Beers, cheers and tears at Boxpark
Fans at the nation’s most boisterous venue were on song again last night, reports Molly Mcelwee
Acacophony of noise can be heard as you get off the train at East Croydon station, the sort of atmosphere you might expect around a stadium, an arena. “Football’s coming home …” “Please don’t take me home …” “Southgate you’re the one …”
Instead, next door is Boxpark Croydon, the warehouse venue which has served as a conduit of the national mood during this unexpectedly buoyant summer of football courtesy of some smart social media clips and some very exuberant fans.
There were 1,200 of them last night, all gathered to watch England’s first World Cup semifinal appearance in 28 years. There was not a Croatian in sight – not a hand without a pint, either (unless
it was flying through the air, drenching everyone as it went).
Huge screen up, DJ blasting the usual tunes – World in Motion, Three Lions – and perhaps some of the more surprising hits of this summer of football (Atomic Kitten’s Whole Again).
A combination of beer-stained England shirts and Gareth Southgate-inspired waist-coat-wearing fans, all lucky to grab tickets for the party, which sold out in 10 minutes.
David Byrne, events manager at the venue, said they had sold more than 25,000 pints during the World Cup at the last count, and that the 50-strong staff would be picking up plastic pint cups and jet washing the sticky floor until the wee hours of the morning.
It has been said that this history-making England squad have helped the country fall back in love with football, and here there was more than enough love to go around. Especially for 38-year-old England fan Roxanne Cuguay, whose boyfriend Steve Berdo got down on one knee and proposed to her before kick-off.
Berdo, 34, complete with three lions painted on his bald head, took to the mic and popped the question in front of the crowd who threw their pints into the air in celebration for the happy couple.
“He told me we had to go to the front because the TV camera people wanted to talk about his head painting I did,” Cuguay beamed. “And then he proposed. I said, ‘You’re crazy’ but that means yes!’ It’s the best day ever.”
And a perfect start it was. Not a single fan in the room would have predicted anything but an England win, but even they were shocked by Kieran Trippier’s curling beauty of a free-kick finding the net just five minutes in. The warehouse venue shook, the crowd rejoiced.
And then silence – heads in hands, expletives spat out as Croatia equalised in the second half. But the crowd continued their chanting well into extra time: “Thirty years of hurt, never stopped me dreaming.” Then abject despair, as Mario Mandzukic scored and they knew it was all but over.
Much later, after the crowd lifted their bowed heads, the tears stopped flowing, and all 1,200 of them finally made their way to their beds, maybe they wondered if they had dreamed it all. And though 1,198 of them will have woken up with banging heads and crushed spirits today, at least there will be a newly engaged pair who will look back on the night fondly.