Wellington Rooms, Liverpool - July 2017

The Wellington Rooms, Liverpool. Also known as The Irish Centre this Grade II Listed building sits rotting despite a £121,000 grant to fix the roof which to date has clearly not been done.

Built in 1815 the property has sat empty since 1997.

Having seen the building on a BBC4 documentary back in 2016 I had desperately wanted to take a glimpse of the the inside of the building. So myself, Blacksnake and Tbolt did when the word came around.

The simple fact is that in its heyday the Wellington Rooms would have been spectacular.

Having survived the damage of  the German bombings of Liverpool in 1941 it remains to be seen in what form this building will be saved in its latest fight.

Hollinshead Hall Holy Well, Belmont - July 2016

You like to think you know your local area, so it was a surprise when Bovine posted a few photos of this place.

Hollinshead Hall was a manor house situated between Belmont Village and Tockholes, built in 1776 the property fell into disrepair in the late 1900's and was demolished by Liverpool Corporation Waterworks following purchase of the surrounding land area.

Very little remains of the old house, apart from the Holy Well, a natural spring housed in small building with a reputation of being haunted.


A pleasant wander in the rather damp summer air brought us to a clearing in the woods.

 

A rather charming breath of fresh air after the pigeon infested rat holes of the the last week.


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The Victorian Society Top 10 Most Endangered Buildings 2015

This is Griff, older readers may remember him from Not the Nine O'clock News, he's rather passionate about saving old buildings - as we all should be and The Victorian Society are.

So when the Victorian Society asked for the use of a few pics of Kimnel Hall I couldn't really refuse.

Anyway The Victorian Society Top 10 Most Endangered Buildings 2015 is kind of like a roll of shame listing properties heading for demolition due to neglect. Head on over and take a look, you may be shocked.







The Victorian Society
Daily Mail
Guardian
BBC
Independent
ITV
Daily Mirror


The full set of the shots can be found on my Flickr album

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Agecroft Mortuary Chapel, Salford - January 2014

Back in October 2012 I popped round to Agecroft Mortuary Chapel, to have a look at what is officially in the UK top twenty of historical properties at risk - Urban Spaceman and I en-route to his first flight with Captain Pugwash, dropped in for another look see.

On the previous visit the building was slowly being enveloped by triffid, thankfully someone has got the beanstalk trimmers out and hacked away at the foliage.

 

Its still overgrown, but a least you can see the building now, with its darting tree rats.

 



Out of respect to a graveyard of busy mourners (and our lack of Ninja like "Powers") we didn't pop over the rather spikey fence, but peered thru the windows at the fallen floors, ceilings and pigeon poo.

 

Sadly merely trimming your bush will not save a hole









No doubt we will pop back at some point, hopefully somebody will save this wonderful building before it falls down.

Anyway on to the airport, for Urban Spaceman had an unexpected flight to catch, but that is another story for another day.....

Heritage at Risk 2012 - Crimble Mill - from the air

Back in October 2012 we popped round to Crimble Mill in Heywood, Lancashire, not to explore just to have a gander at one of the Mills on the English Heritage at Risk Register

The blog entry can be found here.

Last week I was passing and grabbed the following shot, I've posted it on Flickr, so just click the pick to zoom in.



Another mill sadly being left to rot.

Heritage at Risk 2012 - Agecroft Chapel

Another sad and decaying Grade II listed property, again just 10 minutes drive from me. Agecroft Cemetery lies in the city of Salford, about 4 miles from the centre of Manchester.

The Agecroft Mortuary Chapel was built in 1903 by Sharpe and Foster in a Gothic style with Art Nouveau stained glass windows, this once grand building is now being enveloped by the plant life.







 Listed on the Heritage at Risk report again this year, the Victorian Society has now listed the building in its Top Ten most endangered buildings in England.

 

 

 

Heritage at Risk 2012 - Crimble Mill

The English Heritage people have issued the Heritage at Risk Register 2012 so off for a mooch, not so much Urbex but more of a nosey to see how the "ratings"stand up.

Crimble Mill, Heywood, just round the corner from me and one of the many rotting satanic mills of the North West of England.

Grade II listed and built in 1886 by James Kenyon and Son Limited, the main mill has been empty since 2003 after the closing of Roe Acre Dying Company who operated from the main mill building.

Parts of the mill estate are still in use and Crimble Mill has a condition listed as "poor".










 

 

With a high level of security in place and part of the site still being used the mill hadn't fallen into the hands of the vandals, however the oldest part of the mill was open to the elements with broken windows. I'm not sure when English Heritage had last visited Crimble Mill, but from English Heritage's  photo the condition of the mill looked like it had gone into free fall.

 


Looks like I have a big long list of places to visit and I will be slowly picking my way thru it, mostly visiting places on my doorstep.