# 1,001 Abandoned houses - Studlands Estate. Oct 08



## UrbanX

This report is completely different from anything else I’ve ever posted because…there is no dereliction, just abandonment. 

Studlands Park in Newmarket is a massive estate, built primarily to house servicemen from near by US bases Lakenheath, Mildenhall, and Feltwell. The estate is huge. The houses of Nimbus Way alone are numbered continuously from 1-501. A recent newspaper article said claims there are just 11 families living on the estate. http://www.newmarketjournal.co.uk/news/Town-estate-could-have-300.4455174.jp

Map: 






Driving down the main road there is an eerie feeling of emptiness. There should be cars. Today is rubbish day, the streets should be lined with blue and black wheelie bins: 





What makes it odder is when I drove through here exactly one year ago, the streets were filled with ghoulish Halloween decorations. The yanks go mad for Halloween, but not here, not this year. 





Houses in the 70’s were generally built with poor parking provision, as houses would own a single car. Not here, this was built with Americans in mind! With 3-4 spaces per household several thousand spaces sit empty. 









You can see on the map some internal parking courts. These are useless for security as nothing overlooks them. I got up to court 15. 





In the last week or so the letting agents have started to push to get people in. 















More Car Parking, & Play parking


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## Pip

How strange......... maybe the yanks know something we don't!


That last photo reminds me of a scene from one of the Terminator movies, where Sarah is looking at the playground seconds before the big bang  poor children


Pip


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## Seahorse

I'm surprised a housing association hasn't snapped them up. Up our way, the council would be making sure at least some were earmarked for afordable housing.


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## TheLondoners

*In some areas of England, this estate would have been vandalised beyond repair by now.*


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## Foxylady

Pip said:


> That last photo reminds me of a scene from one of the Terminator movies, where Sarah is looking at the playground seconds before the big bang...



 Yes, that's what I thought too! Eerie to see it all just empty like that.
'A COUNCIL is monitoring a Newmarket estate...' I bet!


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## Earth Worm Jim

Where are the zombies? Cool.


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## tyler

i'm moving in...anyone for coffee ?


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## UrbanX

As it's like a small province, with no seperate monarchy or government...
I bagsy "UrbanX, King of Studlands"


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## Pip

We could always turn the place into an enormous squat.......... hmmmmmm, or was that the title of a questionable dvd I recently watched 


Pip


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## Bax__

So is it just houses or are there community buildings such as shops/gym etc?


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## Pip

Just wondering, if the yanks have all pissed off,  does that mean the air bases are open for explores?

Pip


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## UrbanX

Pip said:


> Just wondering, if the yanks have all pissed off,  does that mean the air bases are open for explores?



Hmm... 


There is a community centre in the middle of the estate which still opens! I believe there is a cafe and a shop on the other side. 
It's adjacent to the industrial bit of Newmarket, i.e next to a Netto & Burger King. Even that estate is laid out in a US mall fashion with the road running parallell to the front, and direct parking, not like how you have to waltz you car into Tesco's these days.


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## losttom

In Madrid (just south) theres a new town of 13,000 new apartments designed for working class people who cant afford city prices, only 3000 have been sold, less than that are lived in because of the economic crisis here in spain.(its now known as the ghost town)
Ring any bells for the new so called 'eco towns' destined for the UK??


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## RichardB

I expect the RAF will just leave them empty until somebody decides to sell them.

Our house is ex-RAF. It's in a group of about 50 at the end of a residential street near Leuchars. They were put on the market a few at a time by a local estate agent. I think ours was the second batch and the street was quite eerie when we moved in early last year.

I'm not sure how long our house lay empty but I've a feeling it was three years. During that time the gardens were kept tidy, new carpets and linoleum were fitted and new magnolia was applied to the walls. 

The RAF seem to be dramatically reducing their housing stock for some reason, they are in the process of selling off the quarters in Leuchars now.


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## Andymacg

now thats bizzare all them homes lying empty

had I known that last night I'd of had a wonder round as I spent last night parked up in my wagon on the industrial estate with nothing to do


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## fire*fly

very eerrie, but strangly cool...I take it the neighbourhood watch group is temporarrily suspended!


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## MD

thats pretty mad 
we had one like that in leicester when they got put up for sale people camped out side to get the best houses


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## smileysal

It's just crazy that a whole estate like this is just left standing empty, when there are so many homeless people, and people on low incomes who desparately need houses. 

They're lovely houses as well. 

Nice work,

 Sal


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## escortmad79

mattdonut said:


> thats pretty mad
> we had one like that in leicester when they got put up for sale people camped out side to get the best houses


They did the same with Devonport when the Naval base sold off its homes


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## skittles

When the yanks moved out of the warehouse in Burtonwood they left some really nice bungalows along came a developer pulled them down and built replacement housing


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## Random

That's pretty surreal, reminds me a bit of those towns they built in Nevada for the atomic tests in the 50s.


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## mal33bb

*empty houses newmarket*

I Think They are unoccupied because of the End of the Cold War,They remind me of a Council Estate with them all being the Same,


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## zimbob

RichardB said:


> ...They were put on the market a few at a time by a local estate agent....



I bet I know who that was 

Quite possibly my brother dealt with this.... 'tis a small world


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## Keep out!

smileysal said:


> It's just crazy that a whole estate like this is just left standing empty, when there are so many homeless people, and people on low incomes who desparately need houses.
> 
> 
> 
> Sal



One of the most sensible posts I've seen on this forum. The ammount of wasted space available for re-use in the UK is disgusting.


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## UrbanX

I still pass through every day, they are very slowly being let now.


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## beccy

That is SOOO eerie and bizarre!!


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## erol4130

lets go now!!!!


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## Black Shuck

A very strange site indeed. Good shots though Urban.


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## night crawler

Keep out! said:


> One of the most sensible posts I've seen on this forum. The ammount of wasted space available for re-use in the UK is disgusting.



Could not agree more, there is an estate not far from where I work all borded up doing nothing.


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## evo_mad

It looks a bit like where I used to live on RAF Woodbridge. (US military built also)

I lived there from 1999 - 2001, we had a bungalow and they were huge. The word was the houses were getting knocked down as most of the lads had been moved to a new estate on the western side of Ipswich.

When I left, there wern't many of us still there, I think about 15 couples and that was like a bit of a ghost town. We wern't all together either, there were three in my street of 18 houses, we were all spread out.

Imagine my surprise when I put my old postcode into a house price checker and my house had been sold in 2006 for £131,000.

I'm over that way next month and will have to drop by and see if any of it has been demolished.


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