# the end of cosgrove hall studios... (picture heavy!)



## ljarrald (Jan 4, 2012)

i posted this on a different forum and have just copied the message and bb code so some of the descriptions may not be relevant to your interests.

the photos were taken on a compact canon IXUS IS 850, not the best in the world...

the building is now 100% GONE  i went in as half of it was demolished, rooms that were half demolished, doors that led to nowhere... it was fun to urbex, i just wish i got there before the JCBs did.
enjoy....

this is the site of what used to be cosgrove hall studios. 
it was an animation studio where they made children's television programs like...
dangermouse,
bill and ben the flowerpot men,
chorlton and the wheelies,
and many more.

it was owned by ITV who sold it to a property developer, most of the building has now been pulled down to make way for retirement flats.

its a great shame, but i was lucky enough to be allowed in before all of it was ripped down (i was the last one in many of the rooms)

i thought i'd post this on here as i'm sure many of you have watched the cartoons that cosgrove hall has produced. here are some pictures and a shortened documentary from the 80's.





























































































i am not quite sure what this is for, there WAS a panel because some of the bells and mcps have menvier EOLs in and the bells are 24V and there are conv apollo and hochiki detectors.































this is the hall where they actually filmed dangermouse, chorlton and the wheelies and others...






























this (i believe) is the mould for dangermouse's hand!

























































i didn't let it all go to waste 







here is the documentary from the 80's about it. in this video most of the final building is not even built yet! in total over the years i think it had about 5 extensions!


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## godzilla73 (Jan 4, 2012)

Sad - thats the death of an animation legend right there. Thanks for sharing
Godzy


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## robbie1003 (Jan 4, 2012)

all too often a great british idea gets eaten up in modernisation and buyouts. good report, shame you didnt get there before the diggers but thats very common.


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## wolfism (Jan 4, 2012)

Really interesting, such a well known name to those of us who grew up in the 1980's … I hope someone saved Dangermouse's hand!


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## ljarrald (Jan 5, 2012)

wolfism said:


> Really interesting, such a well known name to those of us who grew up in the 1980's … I hope someone saved Dangermouse's hand!



i was born in the second half of the nineties so mostly grew up in the naughties. i remember the first time i noticed cosgrove hall, we drove past it in the car and i saw the logo and asked my dad if that's where bob the builder was made as it had the same logo. he told me it was and i felt happy to live in Manchester, the home of bob the builder and others, i must of been about 6 at the time... it would of still been in use making animations! 

its a shame all the iconic buildings in this country that make us proud to be British are getting demolished/torched one by one for development.

i forgot to say, in that Ariel shot, the parts of the building with the squares and crosses in are the parts that were already demolished when i got in.

dormouse's hand... i picked it up with the intention of saving it and must of put it down! i am really kicking myself about that


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## Alley (Jan 5, 2012)

Thanks for posting. I wondered what it was like but the building was secure when I checked it out. I took this in 2005 when it was still open:


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## RichardH (Jan 5, 2012)

Suddenly, I feel very old...


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## maximus (Jan 6, 2012)

RichardH said:


> Suddenly, I feel very old...



Me too


Why would there be a mould for dangermouse's hand,wasn't he a cartoon character?? Not a puppet


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## ljarrald (Jan 6, 2012)

maximus said:


> Me too
> 
> 
> Why would there be a mould for dangermouse's hand,wasn't he a cartoon character?? Not a puppet



good point. it must be of a different character then


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## ljarrald (Jan 6, 2012)

Alley said:


> Thanks for posting. I wondered what it was like but the building was secure when I checked it out. I took this in 2005 when it was still open:



that picture instantly made me feel a little sad, when i got in this part was gone. looking back at my photos it does get me down a bit... i get far too attached to buildings and it feels like a small piece of me has been destroyed for ever every time one gets demolished (am i the only one?)


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## djmcambs (Jan 12, 2012)

great report!! used to watch dangermouse as a kid! shame itv sold this one off, its a waste really, dmc


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## ljarrald (Feb 13, 2012)

inevitably, its gone 

these pictures are a couple of months old.


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## octigen (Mar 27, 2012)

Great pics. I remember Dangermouse really well; I used to love it as a child. I'm confused aboiut the hand mould though - wasn't Dangermouse a drawn cartoon rather than a clay animation? Was there a later series that I didn't see where they changed the style?


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## ljarrald (Mar 27, 2012)

yeah, that mould wasn't for dangermouse.
i don't know what made me think it was, sorry for the confusion.


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## octigen (Mar 27, 2012)

It's still a mould for something though, so it still counts as a thing


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