# The Averard Hotel – London – May 2017



## mockney reject (Jul 4, 2017)

_
The History_

Currently up for sale for an amazing £35,000,000, I would post the For Sale advert but that gives a little too much away….

The Averard Hotel was originally designed as two individual homes and converted into one hotel in the 1930's. Combined, both buildings total just under 25,000 sqft of gross internal space of incredible scale and proportions. Both halves are white stucco fronted buildings with classical detailing and portico entrances. The building has a total of 7 floors joined by interlinking corridors, Stairwells and an old open lift.

Built in English Baroque and French influences during the mid-1800s, Lancaster Gate was popular with wealthy families — the 1920s saw its grand homes divvied up into flats and hotels, and the Averard has been knocking around since. Making use of the empty space until the renovators roll in, in 2016 the abandoned hotel found itself as one of the city’s most unique art venues.


_The Explore_

Having been out of the game for a month or so, Normal life taking over, I found myself, @slayaaaa and @UrbanDuck heading into London to check out something I came across on google. 

Was it doable? 

Was it actually empty? 

Could we get in?

Well there questions were soon answered along with a few others……

We eventually got to the Averard around 11pm after being waylaid by a little something else on the way, you know how it is lol

We soon spotted a way in and the plan was for one of us to go in and open the door for the others. As usual Slayaaaa was the chosen victim and in he went. 

The one issue we had was that the Averard is on a very busy street corner surrounded by bars and other hotels. So myself and UD kept ourselves busy by wandering around and waiting for Slayaaaa’s call. 

And then it got a little weird

Things in London are a little tense at the moment as you can imagine, myself and UD were keeping ourselves out of sight and having a look around the neighbourhood as to not arouse too much attention. 

However carrying camera bags makes it a little hard. 

Anyways people are milling about and minding their own business but we noticed the same guy passing us a few times. We had stopped for a bit leaning against a fence and watching the world go by when this guy approached us. 

He stated asking us if we knew the area and if there are any good bars, we pointed him in the direction of the one opposite us. However I had that dreadful feeling that something wasn’t right. 

Fuck we were about to get mugged…

The guy carried on chatting to us and mentioned that he couldn’t find his girlfriend etc and then stepped away 
from us.

Here we go

Getting ready for some kind of scuffle as he the looked up and down the street then leant forward.

He then asked us “Are you horny boys?” 

This took a minute to digest as we replied “what?”

Back came the reply “are you horny boys?”

“Nah mate its ok”

And with that he wandered off lol

A bit freaked out at just being propositioned by a rent boy, our silence was broken by a call from Slayaaaa and that was our queue to leave and get in to the Averard……

Once inside I was obvious that the place had once been an amazingly grand place even though it was in a very bad state of disrepair. 
The first three floors were still in an average condition with lovely ceilings and fancy decor. Whereas the upper floors were rotten and sketchy. 

After an hour or so in there we left and quietly as we entered, albeit without being asked “are your horny boys” ……

Here’s the pics


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## Rubex (Jul 4, 2017)

Haha excellent write up! What a find - nice one.


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## krela (Jul 4, 2017)

I think this must be the first documented case of being scared INTO a derp. Plenty of cases of being scared out of one!

You must look like the types...


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## Sam Haltin (Jul 5, 2017)

That's nice and lucky you managed to get in. But its a bit worrying when viewing your photos that most of the structure is being propped up with scaffolding. But the building must have been quite spectacular in its day.


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## brickworx (Jul 5, 2017)

Nice place and a funny tale to boot....thanks


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## mockney reject (Jul 6, 2017)

Hugh Jorgan said:


> That's nice and lucky you managed to get in. But its a bit worrying when viewing your photos that most of the structure is being propped up with scaffolding. But the building must have been quite spectacular in its day.



it got worse as you went up the building I do however think some of it was left over from the props used to hold the art exhibits that where in there


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## smiler (Jul 6, 2017)

Yeah a bit worrying all kinds those props, great building though, I liked the stairwell shot, Thanks


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## prettyvacant71 (Jul 11, 2017)

I totally agree with what Krela said

Great work guys, an intriguing explore...I take your goin back for a revisit Mockney


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jul 11, 2017)

mockney reject said:


> it got worse as you went up the building I do however think some of it was left over from the props used to hold the art exhibits that where in there



Attributing to the monetary value of this building are the original plasterwork ceilings in the larger public rooms. The stability of the original lath and plasterwork ceilings is not conducive to having dozens of feet stomping around, on what is probably a rather 'springy' floor that supports it. As one ascended the building the floor joists become smaller sectioned; because in the original build, the upper floors would have contained ever smaller rooms as one went upwards. On the top floor would be the very small, boxlike attic rooms for the female servants. This generally means that original upper floors got grossly overloaded in later conversions, certainly before the onset of the modern building regs. Hence the need to stabilise the upper floors during preservation/conversion works on buildings that have had a change of use years ago and do not meet modern requirements.


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## Wrench (Jul 17, 2017)

Bloody lovely this and that write up made me chuckle. 
Thanks for sharing


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## topdog568 (Jul 24, 2017)

Funny story and great photos. I am a sucker for great stair cases and to see them going to waste is a shame. 
Thanks for posing this


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## SnakeCorp (Sep 11, 2017)

I stayed in the chain hotel over the road from this one earlier this year and often wondered what it looked like inside. Nice one lads!


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## BikinGlynn (Sep 11, 2017)

Yeah thats nice that, not sure about the asking price though 
Just think how exciting your night could of ended lol.


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