fairtrade Council, selecting Fairtrade brands. She said: “We aim to source all our produce locally, for example our meat is from Bashford & Sons Butchers who only 10mins away. We’ll also have a daily delivery of Artisan bread that has been baked locally.”
