Three years after Catherine Booth the Army Mother preached in Croydon Public Hall in 1866 she conducted a three months campaign in the town.
The spiritual revival which followed let this converts to ask the East London Christian Mission to establish a branch in Croydon.
William Booth agreed and the workmen's hall and two small mission halls in different parts of the town were occupied. This became the first centre of the work to be started south of the River Thames and led to the movement changing its name to the Christian Mission. Croydon becoming the ninth official opening.
The mission moved into its own building in Tamworth Road in 1873. A citadel was opened on the present site in 1887 nine years after the Christian Mission became The Salvation Army thus an unbroken record of Christian witness has been maintained by the officers and soldiers of this historic corps since 1869.
