I was looking at my list I had compiled and thought it wasn't too bad a year, but then I went over my maps to double check and it at least doubled in size.
The two biggest losses this year were actually places I never made it to - the Redcar steelworks blast furnace which was brought down last month, and Dalton Mills in the northern town of Keighley which was destroyed in an enormous fire back in the summer. There were definitely more places that went this year I never made it to, but I can't remember them off the top of my head.
1. Magnet Leisure Centre, Maidenhead
This place was a brief flavour of the month tourist spot back at the very end of 2021 and the start of this year, it was fairly local to me so I went there in January to see what was what and had a good time. It is now stripped and being demolished as I type, after the connecting footbridge joining it to the next door car park was demolished a couple of months back.
2. Cwmgwili Primary School, Cross Hands
One of my absolute favourite finds ever, I spotted this on the way back from another trip to Wales last year and made time to factor it in on a trip later that year. I was expecting a smashed up, ruined school as it was located on a main arterial road however it was a completely unmodernised time capsule of pure natural decay. It's now been renovated and a nursery school is looking to move in.
3. Westwood Hotel, Oxford
A very very local spot to me, a COVID victim, which closed in 2020 halfway through a renovation. Nothing fancy however it would have been a crime to not check it out. It was demolished for a new housing development in an extremely expensive part of the city.
4. Fisons Fertiliser Factory, Ipswich
This incredible factory - the first purpose built fertiliser factory in the country, and constructed almost entirely of wood and iron - suffered a devastating fire a few years ago but the remains hung around until earlier this year when it was finally demolished.
5. Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service HQ, Derby
Now partially demolished and being converted into many apartments, this grand building and associated other buildings was once a private residence but in later life was used by Derbyshire Fire & Rescue Service as their headquarters and recruit training centre.
6. Bayer Waste Water Treatment Plant, Hauxton
The waste water treatment plant is all that was left of the former Bayer Agriscience plant in Hauxton, a place which was demolished around 2012 but absolutely nobody bothered to do. The waste water plant was utilised during the demolition of the main site across the road to help with the cleanup, and after they finished flattening it left the treatment plant behind, until this year. The last thing I remember seeing of it was a drone shot with an excavator driven halfway through one of the settling tanks.
7. Servo Computer Services/Darley Lodge, Matlock
Once a quite grand private house, the building was bought and converted into the offices for an IT company, which resulted in the complete bastardisation of the interior including adding drop ceilings everywhere and roller security shutters behind every nice window. Now it has been renovated.
8. Westwood School, Blithbury
A pretty sad school, composed of a number of mainly long wooden buildings. It was trashed and ruined but had a certain charm about it, although by the time it came to demolishing it I doubt there was much left.
9. Fibbersley Park Primary School, Willenhall
Willenhall is a seriously deprived dump of a Midlands town tacked on to the greater Birmingham area, it's one of the least pleasant places I've been but had this beautiful Victorian primary school in the middle of it. It was a case of it looking a hell of a lot better on the outside as the inside was completely gutted. It's now been partly demolished and renovated into apartments.
10. ABP Abbatoir, Bathgate
Closed since 2005, this abbatoir was seriously bashed around but it was, weirdly, somewhere I had always wanted to see. Totally demolished earlier this year.
11. Queen Street First Bus Garage, Colchester
Normally I'd never have looked twice at a place like this, however it housed within it a genuine classic Routemaster double decker bus, which was taken there as part of an 'urban art' exhibition held in the building after it closed. Not long after I went, the bus was removed and it's now been demolished.
12. Strathmartine Hospital, Dundee
Bits and pieces of Strathmartine Hospital had been demolished for years previously, as contractors had nibbled away at various buildings over time, but it wasn't until this year that the last nail was driven into it's coffin. It was a weird place that was very, very well sealed on my one visit there and what was accessible was dangerously rotten and unstable, so I didn't take many photos at all, and never got the chance to go back.
13. Globe Mill 2, Slaithwaite
A former spinning mill which took me numerous attempts to crack. One of a pair of mills split by a road, the much larger Globe Mill 1 had a long-running amazing renovation completed in 2021 and afterwards Globe Mill 2 began it's own renovation, which hopefully won't take as long!
14. Wall Hill Mill, Dobcross
A somewhat disappointing mill in that most of the original structures had been demolished years ago and replaced by a large warehouse used by Mercedes Benz as a truck maintenance depot. The non-warehouse bits were demolished this year and it's now being used by a cash-and-carry wholesaler.
15. Edleston Road County Primary School, Crewe
Another really really nice Victorian school, which was another favourite find of mine from a number of years ago. Part demolition and renovation was completed this year, it never really got a lot of foot traffic which I was pleasantly surprised about.
16. Market Harborough District Hospital
A small regional hospital serving the small town in it's name, everything here was demolished apart from the War Memorial around the front entrance which was encorporated into the new build.
17. ICI Imagedata, Brantham
ICI Imagedata was a leftover from what was once one enormous ICI plastics factory that went by various confusing names over the years. A large part of it, latterly known as Wardle Storeys, was demolished around five years ago, leaving a few active buildings with the ICI Imagedata building abandoned behind it. It closed at the same time as the Wardle Storeys factory did, however when another company called ITW Imagedata purchased part of the site they never reused the building. It's now just a large plot of wasteground waiting for housing to be built on top.
18. MCA Coastguard Training Centre, Christchurch
Another place that never really got much footfall from explorers, but the local youths had had one hell of a time here breaking everything. Demolition permission was granted late last year with the council very eager to clear the site despite there being no plans for the land.
19. Plaza Cinema, Port Talbot
The long abandoned Plaza Cinema in Port Talbot, Wales which closed in 1999 has been completely renovated and reopened as a community centre/theatre. It was very very briefly accessible back in 2017 after being sealed for around a decade, and for once I found myself in the right place at the right time. Shortly afterwards it was sealed again and remained so until renovation began. As far as cinemas go, this was the best one I have ever shot. Unfortunately I didn't take any photos of it's imposing Art Deco facade as it was pouring with rain.
20. IBM/Heritage Country Club, Johnson City NY
I thought I'd end with a Stateside one, that I don't think would be mentioned otherwise. The Heritage Country Club was originally built for workers of the nearby IBM plant in Johnson City - which is right now under it's own demolition - and I was lucky enough to see it in 2015 before it got absolutely kicked to shit and tagged up by all the college kids. Demolition began last month and as of now it's all gone.
So that's it, unless I remember or stumble across anything else. It's been a sad year.
order your copy of Access All Areas today!
