# St Josephs Feb 2013



## sweet pea (Feb 17, 2013)

after rolling out of bed late with mr dan waiting and meeting up with cachewoo great fellow and company we headed into st Josephs for our pictures of the day i love this place its not wrecked or had graffiti all over the walls yet and i still cant believe our luck for the day as it was nice and relaxed any way i wont bore you with the history as its been done before so many times so on with the pics (i know mine are a crap quality but i need to save a bit of cash to get a dslr if anyone has one for sale?) pic heavy!







not 100% on what this is 





i like tyres 















this place has many quirky features like this 






























quite handy these signs although i cant read the first 5 words properly 





stairs i like stairs 





the lights are on but nobodys home 










at one point i thought we had been caught then i realized we had company of several pidgeons 




tea anyone?




















always got to find a chair!!! 



















for some reason i loved these grates











we also found this about 10 minutes later cachewoo and mr dan blew it up and i shouted you were only supposed to blow the bloody door off 







so i saw this in the chapel and well curiosity killed the cat so i opened it to find rather morbid contents










i got rather bored in the chapel only having a bridge camera so i went for a wlk about and found some stairs 




and a bell
















thanks for looking sorry about the over load of pictures but this place is amazing explored with mr dan as always and cachewoo thank you for your company it was a pleasure


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## MrDan (Feb 17, 2013)

Yours have turned out really well mate, Loved this shot Saw you taking it and knew it would be a good one 


*St Joseph's
February 2013*
A visit with sweet_pea and Cachewoo


A thoroughly enjoyable explore, I was worried about getting to sweet's house 15 minutes late, to find 
he hadn't even gotten out of bed yet. This was followed by a really chilled explore around St Joseph's, 
where we'd arranged to meet up with a new face; Cachewoo - fantastic guy to splore with.
I was trying out a new 35mm lens, need more practice, but I'm quite happy with the results.
All the below photos are as taken, hope you enjoy 

A little word of warning, if anyone plans to go up to the statue of St. Joseph, there is an awful lot of 
pigeon mess everywhere on the way up, and the stairs are an accident waiting to happen.

*History*
The St Joseph's Missionary Society (Mill Hill Missionaries) was founded in 1866 by Father Herbert Vaughan, it was 
the first catholic missionary society to be founded in England. This college in Mill Hill was first opened in 1871 as a 
seminary for Priests training to go on missions abroad. It is set on almost 7 acres of land and has had several 
pieces of extension work over the years, most notably 1 wing in the 1930's and another in the 1950's. The mission
sold the building and some land in 2005 though the wider surrounding land still belongs to them. There is also a 
Jesuit cemetery on the grounds. The building is Grade II listed.
Permission was granted in 2008 for the re-use and partial redevelopment of the building for use as a care home
and for the demolition of some of the late additions, such as the two wings mentioned above, though this never 
materialised. From what I can gather, there have been many discussions and proposals for this property.
The college was on the market for £25m and I think Barclays Group currently own the land and they plan to start 
turning this place in to 40-50 luxury flats this Spring. 
There have been a few castings of this location in TV/Film, most notably BBC's Call The Midwife, which is rumoured 
to be writing the destruction of the convent in to their storyline, as they will no longer be able to use it once work starts.


*1. One of the main entrances





2. Above the door





3. 





4. Toilets - Did anyone else think there were loads of toilets here?





5. 





6.





7. A corridor and sweet_pea being himself on the second level of the library





8. The library





9. On one of the bedroom walls





10. Random or what?





11. 





12. ...may be masturbating





13. Something that us explorers know only too well!





14. The chapel wall





15. Loved this place!





16. Candle with a wreath of Poppies 





17. 





18. sweet_pea trying to get a shot!





19. sweet_pea, MrDan & Cachewoo





20. At the top of a pillar in the chapel





21. The bell 





22. One from the ground, and one from the top!





23. While the people in the houses were having a lay-in on a sunday morning... We were...





24. A view from the top





25. The gold leafed Statue of St Joseph





26. Twist me





27.





*​


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## Pen15 (Feb 17, 2013)

Don't put yourself down feller. You did well and you have a good eye for detail, that most of us would miss. I enjoyed them and remember its how you use it that counts and your doing great. Keep it up


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## MrDan (Feb 17, 2013)

sweet pea said:


> after rolling out of bed late with mr dan



Nice choice of words!


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## sweet pea (Feb 17, 2013)

Pen15 said:


> Don't put yourself down feller. You did well and you have a good eye for detail, that most of us would miss. I enjoyed them and remember its how you use it that counts and your doing great. Keep it up



yea i know its just the auto focus that annoys me i could do so much more with a dslr and a lesson or two on how to edit photos


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## UrbanX (Feb 17, 2013)

Nowt wrong with those pics! Great stuff, my fave is the grill shot too. It looks great, I'm saddened to think itll go downhill tho. Cheers for sharing!


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## MrDan (Feb 17, 2013)

Okay, all my photos have been added now. 
Hope people enjoy looking at them half as much as I enjoyed taking them!


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## UE-OMJ (Feb 18, 2013)

Great reports/photos you two


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## Carlh (Feb 18, 2013)

amazing place, bags of atmosphere and liking those long LONG corridors


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## sweet pea (Feb 18, 2013)

thanks guys and carl the corridoors are so photogenic


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## Cachewoo (Feb 18, 2013)

What a fantastic place and company with sweet pea and MrDan, who uphold a lovely moral
philosophy towards exploring. You captured some lovely images lads. Here goes my few photos to add to our collective day out.
Cheers 




St.14 by Cachewoo, on Flickr



St.22 by Cachewoo, on Flickr



St.39 by Cachewoo, on Flickr



St.18 by Cachewoo, on Flickr


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## flyboys90 (Feb 18, 2013)

That little cupboard must be the meaning of pigeon hole!Great report from all of you.


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## Pen15 (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice sets from all 3 of you. 

Glad you had a great time, we missed each other by just a day lol Hope to catch up with you all soon


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## sweet pea (Feb 18, 2013)

thanks guys anytime pen15 just send me a message and we will arrange something


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## tank2020 (Feb 18, 2013)

Nice set of pics from you all. Some fantastic details. May need to book the services of SP and MrD for an excursion.


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## MrDan (Feb 19, 2013)

Definitely Pen15, will look forward to it.
Tank, that's definitely on the cards I'm sure! Just have to find something, that we're all able to make! Gutted about your trip around our area recently.


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## Bones out (Feb 19, 2013)

Good stuff, good stuff indeed......


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## Lucky Pants (Feb 20, 2013)

Super sets of pictures,thanks for showing us .


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## Solid State (Feb 20, 2013)

Fantastic site!

In Sweet Pea's first photo, "not 100% on what this is", it's a reel-to-reel tape recorder, and a nice one at that! Four track stereo, would not have been cheap in its day. National are the parent company behind Technics and Panasonic.

Great photos, would love to see this place for myself.


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## Solid State (Feb 20, 2013)

In fact, here is one the same in action!

[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f724U6gdy5I[/ame]


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## sweet pea (Feb 21, 2013)

thanks for that solid state


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## steve2109 (Feb 21, 2013)

Great report and photos from all of you, looks like you saw stuff I missed on my visit, your photos more than make up for it, cheers


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## SeffyboyUK (Feb 22, 2013)

Sweet. Always liked the look of this place, good work all round.


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## Scattergun (Feb 23, 2013)

I loved the long corridors and the close ups, some stunning detail in there. This one's gotta be my fav though. Awesome work from you both


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## sweet pea (Feb 23, 2013)

thanks scatter gun the roof was amazing although we couldent see very far due to the fog!


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## prettyvacant71 (Feb 23, 2013)

done a great job of documenting the place guys


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## MrDan (Feb 25, 2013)

Cheers 
Definitely aiming to go back on a clear day to take some shots from the top.


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## shatners (Mar 2, 2013)

Really nice report.. loads of detail I had'nt seen before in there, nice one guys


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## Menzo1982 (Mar 2, 2013)

brillient shots guys looks like a great explore


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## Simon_sanigar (Mar 3, 2013)

Brilliant set of pictures i like the long corridors thanks for sharing


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## Harry (Mar 4, 2013)

Great selection of pictures and that bell is awesome, thanks for sharing!


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## sweet pea (Mar 4, 2013)

thank you guys!


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