234 Comments Posted by rich_edwards79

The light fitting is a late 60s / early 70s Scandinavian design. It looks quite out of place with the pastel colours and cheap sofas. I can imagine this place as a real Austin Powers pad at one time complete with leather couches, shagpile, and every shade of brown under the sun :-)

It does always amaze me how you get into these places though, especially as I'm assuming you're carrying heavy photographic equipment too. It's one thing to slip into an abandoned hospital in the dead of night with a digital cam in your pocket but another to access a well-guarded building on an active campus - in broad daylight and with lights, tripods, lenses etc hanging about your person! I'd almost be more worried about being nabbed by a guard, or worse, a cop, than most of the things the building itelf could throw at me once inside...

And your stance on not publicising these places is absolutely the right one. I'm sure Byberry provides a lot of enjoyment to those who hang out there but it would be a tragedy to see *that* fate befall Pennhurst, for instance. Plus surely half the thrill of UE is doing the research and finding places yourself.

Y'know Stacymarie, I'd never even thought of that! I'm sure here in the UK, and depending on the security level of the facility, inmates wear slip-ons or occasionally sandals...

And I can't imagine they were for the staff - screws in Chucks - doesn't quite work somehow!

Silkster, I wonder if this ship has been burnt out at some point - if so that's probably what it's doing here in the boneyard. Looks as though the fire went right down to the waterline - the paint work above would have peeled and melted exposing the superstructure to rapid corrosion, whereas the part that was once underwater was spared and is only now visible because the vessel is being cut up for scrap...

It is weird though to look at the O'Boyle site and see just how much some of the ships have endured (the ferry, the red ship above and the Abram Hewitt have barely changed) whilst others have disintegrated and collapsed and are barely recognisable. And Motts, did you see the big white vessel 'Astoria' - and if so, what the hell was it? I do love the remains of the wooden ships on that site, their skeletons rotted right down to the waterline, and the contrast of the site at low tide, which reveals that in contrast, the steel boats fare much worse below the water than above it.

The red ship is impressive and I agree with Twug, it almost looks as though she could be pumped out and refloated...

Looks like someone finally flipped, tired of marking the days in scratches on the wall, and trashed the place in a fit of frustration...

I remember seeing a documentary about how one of these fireboats was restored, pumps, engines and all - that one was on the Thames in London though.

They really did do things differently back then didn't they...

It definitely looks medical rather than decorative. Particularly when you consider that ambient illumination probably would have been provided by the fluorescent box to the bottom left hand corner of the shot.

Things like this always weird me out.

Cleaned up, that would fetch a bit of money, what with the current craze for those massive retro SMEG fridges in pastel colours just like this one. It would be cool to have the real thing.

These are incredible - and still so shiny. They must weigh an absolute ton... not surprised they were left in situ.

Ummm.... priorities!?!

What I mean is that Anna, you're right, it's as incongruous here as a snowball in the desert. You'd think that trying to make fat people thin would be fairly low down the list of 'things that mattered' in a mental institution! In a place where relatively little of the outside world made it through the walls and grilles, it's odd that modern society's obsession with weight loss and thin-ness should present itself even in the darkest corners...

I guess it could have been for the use of the nurses rather than the patients... but either way it looks like some kind of barbaric torture instument!

Again there must be a story here - I can't help wondering about the girl who made or wore these, when and why...

Where angels fear to tread - or something...

I'm with you cg. Such a waste. But then waste seems to be a recurring theme in so many of these images.