Abandoned buildings/places

[popcorn]

Bet you there's some fascinating local knowledge to be known about it. Bet you there is.

Googling suggests it is the stuff of local mystery. There's even paintings of it.



It's hard to explain - when you see it in person it has a peculiar haunted quality beyond the usual haunted quality abandoned shops have. Part of it is the location.



This painting in a pub suggests it was once a post office:



Some info here:

http://pactcambridge.org/petersfield-area/directory/gwydir-street/
https://jasoncook.com/2017/back-and-there-again/
http://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=31941

Old website for the shop from 1999: https://web.archive.org/web/20000915181555/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/rollon/

According to rumour it used to be some sort of front.

I've heard many stories about this shop, and how it was a front for SOMETHING and it was impossible to make a profit selling tapes. The front was for drugs, prostitution, smuggling, protection rackets or laundering. It varied depending on who in the pub was telling the story.

I remember hearing the 'front for porn' rumour at the time RoT was still open. Maybe it was just the unique atmosphere of the place that sparked off stories?

No, it was the speed with which the guy leaped off his chair to turn his telly off anytime someone entered the shop that sparked the stories!

And it may have some question to another mysterious abandoned shop in Cambridge, which has the startlingly mysterious name of "H. Gee".

A chilling post from the manager here:

i have just seen this web site so
I was the manger at roll on tapes ltd
it started up on 9th December 1991 and my first customer on the Friday 13th 1991 at 4.30pm that day
the store closed on Saturday 4th may 2002
all the stock I had went to h gee on mill road
I only sold blank media only
and in 2000 I also did put your music on cd discs for £10.00 per disc
and the blank cd's would have about £5.00 each
I would record your lp onto dat or mini disc first and put in the tracks on the dat or mini disc and burn the whole mini disc or dat onto the cd disc using a pro cd music machine which cost at the time over £3000.00
I hope this helps you about roll on tapes ltd on gwydir street in cambridge

I had to shut this shop down as the council put rates up and parking was hard to find a space without having to paying to park nearby.
it was a sad when I closed it down
I now work at Tesco's in Newmarket road in Cambridge
I work 25 hours there a week
I hope this help you if you need anymore information about roll on tapes please let me know

[Mr_Simnock]

I look forward to the photo art book 'Abandoned Conservative Working Mens Clubs'

[Sebastian Cobb]

I look forward to the photo art book 'Abandoned Conservative Working Mens Clubs'

In my parents town the Labour club is now a Hungry Horse but the conservative club is still standing. Thatcher's Britain, etc.

[Bogbrainedmurphy]

Find all of this stuff fascinating, growing up in Bolton there were always some abandoned mills and warehouses to explore and do "missions" in as young kids. Health and safety nightmare.

We went poking around an old bleach works once (now called Arcon Village) in a place between Bolton and Horwich, pretty sure it was long after it had closed down but there were all sorts of things in there that looked still usable. It was completely silent save for the sound of our own nervous breathing as we tiptoed around expecting something to jump out at us. Then without warning the clocking in machine did a loud "CLING!" which sent us running for our lives.

Outside in skips we found loads of discarded scripts and prop lists for a TV production that was being filmed there too, the order for a number of dummy MP5's certainly got us excited.

Abandoned fairgrounds always seem quite mysterious to me, I know Camelot got a fair few urban explorer visitors long after it closed down but I heard it had been inhabited by a lot of drug abusers (after going out with a former member of staff there for a while, that doesn't sound much different than what the staff were up to there anyway!)

[MojoJojo]

And it may have some question to another mysterious abandoned shop in Cambridge, which has the startlingly mysterious name of "H. Gee".

I don't know either of these shops, but H. Gee's is still around, it's on Mill Road. I should probably have a look as they sell individual electronic components.

[Clownbaby]

The Central Plaza Hotel in Carlisle is just sitting like a big building skeleton. It'll be strabge when it's gone. It's such a dauntingly massive rotten building that they're struggling to figure out how to safely demolish it. I think there's legal issues as well.

https://m.facebook.com/bbccumbria/posts/907438276017568

[Blinder Data]

Went for a wander round St Peter's Seminary in Cardross on a sunny day a few years ago. Stunning place - full of debris and covered in graffiti, but you could still get a sense of the priest's dorms with bureaus and en-suite bathrooms.

I think I was pretty lucky to get in because soon after some arts company started managing it to put on  a big event in the hope of eventually doing it up permanently. That's unlikely now and fuck knows how anyone could ever make use of or even restore the Brutalist masterpiece

[bgmnts]

There was an abandoned facility in my town when I was a kid. I only had the balls to go into it once, it was creepy as fuck.

[popcorn]

Was in the middle of nowhere in Nagano, Japan, last week and came across this abandoned block of tiny apartments. (There are a lot of abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere in Japan.)







Bumghasts:

[Zetetic]

There are a lot of abandoned buildings in the middle of nowhere in Japan.

I'm a bit surprised by this, possibly for not very good reasons.

[popcorn]

Japan has a shrinking population so it shouldn't be that surprising.

[Zetetic]

Good point.

[popcorn]

Thank you. Have you also noticed how handsome I am.

[New Jack]

Don't answer, it wasn't a question!

[Shoulders?-Stomach!]

i have just seen this web site so
I was the manger at roll on tapes ltd
it started up on 9th December 1991 and my first customer on the Friday 13th 1991 at 4.30pm that day
the store closed on Saturday 4th may 2002
all the stock I had went to h gee on mill road
I only sold blank media only
and in 2000 I also did put your music on cd discs for £10.00 per disc
and the blank cd's would have about £5.00 each
I would record your lp onto dat or mini disc first and put in the tracks on the dat or mini disc and burn the whole mini disc or dat onto the cd disc using a pro cd music machine which cost at the time over £3000.00
I hope this helps you about roll on tapes ltd on gwydir street in cambridge

I had to shut this shop down as the council put rates up and parking was hard to find a space without having to paying to park nearby.
it was a sad when I closed it down
I now work at Tesco's in Newmarket road in Cambridge
I work 25 hours there a week
I hope this help you if you need anymore information about roll on tapes please let me know

Sheer desolation

[Noonling]

Strange, I could have sworn this thread originally linked to the abandoned Soviet space shuttle video.

They have some lovely photos of other places too:

Soviet space shuttle:


A theatre in Detroit:


A love motel in Japan:


Gorgeous church (doesn't say where):

[Blue Jam]

Edinburgh has the old Gaumant, later Odeon, on Clerk Street- a proper art deco cinema which closed in 2003:

https://www.buildingsatrisk.org.uk/details/901887

http://odeonedinburgh.blogspot.com/?m=1

It was bought by those utter cunts at the G1 Group in 2016, and they planned to reopen it as a cinema, but apparently the building was found to have been occupied by a load of pigeons and the interior may now be decayed and damaged beyond repair. Gutting it may be the only option, sadly.

[Bobtoo]

Strange, I could have sworn this thread originally linked to the abandoned Soviet space shuttle video.

That might have been the thread about Chernobyl.

[Dex Sawash]

I thought it was about your nob lol

[Lord Mandrake]

Kensington Odeon.  I think it's still there though.

Yeah, across the road from the new design museum. Boarded up, unloved. Watched Se7en there on a first date. I love this thread btw, we used to hangout in an abandoned chocolate factory in High Wycombe, me and some shifty lads. I was walking around Westfield early doors this morning with the kids, it's  was so quiet I couldn't help but imagine it derelict., gradually being reclaimed by the trees and vines of a post Brexit Shepherds Bush.

[Clownbaby]

"Abandoned Japanese Love Hotels" brings up some fab pictures





There's more I want to out up but my phone's being slow

[The Lurker]

When I was studying A Level Photography, Tunstall Court was the place to go. I probably would've failed the course were it not for that building. It's been knocked down now, as has the abandoned Steetley building in town, so god knows what photography use to pass the course now.

It used to be some shipowner's house before it was turned into a school, I believe it may have also been a nursing home at some point? It was a really nice building inside and out which had been destroyed by arsonists and the such like.

I don't have any of my photos of the place but there are some good ones online.

[Clownbaby]

Those are great pictures. Is that gold on the walls in the bottom photo or is it just the filter?

Always annoys me the graffiti you get in abandoned buildings. I know people are gonna graffiti an abandoned building but it always spoils that walking into another era vibe I think. Like how in an old hospital or somewhere like that, people have spay painted spooky ghosts all over the walls and that kind of makes it into a less hidden feeling place.

[gilbertharding]

Googling suggests it is the stuff of local mystery. There's even paintings of it.

It's hard to explain - when you see it in person it has a peculiar haunted quality beyond the usual haunted quality abandoned shops have. Part of it is the location.



Some info here:

http://pactcambridge.org/petersfield-area/directory/gwydir-street/
https://jasoncook.com/2017/back-and-there-again/
http://www.wereallneighbours.co.uk/idlechat/message.php?id=31941

Old website for the shop from 1999: https://web.archive.org/web/20000915181555/http://web.ukonline.co.uk/rollon/

According to rumour it used to be some sort of front.

And it may have some question to another mysterious abandoned shop in Cambridge, which has the startlingly mysterious name of "H. Gee".

Brilliant stuff. I kind of remember that shop - it was near the guy I used to buy my hash from in the early 90s (Rick... mended computers... but I can't remember the name of the street). Also referred to in that blog is the Hot Numbers record shop, which was closed back then too (love the reference to the restoration of the mural, as if it was some renaissance fresco). H Gee I do remember - I bought the stuff to make up a 4-way extension lead there, and also some coloured light bulbs to make my bedsit more groovy.

[SteveDave]

There's this chap too

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-oxfordshire-45760006/inside-rock-star-s-derelict-home

There's a found footage horror film in that ^ Gets into the rock stars house to find the rock star who went missing in the 70s after going mad when he dabbled in the occult.

[gilbertharding]

Shame he sold it in the 90s to someone who turned it into a hotel.

I can't remember how but a while ago I found a load of links to estate agents details for famous people's houses. Carol Vorderman owns a pretty nice house, while one of the guitarists out of Iron Maiden was trying to sell a predictably ghastly pile of bricks (with its own pub themed room...)

Here: https://www.rightmove.co.uk/news/articles/celebrity-homes/iron-maiden-star-sells-his-essex-home-pub-included/

This site has some bleak comedy value too:http://terriblerealestateagentphotos.com/archive

[popcorn]

There's the abandoned house where David Gilmour and Trevor Horn used to live (not simultaneously).



It's quite sad, because Trevor moved out after his son accidentally shot his wife there.

[gilbertharding]

Please tell me Mrs Horn was an extremely well known broadcaster and his son had the unlikely name of... oh never mind.

[Colin Sanction]

There's the abandoned house where David Gilmour and Trevor Horn used to live (not simultaneously).

It's quite sad, because Trevor moved out after his son accidentally shot his wife there.

Can't be bad having a 12 million quid mansion that you don't get round to fixing up.

[popcorn]

"Abandoned Japanese Love Hotels" brings up some fab pictures

Just found this thread again and realised I have some of my own abandoned Japanese love hotel photos to share. Found this while driving around mountains in Nagano a couple of years.