Unplanned Explore - Unknown Factory - Help? - April 2012

So I've been working (as IT Manager) in Edgware, north London for 5 years, and regularly I pop 200 yards down the road to get lunch from Asda, and I always look at this boarded up building wondering whats inside. But as it's on a busy junction it's always seemed out-of-reach unless I go back at night, and a 50 mile round trip to do that I've not bothered.

Anyway, today I'm walking back from Asda with a bloke I work with, we're both in shirts, trousers, shoes, the typical office-wear, and not what you'd go Urbex-ing in, and I figure 'sod it' and headed across the road for a look. Colleage following carring the Adsa pasties in a carrier bag.

We wander down the side and find a window and I jump through leaving my mate behind, but eventually he finds an open door round the back and comes in to join me, asking if I really needed to do the action-man jump through the window

I've no idea what this building is, so no history. If anyone can tell me I'd love to know.





It's very derelict inside, and covered in graffiti, but somehow also better than I expected. Loads of pigeons and the floor was a mess of slime and pigeon s**t (remember we're in office gear). In the end we had a good look round.


Appologies, but I only had my HTC PDA with me to take photos - as I said this was unplanned, but I'm happy I did it...













This part should have had a roof, it's not supposed to be lit by sunlight




...or have plants growing in it...









Why is it that every place always has one of these...?







And then we came across this, totally out of place, and has graffiti on it, but looks fairly intact but doesn't appear to have moved in a while. No obvious way in for it and no tyre marks in all the crap on the floor...



















And anyone know what this was...?




Sorry for the photo quality - just had to share it.

Steve

That looks alright that does, lovely facade and a nice level of dereliction inside

Good quality pics for a PDA, no idea what the building would have been used for, but the dead animal looks like a skeleton of a greyhound / whippet type dog.

Thanks for the share!

nice lil splore there you had...perfect place to munch on your asda pasty...

Here you go...
http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=5064&highlight=nova+pac

surprised to see the windows on the JCB intact!

Thanks everyone

John_D, you certainly got more info than I did, cheers for that. I'll have to see if I can find anything else based on some of your info, but I'll do that when it's not 4am :-/

Good report and the pics are fine

Nice work. That skeleton looks like a dog to me by the teeth.

omj624p said:

Thanks everyone

John_D, you certainly got more info than I did, cheers for that. I'll have to see if I can find anything else based on some of your info, but I'll do that when it's not 4am :-/

Click to expand...

Loads of info about the surrounding buildings, that no longer exist, but still nothing definitive found about the initial use of the one surviving building that you explored


'When the tube railway reached Colindale, land prices had increased and factory expansion was not so easy, so some industries looked elsewhere for premises. In 1931, Frigidaire, for example, decided to build a new manufacturing plant to the west, on the A5 Edgware Road, and had moved its entire operations there by 1946.

After the tube station opened, development as a London suburb was rapid, and by 1939 much of the western side was semi-detached housing. Typical was the Colin Park Estate, built by F. H. Stucke & Co. around Colindeep Lane in 1927. Some of the houses on this estate are by the architect E. G. Trobridge.

St Matthias started as a mission church in 1905. Its permanent building was opened in 1934, and rebuilt between 1971 and 1973. Colindale Infants' School opened in Colindeep Lane in 1921, with a new building constructed in Woodfield Avenue in 1933. In 2011 the design and build for a new three form entry school was completed by The Kier Group and Sprunt Architects.

In September 1940, Colindale tube station and the Newspaper Library (rebuilt 1957) were bombed. and the site was visited by George VI and Queen Elizabeth, the late Queen Mother. A V-1 flying bomb hit Colindale Hospital on 1 July 1944, killing four members of the Women's Auxiliary Air Force.

Hendon Tram Depot (site now occupied by Merit House, opposite Oriental City) was in 1910 the scene of the first trials in Britain of a trolleybus. This location eventually became Colindale Trolleybus Depot, from which route 645 operated until January 1962, when the depot was closed down and eventually demolished. Land behind the depot was used from 1959 to 1962 by the George Cohen 600 Group for scrapping the vast majority of London's fleet of 1891 trolleybuses'.


edit :- Well just found the original of the blurry OS map in the pdf which confirms the use of the building in the 1950's. Whether this was it's initial use though I do not know.

That central tower reminds me of the water towers that you see on some RAF bases... mind you with them being built around about the same era it's hardly surprising I suppose.

Great pics i would say the skeleton is a fox by the shape of the head ?

Walrus75 said:

That central tower reminds me of the water towers that you see on some RAF bases... mind you with them being built around about the same era it's hardly surprising I suppose.

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Bearing in mind the Razor Blade connection, the whole building appears to be a scaled down version of the Gillette Factory on the Great West Road (built1936/37), possibly a smaller manufacturer who thought that imitation was the way to go, not just in the product?

omj624p said:

So I've been working (as IT Manager) in Edgware, north London for 5 years, and regularly I pop 200 yards down the road to get lunch from Asda, and I always look at this boarded up building wondering whats inside. But as it's on a busy junction it's always seemed out-of-reach unless I go back at night, and a 50 mile round trip to do that I've not bothered.




And anyone know what this was...?

Sorry for the photo quality - just had to share it.

Steve

Click to expand...

Great post - could you be more specific about the location? Were there any doors that would have allowed the vehicle to enter?

Haha I can just imagine you doing the whole "action-man jump" through the window in your office gear
Great report though, that last picture is pretty cool. Poor thing, it does look like a dog... how big was it?

P964FP said:

Great post - could you be more specific about the location? Were there any doors that would have allowed the vehicle to enter?

Click to expand...

Seriously?