STATE & INFRASTRUCTURE
Boys School Of Abuse
Former boarding school shut down for major abuse scandal.
Built as a manor house, but in 1961 became a junior boarding School, serving the people at Greenham Common Army Grounds. This old boarding school has a dark history of child abuse of young boys and in 1988 3 of the teaching staff were sentenced to 26 years in prison for the long term sexual abuse of pupils.
Terrible history, but I focused on the beauty of the decay in this grand building.
Jungle Trains - Thessaloniki, Greece
Train graveyard in Greece. It quickly came apparent that I had chosen the wrong time of year to visit this place and had to give up fairly quickly. The environment is hostile to say the least.
Forgetting the very strong midday sun burning me red, the place was totally overgrown.
I nearly trod on a snake on 2 occasions and the biggest issue was spiders the size of your hand strung up between all the trains and hanging from above.
I hate spiders! And I could only take so much beating through with a stick, and things landing on my head before I had to call it a day.
One web had feathers in it!
The only semi possible area was under the road bridge where there was less growth.
I tried to find my way back, the way I had been, by the lack of webs, but it appeared that new webs had appeared in the time I had passed through!
Its pretty annoying though, because after, looking at the drone shots, there appear to be some interesting carriages etc in the mix.
Flight Training Centre
This huge site must have been training 1000s of flight crew and pilots every day. Room after room, on floor after floor of exact copy rooms full of company propaganda. It must have been a dismal place to spend your time. The graffiti covered multimillion pound simulator standing in a dark room above a sea of stripped cable is one of the most surreal scenes I have observed - certainly not everyday.
Court Of The Convicts
This tasty place once processed the convicts of East London. Fantastic jailbird graffiti on the inside of the cell doors. The level of decay in this place was incredible, compared to what you might have imagined from the outside.
Decaying Womens Prison
I was delighted to unexpectedly find this still standing and being able to find a way in.
The main 5 storey cell block was eerily beautiful and dramatic. It was hot inside. Can’t imagine how it would feel when in use.
In 2014, a Lille court awarded damages of 34,000 euros to the family of a prisoner who had died in the prison in 2007 from medical neglect. The prison, badly deteriorated, was closed in 2011 and its main mens wing buildings razed in 2016.
Bug Research Facility
London university derelict research facility out in the countryside. Experiments of bugs and disease on plants taking place in between hung polythene sheets.
Samples of disease ridden plants from the 1950s in jars.
Manor Of Mould - Orphange-Sex Offenders Home
Lots of lovely mould here-some of it pretty toxic smelling, especially in the cellar. This place once housed an orphanage and had plans for a sex offenders rehab place in the recent past. I felt like I was being watched the whole time I was there and then at the end found a television broadcasting images from the dilapidated cameras dotted around the perimeter (see last photo). This is actually 2 sets of photos, 5 years apart 2014+2019. You will spot in the first 9 pairs there are comparisons, showing how time has decayed the place.
1814 - The original large country house was built by local brewer Robert Porter.
1820 - Silverlands was rebuilt by Vice-Admiral Sir Frederick Hotham and Silverlands was the Hotham family home until around 1887.
1896 - The Actors' Orphanage was started by Kittie Carson at Croydon and was established as the Actors' Orphanage Fund in 1912.
1915 - The orphanage moved to Langley Hall, Berkshire, and in 1934, Noël Coward became President of the charity
1938 - The charity moved its orphanage to Silverlands in Chertsey, Surrey.
1940 - The children living in the home were evacuated to the Edwin Gould Foundation in New York, USA.
1941 - Some of the buildings became a female nurse’s school for the nearby Botley Park Asylum and St Peter’s Hospital.
1945 - The children returned to Silverlands after the end of World War II. The orphanage ran alongside the nures's school.
1956 - Sir Laurence Olivier took over as President of the charity with Richard Attenborough as his Deputy.
1958 - The cost of major repairs needed to the building, the declining numbers of children at the home resulted in a decision to close Silverlands as an orphanage.
1990 - Silverlands Nursing School amalgamated with other schools of nursing to become the Francis Harrison College of nursing and midwifery.
Late nineties - The probation service was looking at taking over Silverlands as a clinic for paedophiles.The proposals were met by strong opposition from local people who organised a candle lit vigil in protest.
2002 - The Ministry of Justice announced that Silverlands was no longer being considered for the clinic.
Girls School
Lovely graffiti riddled girls school.
Lots to see here
Unloved Trains
Rotting, smelly carriages, sitting wasted and pretty in an urban dump.
Disused Rubbish and Recycling Plant
Lord knows why I decided to spend a Sunday afternoon in here.
Although empty for a decade or so, it stank as fresh as a back end of a rubbish truck on a humid summer’s day.
Some interesting graf here that kept me distracted though. A huge space.
London Rooftop
A London Government Landmark
Just a sneeky climb out onto the roof of a familiar London landmark. The lighting in the area was dramatic and saturated making it quite tricky to capture
Abandoned Water Works and Labs
Soaking wet day spoilt my pics of this water plant. Interesting to see the lab still there
Globe School
Village school in the middle of Italian nowhere.
Beautful main class room with a fantastically ornate ceiling. Sadly this little gem appears to have been heavily plundered in the the last year.
Nice to see the religious headmaster photo overlooking the classroom.
The rooms were all painted a beautiful green mostly here.
UlfOlsson School - Dark School Of Music
A religious boarding school. What could go wrong?
Main focus was on religious music here.
Picturesque Italian Alps location.
Had a number of mini chapels in here as well as a large mid century style church. The place has been well and truly smashed up with some quite odd graf.
Euro Special Needs Boarding School
I found this rather stuffy bleak school on randomly at the foot of a Greek Island Mountain.
It was quite a twisty route through the building with only one way forward keeping me on my toes, as if I came across trouble it would be tricky to escape with speed.
German Train turntable and sheds
Off on a family wedding trip to Germany. No prior research, no camera gear…..and then I stumble upon this little beauty opposite the hotel. Grudgingly holding only my useless camera phone, I trek through the brambles to take a quick peak less than an hour before I was due to set off for the airport. Had an unexpected encounter with some ‘photographers’ and a ‘model’ doing some ‘glamour’ shots in here. In broken their broken English and my broken German, they let me know that wandering on the tracks here wouldn’t go down with the local german popo. Next time I will take my proper camera with me!
Disused Rail Tunnel and Cutting
These remains of a rail cutting through the English country side were very tranquil and beautiful. Didn’t see another soul on the trek through the fern filled valley.
The air in the tunnel was damp and very cold despite the hot weather.
Orphanage For Babies
Cute place where unwanted and parentless babies were looked after.
Even some old toys left over
Underground Reservoir
Difficult to capture the scale of this place and a one shot wonder really.
Decided to light some pyrotechnics to get some light and smoke in here
Catholic Boarding School
Italian Boys Catholic Boarding school - sounds worrying to me. Not much left of this one apart from some nice external lettering and stained glass. A few old books and leaflets of religious nature lying around were all that revealed it’s past use.