East Croydon station has been named the most crime-ridden railway station in Eastlondonlines’ boroughs, with 443 offences recorded between April 2021 to September 2022, according to data from British Transport Police (BTP).

Mile End and Canary Wharf underground stations ranked second and third respectively. Overall, BTP recorded 3,423 crime offences at railway stations in Tower Hamlets, Lewisham, Croydon and Hackney during this period. However, of the local stations, only East Croydon ranks in the worst 20 stations for crime in London, coming in at number 13; the worst is St Pancras, the Eurostar terminal.

All stations are policed by BTP, whose data covers the whole train network including London underground, Tramlink and DLR stations in Hackney, Tower Hamlets, Lewisham and Croydon.

Out of the 10 most dangerous railway stations regarding criminal offences, six were found in Tower Hamlets, three in Croydon and one in Lewisham:

East Croydon station, one of the busiest non-terminal stations in London, and in the United Kingdom as a whole, accounts for 12.9 per cent of all the crimes committed in or around stations in four ELL boroughs.

ELL went to East Croydon station to ask people's opinions:

Tambaric Kiruba, 63, a refuse worker at East Croydon station, said that it's particularly unsafe on Friday and Saturday: "At night [it's unsafe] especially because of the drunk and drugs. On one occasion someone did [verbally abuse] me… saying ‘fucking bastard'."

Simon Asamoa, 30, an employee at a dry cleaner next to the station, said that the condition around the station isn't good: "Just the other week, a guy actually got manhandled because he was breaking through the barriers and a bunch of kids actually ran through. There are obviously derogatory terms that get flown across in stations towards the support group in the station as well. [The staff get] quite a lot of verbal abuse just for doing their job."

Lewis Johnson, 19, a student at Croydon College, said that he was robbed around the station at midnight: "I had a homeless person or someone under the influence of drugs asking me for money and he proceeded to try to [ask for money] so I had to get quite physical with him. It just wasn't the experience I was looking for late at night. No one else was around. So I'm trying to look over to the East Croydon guard to seek help. They were sort of ignoring it. It just seems like that’s something they saw every day.  

"You have to be extra vigilant because if you don’t, keep your head on your phone, you can get snatched anything. I've seen phones get snatched right before my eyes... I've got [the phone] in my pocket when I was in college. It's not really worth [taking the phone out].

He said the drugs and poverty around the station are the main reasons for the danger: "The government don't really care about Croydon too much in my opinion. The whole of Croydon are in debt, they've just got bankrupt. They don't really give a shit about a very badly neglected area."

The data showed that of all the crimes committed in the four ELL boroughs, around one in three incidents were recorded in Croydon.

According to a survey by the Safer Croydon Partnership published in 2021, respondents in Croydon did not feel safe while travelling or waiting for public transport.

In January 2020, a 16-year-old boy was murdered at East Croydon station after being stabbed in a 40-second-long attack during "an extremely busy time of the day", according to BTP.

Tower Hamlets accounts for 37.9 per cent of the overall crimes in ELL boroughs with 1299 incidents occurring in Tower Hamlet since April 2021.

Among all 33 London boroughs, Westminster ranks first with Tower Hamlets, Croydon, Lewisham and Hackney ranking eighth, ninth, thirteenth and thirty-first respectively.

A spokesperson for BTP told Eastlondonlines: "Every single violent offence is one too many. We use crime statistics such as these to target our patrols... And when crimes do happen, we’ll work tirelessly to bring offenders to justice."

BTP claimed that the chances of becoming a victim of any crime on the railway network are extremely low. They say officers patrol stations and on trains and they have access to CCTV cameras network.

Eastlondonlines contacted Croydon Council and Tower Hamlets Council for comment but received no response.