# Uplands Hotel - Cambridgeshire - Picture/Text Heavy



## Rubex (May 17, 2015)

It looks like it's been quite some time since anyone has done a report on Uplands House/Hotel/B&B or Whitefield Manor, so I thought I'd take a look for myself!

I have a pre-emptive feeling this post will be both wordy and picture heavy, so if you're only interested in the photos, please take a look at my album on Imgur.

The history of this place seems a bit scatty. From mostly rumour, apparently a self-made man made his fortune in the Electronics Industry (believable, given the proximity to Cambridge - or Silicon Fen as it is more affectionately known). 

Following a row with his wife/girlfriend he proceeded to burn down both Whitefield Manor (which I didn't look at as I didn't have time, and can't find any pre-fire imagery of) and Uplands House, which was once a B&B/Hotel, which explains the boggling amount of baths littered about the place. 

This site is now vastly overgrown, and it's near impossible to get a shot without a tree getting in the way! But I suppose this is very much the case with most abandoned properties lying vacant in such wooded areas. Nature truly does reclaim everything. Apparently Uplands has been standing this way for near on 20 years (from some sources I have been reading).

The walk up to Uplands was a relatively long one. The drive was a considerable length and I can only begin to imagine how impressive this must have once looked. But now grass has enveloped most of the tarmac and left no more than a footpath to walk down:







On the walk in I discovered a - ahem - Type-28a pill box. This pillbox comprised of a blast wall, followed by a step down into an ajoining room (once separated by a wooden door, which now lay broken on the floor). The room had 3-foot thick walls, and in front of the two windows in the room were wooden "shelves" upon which a gunner could rest. Just in front of the windows were wooden hatches, which I presume were either a place to store ammunition, or a place for spent rounds to fall into. Externally, the pill box was now very well camouflaged as it was covered in ivy:


























Turning back to the path, I found a small fenced-in area (the building fence stuff - obviously for safety reasons) naturally, this had me rather intrigued, so I stepped through the fence and found an apex roof, covered in ivy at ground level. Looking down I could see a small, concrete, room with nothing in it. After doing some research, it turns out that this could have been a cold store, or potentially a big hazard to the unsuspecting urban explorer if it weren't for the fencing. Naturally, being my usual intrigued self, I jumped down into the room for some pictures. The room itself was probably about 9 feet long, by 6 feet wide, and just shy of 6 feet deep:


























Please don't think I advise doing things like this, but I had some friends with me. I would have never gone in here alone through fear of getting stuck down there. 

Once back out of the hole I moved onwards up the path. Along the final approach I spotted small garage and an oil tank looking much more hip than it once would have done. Thanks kids!











As visible, there was more fencing surrounding this area. At last, I knew I was at Uplands itself. 

Edging further forward I finally saw the shell of a once very attractive building. Again, after research and general observations it seems this house/hotel is of 1930s origin, although the sash windows in places would mean it was of Victorian origins. Maybe this was a much more modest abode, which was extended over time into the grand structure before me. 

As I said before, it was near impossible to get any photos of this house without there being any trees in the way. So from here on in, please ignore the trees! Here is the side of the house, which is the first glimpse I got:











Now even if you didn't previously know that this place was gutted due to fire, a brief look around would make this very clear. There is noticeable charring everywhere. 


























The photo above shows what would have been the entrance hall, leading onto an archway and the only noticeable internal "feature" of the house, which was a small recessed area, which would have been used to display some kind of ornament:






I'm sure back in it's heyday walking through this entrance would lead to a very exquisite set of rooms, but now I can't help but feel it leads to even more formidable views than when this was a whole building. I found myself wandering about just looking up. With no floors anywhere I could look up and just see 3 stories of brick work towering above me, with fireplaces staggered up the chimneys. It really is a sight in this building and I found it very hard to put the camera down and move on:









































If there is one thing I learned on this explore, it's that 2 things last very well in house fires - radiators and baths. This place had baths _everywhere_. Naturally, with it once being a hotel I suppose each room had an en suite, but I'm sure a bath found itself in each room at ground level:









































Walking around inside I found it close to impossible to correctly map the place out in my head. I assume there was a lot of dry wall which got destroyed in the blaze. 

I do, however, believe this area must have been the kitchen. It had a small, ground level window in it, which I have no idea of the purpose of:






Externally:






Strangely, one area of the house remained in tact, and that was the veranda area. Although the balcony had now collapsed:





















Inside this area I found a small bedroom complete with bed!
















..and gas bottle..






Again, looking up made for some glorious sights:






Heading out from Uplands I found the small cottage residing near by. Looking at old posts about this cottage it looks like previously it was in a much fairer state than that that it is in now:
















I think it looks like it has suffered fire damage since the original blaze. 

A small ladder allowed me to climb up to the second story and precariously balance myself atop of the wall to take some shots:





















A closer look at the cooker for the white-goods lovers:





















Outside this cottage was yet _another_ bath!






Outside also resided a small dog house - maybe our arsonist owner should have had a sit in here rather than set the places ablaze:






I called it quits here and made my way back to Uplands, but couldn't help but get some departing shots:































If you made it this far, thank you! There's something about buildings like this which just capture my imagination. It's the fact that there is nothing there to confirm your assumptions which just leave you trying to join the dots and flick between folklore and facts. 

Thank you for looking,

Rubex


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## gingrove (May 17, 2015)

Great report I enjoyed that Thanks


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## just looking (May 18, 2015)

Thank you some nice shots and great report


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## UrbanX (May 18, 2015)

Nice thorough report. Shame to see the recent graffiti. 
Thanks for sharing


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## KM Punk (May 18, 2015)

That was pic heavy wasn't lol. Good shots, looks like you could spend hours there


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## flyboys90 (May 18, 2015)

Brilliant report and shots.


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## InquisitiveFox (May 18, 2015)

Excellent report! I visited last year but I am no photographer so the photos were more for my own benefit! Fair play for climbing that ladder, there was no way I would have climbed it! I don't know how I managed to overlook the array of baths around the place and excellent spot on the dog house, I missed that


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## The Wombat (May 19, 2015)

That was very comprehensive report
looks interesting, thanks for posting


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## Rubex (May 19, 2015)

InquisitiveFox said:


> Fair play for climbing that ladder, there was no way I would have climbed it!



It was definitely worth climbing for the view of the attic area and it was still pretty sturdy! You'll have to go back just to give it a climb lol


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## chazman (May 20, 2015)

great report,you were very brave there at times.


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## LuLu5676 (Jan 29, 2021)

Whitefields and Uplands where totally different houses and burnt down under completely different circumstances. Uplands was owned by Cambridge self made millionaire Mr Farrer/Fuller and was burnt down due to bankruptcy and for insurance fraud
The family lived there the some years and then turned the place into an upmarket Restaurant NOT a hotel! Uplands was a HUGE place had seven bedrooms all with en suites which is why there is so many baths! there was also a three bedroom cottage. A couple of months before the fire, plans were in place to extended the house to make it a hotel but NOT the Mandarin one! The family had huge lavish piss up parties there, that I remember!! It became a case of living the good life too much and jumping to the next big business deal. There were a lot of bust-ups up there in the later years and things got very desperate and messy indeed! Two attempts were made in the space of a week to burn Uplands down! He simply couldn't burn it down quicker enough! Graham Woods of wWitefields bought the shell to prevent further development happening next door to him. Ravers began appearing and it become a hotspot for vandals. He hated living there as it was just him hand his two dogs and he decided he'd redevelop the whole site both his own house and uplands and create a country club and golf course, but planning was never approved. He moved to Germany and sold the whole site including Uplands and his house to St johns college who own a lot of land in the area. Whitefields was left vacant which gave Cambridge vandals two new playgrounds! Minor fires where caused and then a big fire took hold and Whitefields was destroyed. the house was demolished very quickly and pushed into it's swimming pool, Uplands however was left alone due to protected habitat using it as their home years before hand. It's such a shame that greed and stupidity brought two of the areas most magnificent property's down. I believe the family still live in Shelford and in fact on Hinton Way.


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