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Public Buildings With Oppressive Atmospheres

asparagus

Junior Acolyte
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Nov 8, 2015
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I've done a search but not found this topic exactly, so apologies if I am repeating an earlier thread...

There are often mentions in these discussion boards of private houses which have a 'bad' atmosphere, in one room or throughout the building. However the worst atmosphere I have ever encountered was in the church of St Julian in Norwich, not the church itself, but the large 'cell' attached to the side where the anchorite Julian is supposed to have lived. I have visited the cell on two occasions, a couple of years apart, both in spring or summer. Both times I felt a deeply disturbing atmosphere in the cell and it took all my control not to run out of there as fast as I could. The sheer intensity of the experience was shocking, as I don't consider myself psychic or particularly sensitive to such things. On the second occasion my wife was with me and she too felt that the cell had a horrible feeling about it.

(The church and cell were medieval, but the church was destroyed by a bomb in the Second World War and rebuilt on the same site. The cell was demolished at the Reformation but rebuilt with the rest of the church in 1953; however there is disagreement as to whether it is in the correct spot).

Of course I know there can be simple explanations for these things. For all I know, there might have been machinery working in the neighbourhood producing low-level vibrations which affected me - I didn't check on either occasion. But the church to which the cell is attached felt perfectly OK.

I wondered if anyone had been to this place, and if so what did they experience? I'd be just as interested in negative results as positive, so if someone found it perfectly pleasant that's still a worthwhile thing to know. More generally it would be good to start a debate about any public places in which people have experienced these kinds of feelings. Usually on these discussion boards, if a house is talked about with a disturbing atmosphere you are never told where the house is (quite rightly), and even if you did know you could never test it out for yourself. But if people gave their accounts of public places which can be visited by anyone, then any person who was interested could go there and (making due allowance for expectations) see how they reacted to it and report back if they wished. Who knows, perhaps a few particularly consistent buildings could be identified in which many or most people experience feelings of revulsion or terror. If so they could be checked out to see if any factors apply which would explain this.

Just a thought.
 
plan.jpg

Is the cell in the strange round untopped mini-spire?
2015-11-15 18.56.58.png
 
Round buildings...all sounds can be cancelled-out due to antiphase reflection, especially in an enclosed dimension like this one....makes for a very deadened/oppressive atmosphere, affecting both your hearing and general propioception.

Except maybe the cell is at the opposite, rectangular, end?
 
No, the cell is one of the small rectangular buildings off the main church.

The link below is a page which includes a photo of the church which shows the position of the cell.

britainexpress.com/counties/norfolk/norwich/st-julian.htm
 
I can offer nothing new on the specific case mentioned (other than the usual theories / explanations regarding ultra low frequency sound / vibrations etc.), but I can expand on the discussion of other places that have a similar feeling - one of my own (and my wife's) experience, and one from my mum's.

My mum spent a lot of her childhood holidays in Scotland (her mum was Scottish), and she vividly remembers one place where she had a really strong reaction that she didn't want to be there, to the point that she actually fled the place and ended up waiting for her parents to finish and come out. The place was Doune Castle in central Scotland, and at the time (which probably would have been the mid-'50's / early '60's) entry had to be gained by getting a huge wrought iron key from a gatekeeper, and basically having a free run of the place. From what my mum has said about the place it wasn't a feeling of sadness, or horror, or fear that forced her out, it was just the feeling that she shouldn't be there - nothing specific, just that she shouldn't be there.

For me there is one place that stands out to me as having a really frightening atmosphere, and that is Bodmin Gaol. My wife and I took our first holiday to Cornwall, and on the way home to the midlands decided to break the journey in Bodmin, and as we are both a little bit obsessed with odd places, crime, and historical buildings in general we thought a look around the gaol would be a light way to finish the trip.

We were wrong.

Everything about the place was a bit strange, and probably helped promote the feelings we experienced. When we asked to look around (which you have to do in the bar), the barstaff seemed surprised that anybody wanted to. We paid up, and were basically told to go through an unmarked door and just wander around. We seemed to be the only people in the (fairly big and empty) place, and it was poorly lit, damp, and chilly compared to the early July temperatures outside. If my memory serves the place had only relatively recently been opened up for visitors (this would have been in 2008), and some of the exhibits were a little bit, how shall I put it, inexpertly executed. In fact, some of the mannequins looked not a little bit like either the ventriloquist dummy from Magic, or like Jigsaw from the Saw franchise. Anyway, whatever it was that caused the feelings I can honestly say I've never felt the same way in a place that I did there - and my wife was pretty much the same. It felt like we were in some kind of horror film where all the dummies could come to life, or where the cell doors would swing shut behind you when you stepped into them. This, along with the fact that I had a nagging feeling that nobody actually knew that we were down there, made for a very uncomfortable time. I have never been so happy to hear a small child running around as it meant that there was somebody else in the place (and meant that there was another softer and slower target available for anything that wanted to do me and the mrs harm ;) ). I was happy to get out of there, I can tell you.

Slightly disappointing epilogue to the above - we went back again summer just gone, and the atmosphere was completely different. It was a lot busier, so I guess that probably accounts for a lot of it, but it was odd that both of us felt exactly the same way about the place originally, and arrived at the feelings independently.
 
However the worst atmosphere I have ever encountered was in the church of St Julian in Norwich, not the church itself, but the large 'cell' attached to the side where the anchorite Julian is supposed to have lived.

I think it's our very own Coastal James who has a connection with Julian of Norwich.
 
I have never been so happy to hear a small child running around as it meant that there was somebody else in the place (and meant that there was another softer and slower target available for anything that wanted to do me and the mrs harm ;) ).

...And later you find you were the only people who'd been in there all day?
 
Not quite, but we did look out of a window into an area which (as far as we knew) was inaccessible, and saw a couple of people out there. There was no 'Ghosts of the Petit Trianon' anachronistic clothing here though, more's the pity - I seem to remember one of them being a dude with long hair and a beard, wearing a biker jacket and some kind of rock band t-shirt - but still in a place that we couldn't work out how they had got there vOv
 
Anyone else felt a bad atmosphere at Gatwick airport? Specifically the South Terminal? I've been through there a hundred times and I can't stand the feeling of the place.
 
I can't explain it, but the basement of the old church in Forest Home Cemetery (in Milwaukee, WI). I got down there to check it out and all I can say is that I had the feeling that something "lived" there and I was to get out immediately.

I can't really be more specific, but that's what went through my mind as I walked through one doorway in there. I've never felt quite like that before. It felt like I was invading something's home.
 
There's probably not much chance that non-Texan members of the forum will visit this place, but Presidio La Bahia has an...well I don't know if it's an "oppressive" atmosphere exactly, but it frightened me enough that I couldn't bring myself to walk around the back of the building. Just couldn't. Like a sort of scary force field that I couldn't get past. I'm one of those foolhardy types who jumps to investigate something eerie (in other words, I'd be the first to die in a horror movie) so I was disappointed in myself, but it was just impossible.

Also, we were standing in the field nearby - since I was too chicken to go round the building - but my flesh started to creep and I found myself becoming afraid to look at the field. Turned out my companion felt the same way and at that point we both agreed we had to leave immediately. In retrospect, the field we were standing in was likely the site of the massacre. Oh, the irony.

Anyway, if any of you ever happen to be trudging around the wilds of south Texas, La Bahia is worth a visit.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presidio_La_Bahía
 
I've done a search but not found this topic exactly, so apologies if I am repeating an earlier thread...

Yup, we do have threads on oppressive atmospheres but as you say, not ones specifically about public buildings.

I'll have a look for the earlier threads in case they're of interest.

Edit - Here's one - 'Places that inspire fear'.

it has links to a couple more too.
 
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The Bullring in Birmingham. I find the atmosphere and the area around the link bridge and what's left of the original centre(now TK Maxx) very melancholy and sometimes oppressive. I used to feel very unsettled when walking the bridge between the old Bull Ring(demolished in the early 2000s) and New Street Station/The Pallasades centre. For some reason, vague thoughts of isolation, fire and a panicking mass of people used to flash through my mind. I've been there numerous times since re-development and I still get the same creeping feelings around that area.
 
Or West Bromwich - I've never visited a more desolate, depressing High Street than that one, and I was born and raised in Coventry! That shopping centre (might be called the Queen Centre?) is so grey and drab it feels like a zombie apocalypse would bring a little light relief. Then you step outside and think it might actually have happened ...​
 
I grew up around Birmingham and the whole city feels like that to me.

I've gathered that residents tend to have a love/hate relationship with Birmingham. I have on online friend there who swears he will never leave his beloved city, despite how much he loathes it. :)

Visit Dundee, especially on a Sunday morning. I dare you.

For the less well-traveled among us (namely me), what is it about Dundee?
 
It is not just buildings, but small parts of buildings that can gerenerate a creepy atmosphere.

I once managed to drag my parents to a country pub. We were sat looking at a window with its curtains drawn. I should point out at this point that neither of us was tipsy (my parents are somewhat abstemious and I had to follow suit), and that my dad is something of a down-to-earth no-nonsense type, not given to the `supernatural` or banging on about `atmospheres` and so on.

It was, however, my dad who was the first to pint out that the curtained window area somehow `generated` a feeling of being ..baleful..eerie...sinister. There was nothing special about the window, although perhaps it was a little old fashioned. It had one of those - I don't know the right word here - protruding boxed frames, so that the curtains, which had a floral design, were set ahead slightly.

Neither of us could pinpoint why the object (and it was only focused on the object) suggested such a strong mood: was it an effect of the lighting, or did it somehow remind us of something? Most odd.

(FYI: the pub was the Stork Hotel which is located in the Glasson Dock area near Lancaster. We were at the far left of the building, facing the river. I have never bothered to do a search on the history of the place - what occured didn't strike me as being a `haunting`, but more like some peculiar psychological effect).
 
I live in Morecambe. Even though Glasson Dock is not far from 'civilsation' the whole area feels a little eerie to me and very isolated.
 
I've only been to Coventry once - and unfortunately that was enough for me. I can't remember which shopping centre I went into with an ex (it was over ten years ago), but we immediately felt this awful oppressiveness, and we just didn't feel right wandering round. We left pretty quickly and both felt much better outside. I do remember the inside of the centre being fairly dated and we had to descend steps, but that's all that comes to mind.

I didn't know until years later that the place was effectively carpet bombed during WWII, so that's immediately where my head jumps to when I think about the atmosphere we experienced.
 
One place that gave me the screaming horrors, was the old concrete Blackfriars Centre in Worcester. It was torn down in the early 90s if I remember correctly. That place never felt right and as a small kid, I used to dread being taken on shopping trips there. I was always bribed with a visit to Zodiac Toys though :)

There's just something about sixties concrete shopping centres that I find equally fascinating and unsettling.
 
Not public buildings, exactly, but I spend some time in a building that makes me remarkably calm. It's a 60s office block and has no right to be so warm and attractive. It's stuck on an industrial estate and looks horrible from the outside but as soon as I step inside I can feel calmness wash over me.

This is in stark contrast to a modern office building I was in earlier today that felt awful. It was dead despite the constant humming of the air con and the to and fro of lots people. But the people looked robotic and the humming sounded more like there was something ominous occurring in the walls. I started to feel sick and cut short the meeting I was having. Luckily Storm Callum was giving its best shot outside and that seemed to clear the heavy atmosphere from my body as soon I was out in it.

I'm going to the lovely building on Monday before going back to my equally oddly comforting work place. Roll on Monday (and I've never said that before!)
 
This lovely building I mention? Yep. Going to be working in it, full-time, from Monday. Promotion, lovely-jubbly!!

Would Maintenance object to your burning sage and sprinkling holy water around the place? Or at least putting happy-meds in the water cooler to brighten up the people...
 
We cycled there from Lancaster and had lunch. One of the staff, a young woman, spontaneously told us 'It's still the 1950s round here!'
Maybe that's a recommendation?
 
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