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Abandoned, Disused & Ruined Places

London Necropolis Railway

Exploring little-known, morbid slice of London history

It’s hard to conceive, but 1848 was an even worse time to be dead than usual.

A cholera outbreak had recently swept through London, killing almost 15,000. Burial space was non-existent; as little as 300 acres had been allocated for the capital’s needs and space was tight even without an epidemic. During the winter of 1848, the graveyards reached saturation point. With nowhere to bury them, the dead began to pile up; corpses lay stacked beside churches, giving off an unholy stench. Recently-interred cadavers were dug up and discarded to make more room, while toxins seeped into the water supplies, increasing the chance of another outbreak. Simply, there was nowhere left to put the dead......

Continues (with pictures) here: http://www.darkroastedblend.com/2013/06/london-necropolis-railway.html
 
I bet both places have a caretaker who dresses up as a ghost or monster to scare away snoopers.
 
The Mysterious Dome Homes marching into the Sea: Before & After

For many years, these bizarre buildings on the isolated southern tip of Marco Island in Cape Romano, Florida, were a bit of a mystery. Some locals and abandoned explorers thought it might have been the community home belonging to a secret cult while other rumours went as far as claiming they had been left behind by extra terrestrials. Today the domes are being claimed by the sea, marching inches further into their watery grave each day. But thanks to a local news site, Coastal Breeze, the mystery of the space age structures has finally been uncovered…

The Cape Romano homes are no more extra terrestrial than the alien-looking fish swimming around them today in the waters. A holiday home built in 1980 by a retired independent oil producer, Bob Lee, trying to fill his time with ambitious DIY projects, the houses was ahead of its time, self-sustaining, and solar-powered.


Full story and pics:
http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/06/1 ... ore-after/
 
That's great but I was even more taken by the story linked beneath it:

"Bursting with nature’s overgrowth, the only humans to walk Varosha’s streets are the occasional Turkish soldiers on routine patrols looking for trespassers. They are authorized to imprison or even execute anyone they may find. For this reason, photographs of Varosha are rare to come by."

The Abandoned Resort that is Disintegrating in the Sunlight

:)
 
JamesWhitehead said:
That's great but I was even more taken by the story linked beneath it:

"Bursting with nature’s overgrowth, the only humans to walk Varosha’s streets are the occasional Turkish soldiers on routine patrols looking for trespassers. They are authorized to imprison or even execute anyone they may find. For this reason, photographs of Varosha are rare to come by."

The Abandoned Resort that is Disintegrating in the Sunlight

:)

Last holiday to Cyprus one of the trips was to the abandoned city of Famagusta, or rather as close as you can go... Unfortunately I chose the trip into the Trodos Mountains instead :/
 
Loads of pics here:
The Crumbling Chaos of Abandoned Amusement Parks

Even in the best of times, amusement parks are chaotic, occasionally ugly, and full of danger. But when they are abandoned, they become tragic too. Here are some of the most incredible and sad portraits of fun zones that have gone to seed.
http://io9.com/the-crumbling-chaos-of-a ... -514682250

Gulliver's Kingdom is a classic :shock:
 
McAvennie_ said:
I thought we had a general 'Abandoned Places' thread somewhere but maybe not...

Anyway, finally got round to visiting the 'ghost town' of Vieux Goussainville yesterday. Was interesting but a bit of a let down. Basically, when Charles de Gaulle airport expanded the village found itself under the flight path and practically everybody upped sticks and moved on to a new settlement about one mile down the road - although still pretty much under the flight path...

I'd say about 60-70% of the remaining buildings are abandoned and bricked up which does make for a very curious place to visit, however the other 30-40% are either occupied or are being reclaimed - thus, during my visit to a supposed 'ghost town' I ended up seeing more cars passing by and white vans of weekend renovators than I'd see in my own very inhabited village back home in the UK.

The abandoned church and ruined Château were pretty cool and late at night or perhaps on a weekday it may seem a bit more otherworld or creepy - my biggest fear while strolling around was the numerous graffiti tags and threats of violence to intruders from the 'neuf-cinq' gangs. :shock:

Gallery of pics, craftily taken to accentuate the scale of abandonment... 8)

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10151609271236352.1073741827.579136351&type=1&l=9f821e213f

Messy Nessy just went there too -

http://www.messynessychic.com/2013/07/0 ... host-town/

Responsible for the abandonment of almost 150 properties in the village, the airport authorities were forced by decree to buy the abandoned houses and look after them. It had probably not been taken into account that Goussainville’s Renaissance church, Saint-Pierre-Saint-Paul was ranked as a historic monument along with all of the buildings within its perimeter. Of the 144 houses, the airport acquired 80.

With no option to demolish them, they were walled up and despite the agreement, left to decay.

There is no peace to be found in this seemingly picturesque suburban village. Upon arrival, you will be greeted with the screeching of airplane jets. Not more than a minute will pass before the sounds of chirping birds is eclipsed. You’ll have to raise your voice to finish your sentence.
 
From the Crumbling Chaos link... quite brilliantly surreal:

wtftrexsmaller_zps7cdf64e2.jpg
 
Ah poor thing - he's not even going to be able to get up again with those ickle arms.
 
How about an abandoned building story with a happy ending.

In the 1950s-80s, real estate in Downtown Baltimore went begging, neglect and abandonment were common fates for structures, even landmarks.

One woman, Rose Perkins, bought many of these buildings, and made what profit she could, but no maintainance was on the agenda. She also borrowed against the properties, to second and third mortgages.

When she died, her estate was so tangled, it was unsettled for years, and her considerable holdings stood mostly vacant.

One of her investments was the Brexton Building, a hideous Gothic pile that was Baltimore's answer to the Dakota in NYC. It was in bad shape when it was stranded as part of the estate, a strange, trapezoidal design that used every square inch of the lot-land was precious then.

Standing empty didn't help things, and the fact that there was no place for parking, or even a dumpster was a drawback. Several landlords with holdings in the area chipped in a million dollars to fix the roof and stave off collapse, still it was empty.

Finally, it was repurposed as a hotel catering to patients of Johns Hopkins and their families. Refurbished, it's open for business after close to thirty years of abandonment and vacancy.

Steven King could have bought it for a business headquarters, and felt right at home. If this place is no haunted, no place is, a lot of very ugly stuff happened there.

Now, there is mercy and healing there. Happy ending?
 
I have found the website for that building, including it's history here: http://www.brextonhotel.com/historic-baltimore-hotel.php

Interesting to not the connection with Wallis Simpson as there is also a connection with and abandoned building here in Ipswich.
The council building used to be in a bizarre faux castle close to the centre of the town. They then built themselves a fancy new building and moved there leaving the castle to rot. The problem is that the building is listed so no one wants to take on the work and the historic buildings types are getting very funny about what can be done to it. The connection with Wallis Simpson is that it is where she filed for a divorce
Link to the building here, http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...-county-hall-wrecked-drug-addicts-tramps.html
 
Seems to skip over the years it was a cheap place to live for people on the way down.

I was glad to see it refurbished, I lived in Mt. Vernon for many years, and the near saturation crime, herds of homeless bums and general decay was sad to behold.

Now, the area is rebounding as crime declines and the vagrants are going elsewhere-they killed the American urban downtown by making life too miserable to handle. When you have to dodge five panhandlers(many of them very aggressive) to the block, skirt around puddles of urine, chicken bones, fast food wrappers and piles of human waste to get into your building, it takes a toll.

Last time I was there, things were much brighter.

Place is still Gothic, though!
 
sherbetbizarre said:
The Creepy World of Abandoned Asylums

The abandoned asylum, soaked in tragically crazy ghosts, is a staple of the horror genre. And for good reason. These real-life decaying asylums will give you the shivers.
http://io9.com/the-creepy-world-of-aban ... -817071572
Well creepy. Nice find. I wonder what happened to the people who were interned in those places. They say ... that some of 'emmm ... still roams them 'alls.
 
Haunted and Abandoned Amusement Park Opens to Public

Taking the creepiness of abandoned locations to a whole new level, West Virginia's Lake Shawnee Amusement Park is not just dilapidated, rusty and run-down - it's also allegedly haunted.

Way back in 1783, a band of Shawnee Indians massacred a family of white settlers at Clover Bottom (now known as Shawnee Lake), brutally killing and scalping two children and burning another at the stake. The land, which was also a Native American burial ground, was bought sometime in the 1920s... and turned into an amusement park. Now there's a brilliant idea!

Not surprisingly, the Lake Shawnee Amusement Park went on to become the sight of some pretty horrific events, tragic accidents that resulted in the drowing of a young boy and the death of a young girl. The park was shut down in 1966 and has since been studied by many paranormal investigators, who all claim that the abandoned park is a hotbed of paranormal activity. The voices of children are heard and swings have been known to move all by themselves, freaky occurences that have led to Lake Shawnee Amusement Park being named one of the most terrifying places in America by the Travel Channel, and one of the ten most haunted places in the world by ABC.

Normally closed off to the public, the still-standing amusement park is opening up for tours beginning on October 25th, which will run through Halloween night. Tours begin at dusk, and all attendees are encouraged to bring their own flashlights. If you're interested in a haunted excursion that's sure to provide chills and thrills, you can call 304-487-1819 or 304-921-1580, for more information!
http://www.fearnet.com/news/news-articl ... ens-public
 
Spudrick68 said:
I can't recall if I've posted this before. Apologies if I have.

Nice - and I like the fact that the photographer hasn't dressed up the scenes. (I strongly suspect that a battered old teddy bear and a random family photograph circa 1932 is part of the standard kit for many photographers of architectural decay.)

There's a great line in there though:

'The buildings built in the previous century are a thing of the past.'

Yup.
 
You know, I had to think for a second when I came upon Empty Organ Room right after Military Hospital. :lol:
 
More like the 38 most ham-fisted photoshopped HDR images ever created. And Eilean Donan castle most certainly isn't 'abandoned'.
 
They don't say it is abandoned,
Located in the Highlands of Scotland, the Eilean Donan island sat abandoned until 1911, when it was restored by a prominent retired military officer.
 
Monstrosa said:
They don't say it is abandoned,
Located in the Highlands of Scotland, the Eilean Donan island sat abandoned until 1911, when it was restored by a prominent retired military officer.

Well, they do.
See the big headline 'The 38 Most Haunting Abandoned Places On Earth. For Some Reason, I Can't Look Away...'.
 
I think the Pripyat photographs were included on a link I posted some time back - along with an expression of surprise that people actually go on urban exploration trips to Chernobyl. To be honest, I can see the attraction - and might be tempted myself, if I had some sort of guarantee that I wouldn't come back looking like the Ready Brek kid

Ronnor said:
More like the 38 most ham-fisted photoshopped HDR images ever created. And Eilean Donan castle most certainly isn't 'abandoned'.

Really? There are a couple of dodgy ones I'd probably hedge my bets on, and some of the others are over-saturated - and/or heavy on the 'drama' settings (par for the course with many UE photographs I'm afraid) - but on the whole they aren't the most fiddled with I've ever seen.

Canfranc Rail Station looks fantastic.

Does anyone read Russian? I really want to know what's going on with the house in the sea covered in Pelicans, about half way down this page.
 
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