Here's the latest batch of Derelict London pictures. Ive been spending some time promoting my London Lost Rivers book and over the Winter of 2011 will revamping the Derelict London website in the style of the www.londonslostrivers.com website to include the same content but using slideshows and click to enlarge photos.Dont hold yr breath though as this will take me months of work to do........
Also, Im doing some more guided walks of lost rivers/canals/docks in Spring 2012 which will be passing some derelict sights along the way. See Lost Rivers site for booking information.
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CHISWICK
SHOREDITCH
BERMONDSEY - Mk2 Cortina
STREATHAM - CLINTON HOUSE
In 1914 the Wheatley family moved into Clinton House. Their son, Dennis, was 17 at the time. Dennis went on to write more than 70 books (selling over 50 million copies) before his death in 1977.Most of these were thrillers and occult novels. In the 1960s, two of his most popular titles, ‘The Devil Rides Out’ and ‘Uncharted Seas’ (renamed ‘The Lost Continent’) were filmed by Hammer.
Before the Wheatleys moved to Clinton House, it had been the home of Benjamin Pierce Lucas, Managing Director of the Camden Town Palace of Varieties. He appears to have moved to the property around 1898. The house was probably built in 1884, when it first appears in local directories.
Now the building is derelict and the future is uncertain. Grade II listed status was turned down by English Heritage, because of the damage it had suffered through vandalism and decay.
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FELTHAM - CROWN & SCEPTRE (left) and SUNBURY - THE GEORGE (right)
The Hounslow Chronicle says: "Punters visiting the Crown and Sceptre in Feltham will be served a different tonic from now on - the ailing pub is to become a doctor's surgery."
The venue has been the scene of fights, assaults on children and a rape allegation in the last few months and a man lost his eye in an attack in March in which a police officer was also assaulted. Police had had enough so applied for its licence to be withdrawn and owners Punch Taverns decided not to fight the application and sold up.
Neighbour Doreen Baker, 72, said: "It's such a relief to know it's finally shut for good. That whole corner had become a no-go area day and night and the racket they used to make there was just unbearable."
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GREENWICH - THE GREENWICH INN
I stopped off here one evening and remember the friendly staff recommended this new lager which was quite tricky to pour correctly. They attempted to pour 3 pints of it before they were happy that it was served the way it should be.It was a good pint but not worth the hassle...
This pint apparently was Super Chilled Coors - the coldest beer available in the World .The Inn was featured on BBC's Tomorrows World when the beer was launched as it is chilled at sub zero and was only available at a limited number of outlets. I never saw it in any other pubs.
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CROYDON - DUKE OF YORK
DEPTFORD
The Grand Surrey Canal once went right through this spot.One of my guided walks takes in this beauty spot.
FENCHURCH STREET STATION
An accumulator tower for storing hydraulic power.The tower was constructed around 1900. It held a large tank of water which was put under pressure by a weighted piston.The pressurised water was forced through pipes to provide power to operate machinery such as turntables and a lift to move wagons on and off the viaduct. The depot closed in 1949 and the buildings on the site, with the exception of the accumulator tower and the viaduct, were demolished.
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ISLINGTON - JACK BEARDS Formerly the Oakley Arms.
In 1885 a policeman read his statement out at the Old Bailey: "At 4 o'clock on the morning of 25th March I was on duty in Hall Street—I found the Oakley Arms had been broken into and that all the spirit taps had been left running and a plate of human excrement on the counter." The defendant was sentenced to 15 months hard labour for this crime. The plate of excrement has been removed from the bar....
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NORTH PECKHAM
SHOREDITCH
RAINHAM
"During the Second World War, steel was in short supply. Governments in the UK and the US ordered the construction of barges made of reinforced concrete. The barges now abandoned on the Thames mud at Rainham were towed across the channel as part of the immense project to create artificial harbours for the Normandy landings on D-Day. They formed part of one of the Mulberry harbours. Then in 1953 they came to the rescue a second time when they were used to shore up the flood defences of the estuary which were damaged by a huge storm and surge tide. Towns along the river estuary were inundated and devastated by the worst Thames floods in living memory."
Description From "Abandoned relics of war"
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RAINHAM
RAINHAM
As you walk out of the rear exit of Rainham railway station over long depressing concrete stairwells you are greeted by this concrete encased stagnant stagnant ditch
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SHOREDITCH AREA
SHOREDITCH - MILDMAY HOSPITAL
The Mildmay Mission Hospital had its origins in the work of the Reverend William Pennefeather and his team of Christian women, later known as Deaconesses, who began their work of visiting the sick of the East End of London during the Cholera outbreak of 1866. and moved to this site in Hackney Road in 1892.
In 1948 the Mildmay Mission Hospital was incorporated into the National Health Service .The hospital was closed at the end of 1982 & then re-opened outside the National Health Service as a facility for HIV/AIDS patients and their families.The first European AIDS hospice was established here.The hospital, on Hackney Rd in Shoreditch, will be demolished to make way for a new development including a 24-bed new Mildmay Hospital, which will continue to meet the needs of people living with HIV.
The venue was made famous following a visit by the Princess of Wales in 1989. In front of national television cameras during one of several visits, she was presented with a bunch of flowers by a 34-year-old AIDS patient named Simon. Within 30 minutes of the story airing on the evening news, Simon's family – from which he had long been estranged – contacted him. They stayed with him until he died at Mildmay just ten days later. Diana’s visit was widely regarded as a defining moment in seeking to break down the stigma around AIDS in late-80s Britain.
Mildmay finally moved out of the old building in December 2008.
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THE STREATHAM HUB DEVELOPMENT
The council and Tesco have agreed to deliver a "state of the art" leisure centre and ice rink for Streatham. Known as the Streatham Hub, the new development "will breathe new life into Streatham and provide world class leisure facilities for the whole community."
THE EVENING STANDARD in February 2011 wrote: "It was one of the longest-running planning sagas in London - the plan to redevelop Streatham ice rink by allowing Tesco to build a new superstore alongside.
But it has concluded after nine years with Lambeth council accused of giving in to the supermarket giant by agreeing to allow it to close the rink for at least three years in order to save a couple of million quid."
A few Streatham landmarks will be demolished as a result:
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STREATHAM BATHS
The Council Leisure centre opened as the Streatham Baths in 1927.This recreational amenity represented the latest ideas in Swimming Pool design, filtration and chlorination. The Baths were designed in a classical civic style, traditional Edwardian but with a mix of later modern elements. The frontage is three storeys high, faced in red brick and with stone dressings. There is a centrally placed door with a Tuscan Doric portico and two further entrances doors on either side. Over the portico stands a central stone bay which rises up to roof level and is capped with a large round head open pediment. Internally the entrance hall retains its original ribbed ceiling divided into nine panels and a marbles chequerwork floor. The baths passed to Lambeth Council in the local government reorganization in 1965.
Streatham Leisure Centre closed in 2009 due to health and safety concerns.The decision was taken after structural engineers raised concerns about widespread structural problems in the crumbling 80 year old pool's building.
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STREATHAM - UNITED REFORM CHURCH HALL
Standing between the Baths and the Ice Rink is a grade II listed church, which will be retained in any future development. It was consecrated in 1901 as the Congregational Church and became the United Reformed Church in 1972. Adjoining is the derelict church hall built in 1912. During the 1980's the hall was used as a venue for jumble sales and antique markets. This hall will soon be demolished.
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STREATHAM ICE RINK (still open but not for much longer...)
In 1931 the Super Ice rink, as it was then described in the Builder Magazine, opened its doors. It was licensed by the London County Council for any form of entertainment such as dancing, boxing, cinema and exhibitions as well as ice skating. It had a capacity for about 5000 persons. It is the second oldest rink after Queens Ice Rink in the country.
3000 people attended the opening. The headline in the local paper was "Don't go to Switzerland: Come to Streatham". Ice skating was no longer restricted to the wealthy who could take holidays in the Alps. There were three public sessions daily with an entrance charge of 2/6 for adults; with half price for children under 16. The building's footprint was 36,300sq feet with an ice arena of 21,000-sq feet, larger than the current international standard size. The arena was surrounded by two rows of seats with a continuous balcony above. The building was designed by the well known cinema architect Robert Cromie. It had a tea lounge at one end with an additional lounge above it. On the first floor over the entrance hall was the ballroom restaurant arranged with a separate entrance from the street for use when the rink was closed. The High Street Art-Deco elevation was made of reconstructed Portland stone and black Faience and has an imposing decor with an Egyptian influence. The interior decor was very unusual - "a kind of kaleidoscopic scheme ... in a series of interwoven patterns, each based upon some ordinary motif in everyday life, such as a viaduct, tower, battleship, tree, gramophone record, waves and the like".
In 1962 the rink was taken over by Mecca, who spent £100,000 on improvements. In 1979 the rink closed after ice-making machinery broke down. There was a local campaign to save the rink. It re-opened in 1980 after £1m repairs and refurbishment. In 1990 the rink was sold to Laws Estates who sold it to Tesco in 2002.
The Kinks, The Pretty Things and many other famous s groups played there in the 1960's. In 2007 a 16 year old male was shot twice on a Saturday night at Streatham Ice Arena. Police said the shooting took place near to the venue entrance, but the victim managed to stagger onto the ice. He was taken to hospital but pronounced dead. There have been 18 arrests in the case in the past four years, including seven on the night of the shooting, but nobody has ever been charged. It is said that witnesses have been too frightened to give evidence.
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ARCHWAY
STREATHAM
BLACKFRIARS
MITCHAM - ROWAN HIGH SCHOOL
MITCHAM - SCOUT HUT
ISLE OF DOGS - WEST INDIA PIER
The pier has been disused since a riverbus service from Charing Cross Pier failed in 1993.
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ISLE OF DOGS - WEST FERRY ROAD WAREHOUSE
BATTERSEA - BOLLINGBROKE HOSPITAL
Named after Viscount Bolingbroke, but owes its existence largely to a nineteenth century vicar Canon J Erskine Clarke who formed the view that Battersea needed a hospital for those members of the local public who, in pre-NHS days, would prefer to pay for their hospital care rather than attend the Poor Law institutions which provided healthcare free of charge to the less affluent.
Canon Clarke oversaw negotiations to buy an old mansion named Bolingbroke House in 1876 and after much improvement and investment from philanthropic sources,the Bolingbroke Hospital first opened in 1880
The outbreak of the Second World War meant that the Bolingbroke became affiliated to St Thomas’s Hospital, and was damaged by air raids in 1941, and by a V1 flying bomb in 1944. Rumours of the consequences of a report which led to the establishment of the NHS,were greeted with dismay by the hospital’s Board, which reported that the people of the area “would greatly regret to see itmerged in a system of state hospitals.In 1948, despite these apparent regrets, the Bolingbroke became part of the new National Health Service.
There was immense opposition from the local community to the closure and Wandsworth Councillors managed to block the plan. The issue was referred to the then Secretary of State for Health, Alan Johnson, who agreed in July 2007. This situation was seen by Wandsworth Councillors as 'closure by stealth', whereby services were gradually withdrawn (so fewer patients attended) and the real estate deteriorated to the point that it was 'uneconomical' to repair and modernise the buildings (despite the Trusts having spent £2.5m in ward refurbishment).
English Heritage have given the building a Grade II listing due to architectural interest, a rare set of children’s tiles and its “unusually lavish” marble-clad lobby, war memorials and radiated corridors. A planning application relating to the conversion of the former hospital into a school will be submitted later in 2011. In addition to the school there is the possibility that some health facilities will be re-established at the Bolingbroke site.
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MITCHAM
DEPTFORD - CONVOYS WHARF
Convoys Wharf is currently a largely unused brownfield site covering around 40 acres.
From the medieval period onwards this Deptford site was an important place for shipbuilding and fishing. It was then used as a repair yard and as an anchorage for the king's ships in the reign of Henry V11. In 1513, The Royal Naval Dock Dockyard was established by Henry VIII, who was born in nearby Greenwich, to become the chief Thames dockyard for building and repairing naval ships bringing a large population and prosperity to Deptford.
The docks were also noted for building the ships that fought against the Spanish Armada in 1588, Captain Cook's voyages in the 1770s, and the building of some of the fleet for Nelson's battles including the "Battle of Trafalgar" . It was shut down from 1830 before reopening in 1844 for a short period of building of steamships and closed forever in 1869. A cattle import market took over the Dockyard site from 1871. The market was taken over by the War Office in 1914 and the yard served as an Army Supply Reserve Depot in the First & Second World Wars and also as a United States amphibious vehicle base, supplying the vehicles to support the D Day Landings, during the Second World War. The site was severely damaged by enemy V1 and V2 rockets
Most recently the site of the dockyard was used by a newsprint importer and the site renamed Convoys Wharf from 1984. Convoys have now left and mixed development is planned for the site. Proposals include more than 3,000 new homes, a primary school, public transport improvements including a river bus service from the site.Plans also feature provisions for offices, shops, restaurants, a market and a hotel. A local tenant's action group says: "This proposal does not recognise the need for successful employment regeneration in the area to meet the needs of a largely disadvantaged local community. It does not recognise the real historical significance if the site - only in a 'tokenised' way, not a 'living' way. It does not recognise the need to bring back genuine and sustainable marine based activities to a site that has a unique geography to do exactly that."
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WOOLWICH -
TEDDINGTON - NORMANSFIELD HOSPITAL (originally opened as Normansfield Training Institution for Imbeciles)
Normansfield Hospital was founded by John Haydon Landon-Down in 1868 as a private home for the “care, education and treatment of those of good social position, who present any degree of mental deficiency".Throughout his active medical career Langdon-Down practised as a consulting physician and continued his research in that special condition he called Mongolism, later to be designated Down's syndrome.The Langdon-Down family were involved in running the hospital for over 100 years until Dr Norman Langdon Down retired in 1970.
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BLACKFRIARS
BLOOMSBURY - CLOSED PUBLIC TOILETS
At least 1000 public toilets to be closed in the UK over the next year. That’s on top of the 40 % decline we have seen over the last decade
A quote from the British Toilet Association: "Britain's public toilets were once the envy of the world In recent years, significant number of public toilets have been closed down We need more and better toilets. Let's stop the rot."
CLERKENWELL - EX-TOILETS
On one side of the road the old underground toilets are derelict and the other side they have been converted into a health spa
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KINGS CROSS AREA
A MAJOR REVAMP of this Derelict London website is being written offline using new software which will include lots of new content and photo galleries
along with easier to view galleries of the old content but its all taking months for me to write and uploading of this will not be until at least Easter 2012.
A few new pics will be added to the Derelict London Facebook page in the meantime as I go along.
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www.derelictlondon.com
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Want present day pics of your old haunts?
Researching your family tree and need location pics?
Pictures taken to order - low cost - any job considered
(not just derelicts!).
Much cheaper than professional photographers
Contact: Paul at derelictlondon.com
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