Abandoned Education & Leisure Sites

“Whatever the cost of our libraries, the price is cheap compared to that of an ignorant nation.” ― Walter Cronkite

Urbex: Pleasure Island, Cleethorpes – December 2016

Pleasure Island Family Theme Park originally opened on 27th May 1993 on the site of the former Cleethorpes Zoo. During its construction in the 1980’s the original owners of the site went into receivership and the theme park which was still under construction was purchased by Robert Gibb the managing director of Flamingo Land. In 2010 one of the daughters of Robert Gibb who had taken responsibility of managing Pleasure Island took control of the site under the name Dewarsavile Enterprises Ltd. The Theme Park closed permanently at the end of the 2016 season with the majority of the rides being put up for auction…

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Urbex: Wellington Rooms aka The Irish Centre, Liverpool – August 2016

This, currently derelict building, is a Neo-classical building built in the centre of Liverpool. Construction began in 1815 and was completed a year later under control of the Architect Edmund Aikin. Originally designed as a subscription assembly room for the Wellington Club it was used to house exclusive parties and ballroom dances for the wealthy and upper class…

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Urbex: A derelict swimming pool, United Kingdom – June 2016

A derelict swimming pool, part of a larger estate, the rest still being well maintained. I do love a good swimming pool especially when it remains relatively untouched. No more information, for now

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Urbex: Holly Lodge Girls College, Liverpool – March 2016

Holly Lodge Girls’ College was an abandoned building formerly used as a school for female students until they upgraded to new premises. The old buildings were disused for several years and briefly functioned as a film set for both hospital and police station scenes as evidenced with some of the set designs..

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Urbex: The Theatre Royal, Hyde, Manchester – March 2016

Built in 1902 the now disused Theatre Royale located on Corporation Street, Hyde, Manchester has a nicely preserved auditorium and an excellent projection booth full of 3 large projectors.

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Urbex: The Forum Cinema, Liverpool – March 2016

The abandoned Forum Cinema which was primarily owned and operated by ABC Cinemas, first opened in the 1930’s and was known to be one of the finest “super cinemas” of the era…

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Urbex: Kirkless College aka Huddersfield Infirmary, Huddersfield – December 2015

Built in 1831 and later expanded in 1902 the Former Huddersfield Infirmary which later became Kirklees Colledge now lays abandoned in its central location…

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$The Crescent Cinema Pontefract$

Urbex: The Crescent Cinema, Pontefract, West Yorkshire – September & October 2015

The Abandoned Cresent Cinema in Pontefract opened 2nd November 1926 and operated until it closed in 1993. Originally the Cinema had a 2 tiered layout with room to accommodate 1190 customers but this was later scaled back to a single level auditorium in 1971..

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Urbex: Buxton Crescent, Buxton – January 2015

The abandoned, well under renovation now, Buxton Crescent was erected between 1779 and 1789 based upon plans by John Carr of York. Originally created to provide high quality accommodation it became quite the centrepiece of the town and continued to serve its purpose as a hotel and assembly rooms throughout the majority of its history…

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Urbex: Buxton Natural Mineral Water Baths, Buxton – January 2015

The abandoned Buxton Natural Mineral Water Baths. These Baths were originally founded by the Romans but were entirely rebuilt by the Corporation and officially re-opened by Sir Humphry D. Rolleston President of the royal college of physicians on May 17th 1924 they then closed in the 1970’s and have been empty ever since…

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Urbex: St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – May 2015 Revisit 6

Briefly, the abandoned St Joseph’s College, Upholland is a former Roman Catholic seminary, situated at Walthew Park, Upholland, Lancashire, England. The foundation of the large building were laid in April 1880 and college was opened in 1883. The buildings have recently been deconsecrated following the announced closure of the College which saw the last students leave in 1992.

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Urbex: The Twin Morgue, Belgium – May 2015

What’s better than a nice disused morgue… well two of them 🙂

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Urbex: The Little Miracles, Belgium – May 2015

The so called “Little Miracles” are a collection of deceased babies stored presumably in formaldehyde, they were supposedly donated for medical research and further examination. Whilst the majority appeared to be normal in appearance there were a handful which featured deformities and most were scared with incision marks where they had received autopsies…

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Urbex: Café Mousel, Luxembourg – May 2015

There’s not a lot to say about the abandoned Café Mousel, an unassuming building which extended at the rear to house a bowling alley, large function room, kitchens, bedrooms and bathrooms for guests upstairs and a bar / cafe area at the front…

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Urbex: Aquapark, Italy – April 2015

Aquapark is an abandoned water park in Italy. Whilst there isn’t much within this large site to photograph we thought it might be a good idea to take a bit of a break in the sunshine and photograph the main water slides whilst on route to another location…

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Urbex: Paragon Hotel, Italy – April 2015

The rather large Paragon Hotel in Italy has been empty for around 10-15 years and is frequently occupied by the homeless. Occupying a pretty central location in a relatively large city, one of its dominating features is the main ballroom which has a huge skylight in the middle. Draped with fabric, the skylight provides a nice diffused light on the white and gold accented room…

Urbex: Blue Chapel Monastery, Italy – April 2015

The Blue Chapel Monastery in Italy sits abandoned and features a bright blue chapel with a very large cross hanging from the ceiling. The chapel itself is the main point of interest in the place as the rest of the building was pretty well stripped back to its concrete and brick construction…

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Urbex: Mono Orphanage aka Crying Baby Hospital, Italy – April 2015

The first stop on our Italian Urbex tour the abandoned Mono Orphanage aka Crying Baby Hospital. Despite the beds being gone there were still plenty of things to shoot here including a couple of classrooms complete with children’s stools and desks and a medical room with a dentist type chair and several bottles of unknown liquids…

Urbex: St Josephs Seminary Upholland, Lancashire, United Kingdom – April 2015 Revisit 5

Despite my numerous previous visits to St Josephs Seminary due to a combination of alarms and not having a clue where they were the infamous row of sinks had eluded me. On this visit however, we were pretty blessed to find a fault on the alarm system which appeared to have disabled the sirens, we were in luck!

Urbex: An Abandoned Bulgarian Theatre, Bulgaria – March 2015

The only other decent location we had on our list in Bulgaria… this nice little decaying theatre which sits abandoned in a small town way out in the sticks. From what I understand the theatre was part of the soviet regime and used to show films from the state but after the fall of the iron curtain the Theatre which also acted as a cinema closed and has since fallen into disrepair…

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