The Thread of Abandoned Places

Here in my hometown of Aberystwyth we have a couple of "abandoned" relics from the Second World War.
Overlooking the Harbour entrance is a Pillbox/Machine gun post, presumably manned by the Home Guard.
Pillbox_(Type_Fw3-24),_Aberystwyth_Harbour_-_geograph.org.uk_-_72390.jpg


We are also home to the National Library of Wales, which sits halfway up a hill, overlooking the town, during ww2, they built bunkers/tunnels beneath it to store their most valuable possessions, and at one point many of the UK's most valuable pieces of art, and the Crown Jewels were stored there.

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We have plenty of more traditional relics of the past, such as a medieval Castle, part of Edward 1st's "Ring of Iron" around North Wales, an Iron Age Hill Fort, who's trenches in which the walls stood are still visible and so on.

We did also have an intact Tollhouse, from the days of Toll's to use the roads entering/leaving down, built in 1771, sadly, the thieving swine in Cardiff stole it, I think in the 1970's, dismantling it brick by brick and rebuilt it in the Saint Fagan's National Museum of Wales.
Tollhouse

It's very nice, I am sure that visitors to Cardiff get to see bits of Ceredigion's heritage, but it would be even nicer if the children and people of Ceredigion didn't have to travel 4 hours south to see their own heritage. :rolleyes:
Sadly, up here its a common theme, the theft of things by Cardiff. When I was growing up we had a world famous International Film Festival, people from down South took over, and immediately moved it to Cardiff, where it seems to have vanished - a generic film festival in a City is probably not quite the same draw as one taking place in a beautiful university town/seaside resort surrounded by hills, where one can go and watch the dolphins play in between films. Another student film festival was snatched by Cardiff recently, and I doubt the Horror film festival will survive long unkidnapped.
Cardiff was even trying to grab the Celtic Challenge, a row boat race between Aberystwyth & Arklow in Ireland, despite the fact that one of the major points of the race is its 80 miles direct line between the two towns, whilst Cardiff to anwhere in Eire would be at the very least 200+ miles, and not remotely a straight line!
 
Abandoned places in Berlin: Abandoned Berlin: Story behind its forgotten places

It might just be me, but among all these abandoned places people have posted photos of or linked to articles and webpages on, I find the themepark fairground rides and the holiday resort cottages the most weird. I think it is because it is easier for me to imagine them once full of life.
 
Caledfwlch said:
Here in my hometown of Aberystwyth we have a couple of "abandoned" relics from the Second World War.
Overlooking the Harbour entrance is a Pillbox/Machine gun post, presumably manned by the Home Guard.
Click to expand...

We have so many of these around my way that nobody pays them a blind bit of attention. Pillboxes, anti-tank obstacles, machine gun emplacements etc. I live along the stop line.

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And in this one you can just see this anti-tank pyramids on the left behind the burnt out shelter and bagged corpse*.
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*not really a corpse, it's a damaged statue.
 
Of all the WW2 remnants, I find the underground bunkers of the "Auxiliary Units" to be the spookiest.
Not much seems to be known about them - a TV Documentary team managed to find one member who still lived near where he was during the War, he was a Farmer, so not allowed to join up to the Regular Forces, as food production was vital, and he showed the crew the Bunker he and other local AU members would have used had the Germans invaded.
None of them expected to live more than a couple of days after an invasion, they were essentially a heavily armed, pre-placed Resistance Force whos mission was to slow down the Invasion Forces.
 
There is an underground bunker just like that in Orpington, Kent underneath the railway line embarkment. It was the command centre for the whole of the south east railways and has huge blast doors. Unfortunately, it also has asbestos and no one is allowed inside any longer. There are photos of inside on the web though taken in the late 1990's. RSG: Sites: Orpington - Southern Railway Control Centre
 
I wonder how many bunkers there are in the UK? Never mind tunnels. To start with, there are over 1,500 underground ROC posts spread across the UK. They were constructed in a grid pattern so the spread of a nuclear fallout could be measured. They cost between £5,000 - £20,000 each to build in the 60s (depending on who you ask, though some are larger than others). Even if they did all cost the minimum £5,000, that's over £100,000,000 for them all in today's money, and thankfully they were never needed. Most were decommissioned about 20 years ago, and none are in use for their intended purpose any more.
 
http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/canfranc-station-spain/index.html :

Deep in the Aragon river valley, close to Spain's border with France, lies the abandoned ruin of Canfranc International Station.
Once one of Europe's largest rail hubs, opulent Canfranc opened in style in 1928, with an inauguration ceremony attended by the then-king of Spain and the then-President of the French Republic.
During World War II, Canfranc was a hive of activity and intrigue, witnessing arrests, espionage and gold trafficking, but by 1970, the station had closed its doors.
Today it's a sleepy spot, popular with photographers thanks to its atmospheric exterior and striking setting beneath the snow-capped Pyrenees.
 
Allegra said:
A grand ruin on the Spanish-French border :
...
During World War II, Canfranc was a hive of activity and intrigue, witnessing arrests, espionage and gold trafficking, but by 1970, the station had closed its doors.
Today it's a sleepy spot, popular with photographers thanks to its atmospheric exterior and striking setting beneath the snow-capped Pyrenees.
Click to expand...

Great one! I adore the Pyrenees, and what went on there during WWII is extraordinary. Even cooler, many of the participants, having been involved in smuggling both before and after the war, never talked about what they did during it, so we aren't ever going to know most of what happened in those rugged mountains.
 
Dave said:
Abandoned places in Berlin: Abandoned Berlin: Story behind its forgotten places
Click to expand...

Roberto Rossellini managed to get access to Berlin in 1947-48, when he filmed the extraordinary "Germany Year Zero." That was the third installment in a trilogy, the first being "Rome Open City" (1945) and "Paisan" (1946). Taken together, they are the most moving portrait of post-war Europe I've ever seen. The places there were of course more destroyed than abandoned, but the feeling is much the same as the excellent pictures in this thread.
 
Trainspotting in the Shumkovo railway cemetery

“It’s like you go several decades into the past, especially when you get inside a steam train. There are all these levers, which someone touched, you get this feeling. You really feel that there are fascists and the Red Army are running just outside the window..."
 
Here's one from me recently. Hulme Hippodrome, Manchester:

hulme-hippodrome-main-stage-theatre-from-circle.jpg


Definitely the most colourful disused building I've been inside! Next door to it is the Hulme Playhouse (known as the NIA Centre in the 1990s):

hulme-playhouse-from-circle.jpg


They're both listed buildings - one of the reasons is the unusual configuration of having one theatre next to another.

It's such a shame to see buildings like this decaying.
 
Loved the pictures of the theatres, which reminded me of The Palace Theatre in Plymouth - I drive passed virtually every weeks and never really thought of posting it.

It is a fantastic building, listed but abandoned. Following it's long life as a theatre it was changed into a nightclub, with only a few area used, passages, changing rooms all hidden away...

It was closed after a drugs bust and has been deteriorating ever since.

Toward the end of 2015, a huge renovation job started, but it seems to have stalled and the building is silent once again.



It is also alleged to be haunted.
 
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