In the 1700s a fascination with ruins gripped European culture – the rise of Romanticism saw the nobility visiting the remains of classical antiquity on their Grand Tours, wealthy landowners adding artificial ruins to landscaped parks, and writers and artists incorporating derelict buildings into their work. Since then the rise and decline of industrialization has added new aspects to the subject, with defunct factories, power stations, railway lines and pitheads all offering a glimpse into the past that is at once both poignant and eerie.
Whether the victim of economic, social or political change, many abandoned buildings are by their nature dangerous or inaccessible, but their attraction proved irresistible to the explorers and photographers whose work features here. Spanning the world and taking in medieval castles, crumbling mansions and unfinished skyscrapers, their images evoke past lives and capture our built heritage as it gradually returns to nature, and this is just a selection of those that grabbed our attention.
The Royal Haslar Hospital, Gosport, England
The Royal Haslar was the longest-serving military hospital and was operational between 1753 and 2009 – injured sailors from the Battle of Trafalgar, Crimean and Boer Wars and both World Wars were treated there. Located on the quayside in Gosport the hospital had its own dock and tramway to allow the easy transport of patients into its entrance hall, where the tramway tracks can still be seen under the vaulted ceiling. Other architectural highlights include a sweeping oval staircase that connects all the floors and a Grade II listed red-brick water tower. The hospital is one of many UK and Belgian locations explored by Matthew Emmet in Forgotten Heritage.
Abandoned village, El Maestrazgo, Spain
The Spanish Civil War saw many remote villages abandoned due to a lack of supplies and sanitation, and this example is just one of many in the El Maestrazgo region. With no electricity or bathroom fittings, these crumbling homes are a reminder of how people lived before the mid-20th century, and some still contain pieces of furniture, photographs and personal documents. Left unnamed to protect it from vandalism, the village features in Abandoned Spain which, in addition to domestic ruins, draws attention to some of the country’s derelict industrial sites, public buildings and railways.
Château Verdure, Seine-et-Marne, France
During the rapid urbanization of the mid 1800s a forested area in Île-de-France was split into building plots and sold for development. On one plot the Louis XV-style Château Verdure was created, but when good transport links to the capital failed to materialize the house was sold and became a summer residence. Since the 1950s it has fallen into disrepair, and while some attempts have been made to secure it the last remaining pieces of furniture are now surrounded by crumbling walls and ceilings that throw into relief the ornate stained-glass windows, stucco ornamentation, sweeping staircase and swirling wrought-iron balusters that remain from its heyday. Abandoned France tells the story of this and other forgotten buildings around Paris and the rest of the country.
Battleship Island, Japan
Mitsubishi bought Hashima island in 1890, some eight decades after coal was discovered there, and dramatically increased the rate of mining. Over the next seventy years an entire city developed, with schools, shops and other amenities built so closely together that the island began to resemble a battleship. Apartments allocated to workers based on their status and the size of their family, from dark, humble rooms with shared bathrooms to those with private facilities and more space. Since the mine closed in 1974 the island has been deserted, leaving the seawater that was used to mix the concrete for some of the buildings to eat away at its steel. Jordy Meow explored the island covertly and includes his images along with photographs of decaying hotels, hospitals and schools in Abandoned Japan.
Spreepark, Berlin, Germany
When it was built by the communist government in 1969 Kulturpark Plänterwald, as it was then known, was a popular attraction, but its fortunes changed soon after the fall of the Berlin Wall. It was taken over by a new operator who sought to add natural elements such as lakes and green areas, but the resulting increase in ticket prices and reduced space for infrastructure meant fewer visitors and led to the park’s closure in 2001. As it fell into disrepair it became a favourite haunt for urban explorers and featured as a backdrop to the film Hanna. While much of the park was destroyed by a fire in 2014 its Ferris wheel and rollercoaster survived and are pictured in Archiflop, which explores architectural failures from around the world.
Luxulyan Valley, Cornwall, England
While many of the abandoned places photographed by intrepid urban explorers are out of bounds, Wild Ruins directs readers to those lesser-known relics of Britain’s heritage that can be visited safely. In addition to the castles, abbeys and manor houses that make up many of its 300 entries are the Druid’s Temple folly built among conifers in Ripon in 1820, and Cornwall’s Luxulyan Valley, where the remains of infrastructure created to quarry granite and mine minerals and China clay lie in the ancient woodland.
