# Derelict Street, Chelmsford, Essex -2006



## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

*Park Road, Chelmsford, Essex.*

Evenin' all! 

Totally forgot about this place, until I came across them on a random disc at home! So much for me filing system!!! 

I believe that these houses were on part of the Anglia Polytechnic University site. Unsure if these were built for APU, or were just swallowed-up as the University site expanded.

FlashEarth aerial view link.....

http://www.flashearth.com/?lat=51.734404&lon=0.467617&z=18.6&r=0&src=msa

Anyways, on with the pics.....







































































































Makes me sad to see what appears to be perfectly sound and solid houses be left to fall down. Especially as these houses had some lovely architectural detailing. In fact, I've heard that these houses were razed to the ground last year 

Lb:jimlad:


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## clebby (Jan 10, 2009)

wtf! that place looks wicked - did you not go inside the buildings? the healthcare one might have been awesome. 

the lighting looks perfect - as always, you have some cracking shots, LightBuoy.


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Thanks very much Clebby 

I wish I did have a look-see inside now, but it was getting late in the day, the sun was setting, and was on me way home.

Just found some info on this Street. Not so much it's history, rather more bizarre in fact!

http://www.mattheweaves.co.uk/2005/06/29/park-road-chelmsford-granadasky-television-plane-crash/

:wideeyed:

Ta for your interest and comments.

Lb:jimlad:


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## MaBs (Jan 10, 2009)

It's weird to see an abandoned street the plaques on the building look very ornate, its not often you come across stuff like that, it’s a really shame if they have been demolished!


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

'tis indeed a shame 

More often than not, it's the same old story -knock 'em down, rather than using a bit of imagination and re-use 

Ta for ya interest matey 

Lb :jimlad:


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## randomnut (Jan 10, 2009)

That place looks pretty interesting.

There's some similar areas in Manchester where they kicked out whole roads full of families to bulldoze the area and rebuild. Entire streets were left derelict for ages.


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## goodeavens (Jan 10, 2009)

Fantastic stuff Lightbuoy. I havent seen an empty street for a very long time and never one as impressive as that. Great plaque in pic 4 and great arch in pic 21. Real shame it`s gone


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Thanks Randomnut.

I've heard about such re-developments in the North of England. Think it was called "Pathfinder" project?
You would have thought that after the clinical tower blocks from the 1960's & '70's, which, in me own opinion, tore the heart out of Communities, the Government would have learned from their mistakes and recognised that terraced housing, whilst run-down in some areas, could still be saved, and such areas regenerated.
All this talk about re-cycling and re-using, yet some solidly built housing is being lost forever 

Sorry about the moan, just seems crazy to pull-down perfectly good houses!

Do you have any pics from these Streets?

Lb:jimlad:


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Think this is it.....

http://www.englishpartnerships.co.uk/pathfinders.htm

What a surprise -it's being handled by English Partnerships!!! 

Lb:jimlad:


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## Sabtr (Jan 10, 2009)

Some cracking housing there. Such a waste. Loving the building with the H girder above the door - would love to do that at home.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jan 10, 2009)

Lightbuoy said:


> Just found some info on this Street. Not so much it's history, rather more bizarre in fact!
> 
> Lb:jimlad:



Some pretty crap information on the origins of the houses in that link you found. The majority of the housing dates from the first 25 years of the 20th century - a check of the relevant maps will indicate probable build dates. Property such as this will be very familiar to some of us who did their further education in the late 50s, early 60s. Most further educational establishments had expanded on an add hoc basis over the years, from an original Victorian established inner city building/complex into other available/new buildings around the city (eg like the Tech College and Art School building shown in the report). After WW11 the need for increased teaching capacity, around the older pre war established buildings, - due to the rapid increase in degree level courses - was fulfilled by purchasing vacant houses/property in the adjoining streets. This was not actually difficult, much of the property was rental and in pretty poor condition, landlords gladly exchanged mouldering bricks and mortar for ready cash. Of course there is no doubt that the governing bodies, of the further educational establishments that went down that road, were keeping a careful eye on the vast acreage of prime development land they were acquiring. Whilst the idea of the 'campus' was not something the general public thought about in the late 50s, it is clear that much was already in the planning/design stages. The subsequent proliferation of 'new' University sites bearing witness to this C change in education direction in the UK - sadly the vagaries of student choices has meant that some Universities, have had to cut back on the grandiose plans of the early 60s.

One should note that the dereliction of this area does not compare with the enforced inner city/town 'slum' clearances of the late 50s/ early 60s or the more recent developments that have resulted in the same destruction of 'small communities'. In general property in these locations was acquired as and when they became vacant/were offered for sale - no compulsory purchase or evictions - well not on the few I have been able to check.


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## Foxylady (Jan 10, 2009)

Abandoned streets are so fascinating yet sad at the same time, imo. Some lovely date bricks and details on the houses too. The path with the diamond-patterned bricks blew me over, as we had one just like it in my parent's garden where I grew up, and haven't seen one like that since.
It breaks my heart to think of such lovely houses demolished for no good reason. 
Cheers for posting those, Lb.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jan 10, 2009)

Lightbuoy said:


> Think this is it.....
> 
> 
> What a surprise -it's being handled by English Partnerships!!!
> ...



Seems one useless organisation has been incorporated into an even bigger drain on taxpayers money. We now have the all singing and dancing Homes and Communities Agency. No matter what they call themselves, I think the author of the 'mission statements' and 'projected benefits/ achievements' should be put forward for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Never read such a fanciful load of old crap in my life, seems to push the present economic climate completely under the carpet. It's OK creating jobs to build/renovate housing, but if the prospective tenants have no jobs who pays their rent? Perhaps it's a great pyramid scheme - everybody becomes employed in the building trade. By building houses we earn money so that we can pay for them, wonder how long that bubble would take to burst!


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## randomnut (Jan 10, 2009)

Lightbuoy said:


> Thanks Randomnut.
> 
> I've heard about such re-developments in the North of England. Think it was called "Pathfinder" project?
> You would have thought that after the clinical tower blocks from the 1960's & '70's, which, in me own opinion, tore the heart out of Communities, the Government would have learned from their mistakes and recognised that terraced housing, whilst run-down in some areas, could still be saved, and such areas regenerated.
> ...



I totally agree, it seems a total waste to bulldoze those places.

I don't have any pics from the Manchester sites (was something I saw on TV) but i'm sure there must be some reports out there, they were derelict for a good while, i'm not even sure if the area has even been rebuilt yet.

Then again, the area was around Mosside (if memory serves), I wouldn't like to be walking around with a camera on show there...


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Dirus_Strictus said:


> Seems one useless organisation has been incorporated into an even bigger drain on taxpayers money. We now have the all singing and dancing Homes and Communities Agency. No matter what they call themselves, I think the author of the 'mission statements' and 'projected benefits/ achievements' should be put forward for the Nobel Prize for Literature. Never read such a fanciful load of old crap in my life, seems to push the present economic climate completely under the carpet. It's OK creating jobs to build/renovate housing, but if the prospective tenants have no jobs who pays their rent? Perhaps it's a great pyramid scheme - everybody becomes employed in the building trade. By building houses we earn money so that we can pay for them, wonder how long that bubble would take to burst!



Spot on there -so true!!! 

Sounds like the beast (HCA) is getting bigger!

Lb:jimlad:


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

concretegarden said:


> Fantastic stuff Lightbuoy. I havent seen an empty street for a very long time and never one as impressive as that. Great plaque in pic 4 and great arch in pic 21. Real shame it`s gone



Thanks CG 

Some quality craft skills must have gone into these places.

Was trying to work-out what the letters meant for ages. Then it hit me -*BUILT* 1905

Lb :jimlad:


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Foxylady said:


> Abandoned streets are so fascinating yet sad at the same time, imo. Some lovely date bricks and details on the houses too. The path with the diamond-patterned bricks blew me over, as we had one just like it in my parent's garden where I grew up, and haven't seen one like that since.
> It breaks my heart to think of such lovely houses demolished for no good reason.
> Cheers for posting those, Lb.



Cheers matey.

I love those diamond bricks. If I'd been quicker, I could have done some "architectural reclaimation" -those bricks would look boss in me back Yard  Think that they used these a lot on Canal Towpaths, as they are "engineering" quality -hard-wearing and non-porous.

Lb:jimlad:


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 10, 2009)

Sausage said:


> Some cracking housing there. Such a waste. Loving the building with the H girder above the door - would love to do that at home.



Ta for your interest.

With such a girder above your door, that would be one big mumma of a hanging basket?!! 

Lb:jimlad:


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## mjeaves (Feb 6, 2009)

*more on park road*

Hi, I spotted a surge of traffic on my blog for the date this post was placed in your forum, I was the person who did a blog post about the fake plane crash on Park Road and did a post about it (sorry about the crap bits of it!)...

anyway, I worked on Park Road, and thought you might like to see some images of the house being demolished....

10 Dec 2006:











16 Feb 2007:


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## Lightbuoy (Feb 6, 2009)

Hi Matthew,

Thanks for getting in touch, as well as for sharing your photos with us here. Good to see, yet sad at the same time to think that all those nice houses have gone forever 

Lb :jimlad:

P.s. Welcome to DP by the way!


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## Jeneric Jane (Feb 7, 2009)

I can't believe I missed this one!  I used to go record shopping down Viaduct Road and would walk by that road every time I did.


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## LittleMadam (Feb 8, 2009)

Lightbuoy, i used to live in Chelmo and remember driving passed that road one day and was just shocked they'd all gone! Why on hell could they just not resell them? It is houses like that that give a town character?!? The uni has alot to answer for they have sold so much land in Chelmsford. I once dated a security guard who worked on an old uni site near Rainsford Road and that was up for demo.

Thanks for posting those pics! Sad to see them gone :-(


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## magaz (Mar 13, 2009)

These scenes are so remeniscant of many streets around my area. 
I'd love to urbex them... but the area is like that for a reason... noone wants to go there 


edit: just got back from work... Drove passed another area in my town that's scheduled for demolition... a whole row of terraced houses and shops... Again as with the ones I mentioned earlier it's in a fair rough area...


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## MJH_13 (Oct 8, 2009)

Apologies - only just discovered this site; and therefore this article - late to the party! Great pictures of a very interesting (and rapidly changing) part of Chelmsford...

These are indeed the old houses that were integrated into the former Central Campus of Anglia Ruskin University. The Central Campus was home to the University's Nursing courses (pre 2008), and years ago, these houses were used as teaching bases for some of those nursing related modules, and student 'overflow' facilities. 

As a former surveying student at ARU, I remember these houses formed part of a linear and levelling survey exercises. The brick building which runs down half of the street on one side is the back of the former Built Environment Department - quite an impressive building from the other side, built in the early 1900's. As of 2008, the University had mostly vacated the Central Campus (having sold the whole site for redevelopment). 

Although its unfortunate that these houses are set for demolition, they really were 'out on a limb' - a very abstract place to have a suburban street - theres nothing quite like this street or type of housing nearby. Over time, it was inevitable that these 'oddball' properties would be swallowed up into the University's portfolio, and as ARU started to out-grow its aged Central Campus, those houses would inevitably get dragged into the land-sale / demolition equation.


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 6, 2010)

MJH_13 said:


> Apologies - only just discovered this site; and therefore this article - late to the party! Great pictures of a very interesting (and rapidly changing) part of Chelmsford...
> 
> These are indeed the old houses that were integrated into the former Central Campus of Anglia Ruskin University. The Central Campus was home to the University's Nursing courses (pre 2008), and years ago, these houses were used as teaching bases for some of those nursing related modules, and student 'overflow' facilities.
> 
> ...



Hi MJH -thank you for this additional information


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## bonniemcprice (Jan 14, 2010)

shocking waste!


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