taverna (NO)

Next to a busy Norwegian motorway is this small restaurant building left to decay. The inside witness of quite a lot of vandalism and chairs, menues and and tables are all over the place. The place also had a peculiar smell. Perhaps from the dirty, wet wall-to-wall carpet on the floor. The place also had a basement and a small office next to the serving counter. Don’t know much about it’s history or when it was abandoned. Almost next to this place was another abandoned restaurant on top of a small hill. Pictures of this place in the next post.

The abandoned restaurant next to the busy motorway.

The Taverna sign. No doubt this place is abandoned.

Lots of chairs and other things in a mess on the floor.

The inside had a peculiar smell.

I wouldn’t cook in this kitchen.

The interior with serving counter and view too the dining area.

View of the whole serving counter – fish-eye style

The sign says in Norwegian “Dagens rett: Kjøttpudding m/ kålstuing, kr 66,-” which means “Today’s dish: Meatloaf w/ cabbage stew, 66 kroner”.

A fire extinguisher.

garden center B (NO)

It was a nice sunny day to walk around this huge abandoned location somewhere in Norway. The garden center burnt to the ground in 2009 after a period of abandonment because of bankruptcy. The place was set on fire and police suspects possible insurance fraud. The trials begin soon.

There are lots to see here and the place is huge. Shopping carts, piles of flowerpots and equipment, rusty pipes, burned out lawnmowers and a forklift which looks like it survived the fire to mention a few things.

On tour together with fotoknudsen/www.knudsenfoto.com

The burnt out garden center from the outside.

The main entrance. A row of trolleys are still there.

Shopping carts.

Another entrance at the back. Not too difficult to enter the place.

Inside the garden center.

Fish eye shot of the destroyed roof. It was a very warm and sunny day.

The forgotten fork lift.

Inside the fork lift.

Collapsed roof.

A trolley.

A melted radio.

Where people used to pay for their plants.

A burned out tractor.

Plants are still growing.

Burned out electrical cabinet.

Find the pallet truck…

Lots of pots 1

Lots of pots 2

Destroyed room.

Plants growing through a fertilizer bag.

A broken and forgotten car.

lekeland (NO)

These are pictures from a trip to a few Norwegian urbex locations with http://knudsens.wordpress.com/ this summer. His other page: http://www.knudsenfoto.com/ I’m terribly slow with updating my blog page I’m afraid. :/

This small playland/lekeland in the middle of a Norwegian city is deserted and forgotten. Quite a lot of different objects and remains of rides are still there. We were blessed with blue skies and great weather which usually makes it a bit difficult to make great photography. The place had water slide, mini-golf, strange troll-figures, car rides, gold digging etc. It opened in the 80ties and was actually once Norway’s oldest familiy park.

The sign at the entrance listing up all the activities.

Bridge without water.

Western theme objects

Decayed western theme carriage

Creepy trolls in the woods.

Close up of one of the strange faces.

Saloon caravan.

A grill

Inside a kiosk

Vippehest

Mini-golf

Top of the water slide. Sign:”Depth 1.3 m”

Water slide, another angle.

Car track.

Damaged petrol pump.

Inside the hidden tunnel.

forgotten house in the fields (no)

A forgotten swiss villa in the middle of a field and hidden by thick vegetation and trees. No roads headed to the house so I had to cross the muddy field to get there. I crawled through a broken window to get inside just to discover that a whole wall was missing in the other room. Sometimes I just have to choose the difficult entry point. It was pretty empty, but not vandalized. Just natural decay. In the kitchen a nice oven and some other stuff was spread around.

The old house hidden in the vegetation.

Exterior front.

Exterior side.

The kitchen.

Nice old oven.

Room in the middle of the house.

Another angle./em>

Nice paint peeling and collapsed ceiling.

Creepy window.

Side exit with lot of vegeation.

Main entrance and exit. Difficult to use.

Factory M (NO)

I had a very interesting trip to this Norwegian abandoned factory earlier this year. I found an inside space with trees and vegetation growing, and it was really cool to see how nature was taking the place back. A huge hole in the roof, which probably once supported a tank, made a perfect opening for incoming rain. The factory once received dead animals and waste parts from slaughter houses and these materials was grinded up to bone meal. High levels of animal fat in the ground, as well as residues from the factory operations, caused a peculiar smell on the entire first floor.

The place was abandoned in 1995 and is now demolished, but is well documented by a few Norwegian urbexers who suddenly found an interest in this place.

Factory exterior.

Another shot of the derelict factory in the distance.

Inside on the first floor.

A tank and other ruble on the messy first floor.

A room on second floor.

The two cool scales with faces.

Details of a wall.

Top floor.

Work bench and view over the top floor.

Another top floor shot looking towards my favourite area.

Really cool how nature is taking back the place.

Another shot of the trees and vegetation inside the factory.

Gauge detail 1

Detail shot

Gauge detail 2

Looking upwards from the bottom floor to the top with fish-eye.

Another part of the factory.

Easy access in and out.

The grinders.

Military Camp O (NO)

Pictures from a trip I had earlier this year to this abandoned military camp somewhere in Norway. Originally the grounds was a farm but the officers took over the place in 1663. During the second world war German soldiers used the place a convalescent home. At least one of the buildings on the grounds today are built in 1887 but most of the buildings looks newer.

Between 1952 and 1998 the camp was used as a military camp. The camp has been used as a base for Norwegian UN operations and quarters for a nearby Nike battery. The military activity here ended in 1998 and from then to 2004 the place was a refugee camp operated by the Red Cross with 300 refugees from 27 nations.

Today the buildings are abandoned and the decay is prominent. The camp is registered as heritage properties and thereby listed and can not be demolished.

The gate

Buildings close to the entrance.

Reception

Nice building built in 1887

Inside the canteen building.

Looking towards the kitchen area.

The closed doors to the canteen building.

Main hall

Stage

A cool organ in front of the stage.

The large kitchen with lots of stuff left.

Kitchen equipment still hanging.

Washing machines

Shop in the basement with lots of fire extinguisher powder on the floor.

Small kitchen in the basement.

Garages in the other end of the camp.

Asylum CK (UK)

Early morning mission. Goal: To enter an asylum in the country said which was impossible to get into, we had heard. We walked across a huge muddy field and we instantly saw the huge razor fences that surrounded the hospital grounds. After a while we found a hidden spot, and by the help of some fancy climbing equipment made by one of our UK hosts, we actually managed to get over the fence. A bit scary and dangerous, but that’s how we like it. I cut my gloves on the top of the really sharp fence but didn’t get any other injuries.

We walked around a bit just to see that this place really was impossible to get into. All windows was boarded up with metal plates on first floor, all drainpipe was cut so we couldn’t climb them to the open second floor windows and anti trespass paint was smeared on all other possible climbing and access points. It was a cool mission and experience, but we didn’t get to see the inside.

A bit of history: The mental asylum has been abandoned since 1998 and was built between 1891 and 1895. The hospital was designed to a compact arrow echelon plan. There are six wards on either side of a combined chapel, recreation hall, pool and gymnasium amongst the usual services, and an isolation hospital and infirmary block were added in 1902. Many believes this asylum CK to be Britain’s most haunted hospital and the place have a dark history with several deaths of patients under strange circumstances and even a murder of a care-worker. The place is probably demolished now. Google ‘Cherry Knowles’ for more picture others have taken.

This is my last blog post from the UK trip. Next one will be a Norwegian abandoned place.

Asylum T (UK)

This deserted asylum is abandoned in a small town in Wales with the same name. I’ve seen pictures of this place when it was abandoned, but still inn good shape. Now the decay is everywhere and little stuff is left. Thieves has taken lots of stuff, even the roof tiles. Signs outside the buildings tells us: .Keep out! Danger! Everything of value has been stolen’. Our mission is purely photographing and exploring.

The hospital was officially opened in February 1903 and could house 352 patients. In the end of 1925 455 patients were present. It is build in an echelon (compact arrow) style which is common in England and Wales. This made the buildings easy accessible and it was also easy to build on new parts. In 1955 two additional wards were constructed. During WW1 soldiers were treated here – many suffering from shell shock. Under WW2 psychiatric patients and prisoners of war was kept here. In the mid 1990s parts of the place was left unused and in 2000 the place was completely abandoned.

There was also an abandoned church across the road, but we didn’t find a way in. If we had, it would probably be too dark to photograph something in there anyway.

The administration building.

The old main hall.

Main hall windows.

Corridorshot from outside the main hall.

A room with a chair an fireplace.

Lonely chair.

TV room.

A very nice red stair.

Red stair another angle.

One of the abandoned buildings.

A very dark room with chairs and lockers.

Exterior shot taken when we moved to another building.

Another exterior shot. This is the main hall from outside.

A room with a bridge used to watch mental patients below.

The “famous” red corridor, now in decay.

A bathroom in the upper floors.

Thieves steal everything – even roof tiles.

Back of the admin building, shot while we left the palce.

Explorers at work.

Asylum BG (UK)

Another stop on the grand UK tour earlier this year. We had a quite interesting walk to get to this place. Over large fields and through a huge forest. A few dogs where barking in the distance the whole time – they was definitely aware of us. The first thing we saw on the hospital grounds was huge piles of ruble and bricks here and there. The place was literary being demolished as we walked through the area. Now and then we had to hide from workers in orange suits. Some of the buildings still stood, and we got a few shots of whats left. The most interesting wards and buildings were gone.

This mental hospital in Bristol opened 3rd May 1939 build in colony plan layout which means that there are a lot of buildings spread around in the huge forest. Abandoned in 2006. More info about the place here with several other links.

Exterior of one of the remaining buildings.

Entrance

Another exterior shot.

Sign found in the building above.

Smaller hospital building in the area.

Interior of one of the smaller buildings.

Decayed room.

An intercom. One of the only objects left behind in the empty rooms actually.

Another room with great decay and paint peeling.

Paint peeling close up shot.

Me in the mirror.

Quite nice wall painting with animal theme.

Asylum D (UK)

This huge mental asylum was the first one built in Wales. Construction started in 1844 and four years later it opened. There were rumors about mistreated Welsh patients in English hospitals and asylums, and therefore this asylum was built to treat the Welsh people without language barriers etc. After several extensions from 1867 until 1956 the capacity was 1500 patients and 1000 staff members. Due to a new health reform the asylum closed in the late 1990s being 150 years old.

The place is listed and not possible to demolish. I read somewhere that plans for converting it into apartments are underway, but it is a serious and expensive job to fix this place. The inside is massively destroyed by vandals and water damage. The main hall was burned to the ground. The owners claim that kids did it, but others believe the owners set fire to it themselves to get rid of it. It must be difficult to own a place like this knowing that you have to preserve it.

On our way in we met a group of other explores just caught by the man guarding the place, driving around in a white van with his dogs. That didn’t stop us and we found our way in. We new we had to be quick and the main goal was the exterior shot of the administration building. The inside was really, really decayed and we were only able to walk around on the first floor. We saw a lot of corridors, and took some pictures and of an old wheelchair and ran outside the front to shoot the facade. When everybody was happy we left in a hurry hearing the dogs barking at us in the distance.

The fantastic exterior of the admin building with the tower.

Administration building facade.

Corridor.

Hospital doors in decay.

Long corridors in all directions.

The old wheelchair.

Wheelchair closeup.

What used to be a main hall before it was burned down.

Danger ahead, collapsed ceiling.

Wheelchair in the corridor. Like those circular lights.

Another corridor.

Room on the first floor.

Behind the main entrance.

The door behind the main entrance of the building.