Welcome readers, to Eastmoor, one of the most reported site in the north. This former community home has been visited by the great and good; photographed by many an explorer in all of its states, from a shadowy complex full of remnants of its different habitants, to today where it lies empty, derelict and trashed. It's something many will have seen before, but I don't think that is a reason not to let you know a bit about it.
Many folk have reported an oppressive atmosphere, a stifling sensation in some of the rooms, and found the uncomfortable rumours of its former use hanging heavy about the site.
I'm afraid to report my lack of sensitivity (I sound like my ex-wife) meant I had a thoroughly good hour or two strolling round here, too busy fiddling with my camera to notice shifting shapes and unexplained happenings. This is the view of the interior courtyard, a largely Victorian construction that it is built around.
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Visiting with BA and BB (but not BC), we headed upstairs after setting up.
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Looking on older photos of Eastmoor, it looks like this was once a good part. Today it lies open to the elements, its roof half missing, the lead stripped away and the blackened walls and roof joists a lasting memory to an arson attack in late 2009. At the end of the corridor was a large dormitory, full of shoes, sleeping bags and a portable camping toilet. No, I didn't.
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Eastmoor Reformatory was started in 1857 for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders, and by 1881, was licensed for 160 boys (all of whom came after a prison sentence) most aged 12-16 (the youngest was 10, the oldest 18) who came from all over industrial Britain. Many of the buildings here are the original ones. Inside another one of them.
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Once in, it's Urbex I-Spy, and, taking out a small pencil I was able to tick off the Eastmoor sights. The highest scoring item on the card is the swimming pool, built in 1887 as an open air one. By 1896 a roof was built over it, and, three years later it was heated. Today there was no heating.
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Looking back on pictures a year or two ago, the pool has a lot less water in. Now, the broken roof lights allow in rain water, and it is slowly filling up. As always, I had failed to take my trunks.
Abandoned swimming baths are always a winner. The water didn't taste very nice I'm afraid.
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Like many tourist sites, it has it's own guest book. Posted large on purpose, because I'm good to you like that. Many a name to spot :thumb
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We moved on, through empty workshops and rooms, some trashed, others looking in decent shape.
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Some parts are clearly more modern, this corridor, again with exposed flooring joists where a fire has burnt out a room, stretched away from me, looking like a poor hotel.
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This is only part of the Eastmoor site, half of it is still live, and still supporting young offenders in their rehabilitation as a secure residential school. Occasionally voices could be heard from the high fenced playing field next door.
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The bar was dry, although there were a few cans lying about, waiting for a a landlord who will never come to tidy up. Shots were taken, and we moved on.
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The new and updated Urbex I-Spy chart has a gap next. Holding the card up to the light, I could make out the faint words “Dentist Chair”. Crudely scratched out, the card, like the dentists chair has gone. A hole in the floor where it has been ripped out by someone hoping to sell it is all that remains. If only I had known it had gone at the time, I would have popped down to Cross green Market (RIP) to see how much they wanted for it.
Instead, some meds.
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Some good news for those keen on following the Eastmoor story. On the 6th of November 2009 (the irony of it being the day after bonfire night didn't escape me), the Victorian building feature here received a Grade II listing. As if that will make a difference unless things change, he finished off cynically.
