Abandoned house in Kings Heath, Birmingham (2012)

[PolioVaccine]

Hey all! This is my first post. I used to go past this house every day on the bus and decided to explore with a couple of friends one day.

I understand that the photos are not extremely well taken(I was only 14 when I took them...), and that their quality may not be very high but I thought it was worth a share either way!

Thank you!

 

[krela]

Hi there, first of all welcome to the site and thanks for posting.

To get the photos to work you need to follow the instructions here:

http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/help-and-faqs/31184-add-images-posts.html#post307564

 

[krela]

Thanks for sorting the photos. Curious one, falling apart but no obvious signs of fire? And it looks like it's in a good area so I'm curious to know the story.

 

[PolioVaccine]

Yes it was quite odd... Most of the second floor has very unstable/missing floorboards. I asked around but could never quite find an answer to why it was so messed up, but there was multiple signs outsside saying the building was "unstable". In the end they knocked it down and built on the land. It was on a main road in a good area around some lovely big houses and had a huge yard but for some reason had been completely abandoned.

 

[tazong]

Blimey fella did you have a family day out and bring the whole clan lol.

 

[UrbanX]

Welcome to the forum, great first report!

 

[Lavino]

Urbex in a fur coat nice..

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

I think if you search the old planning records you will find some sort of planning 'cock up' from years back. Many old towns and cities have/did have sites like this. It all depends on the age of the surrounding houses - if surroundings are old enough and had a wealthy enough population , this place was probably a stables with a nice owner's house attached, that dealt with the local's mode of transport (hire of horses and carriages etc). If of a more modern era, then the place could have been the premises and house of the local builder who first developed the area. Harrogate had a nice example of both scenarios, until modern concrete altered them beyond recognition. What ever happened here, your interior photographs indicate that originally the house was an expensive build - that bay window detailing was not cheap. The records will probably indicate that a 'change of use' went sour, or somebody walked away from a long winded planning application - I have seen both come up as reasons why an interesting ruin, in an unusual place, has been abandoned for decades.

A very nice report and I like the way you are introducing your friends to the hobby! Brings a whole new meaning to the phrase 'your homework tonight is'. Nice one, hope to see some more from the Brummy area soon. It is just possible that the old OS maps might give you a clue to this site - sometimes on these, even small areas can be marked 'Works', 'Yard' etc.

 

[krela]

Aaaaah, now I look more closely at the property that starts to make sense. Interesting DS thanks.

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

Thanks Krela. I really enjoyed this report and hope PV produces more in the same vein. There are probably some little gems hidden around there, if the houses were built when I think they were.

 

[krela]

It's very similar where I live. I live in the one "good" street on the edge of a now very shabby 1930's build council estate. On first look it's very out of place and incongruous, until you look into the records and realise that the cul-de-sac I live in is built on a plot of land given to the builder of the estate in part payment for all the council work, so they were built to a much better standard for commercial sale... the cul de sac is also a very odd shape which makes no sense at all in geography, planning or architectural terms, until you look at old maps and realise it simply follows old field boundaries. I guess doing that just made it easier to allocate plots of land to different builders without additional admin, plotting, groundwork etc.

Edit: Or more likely it might have been a more awkward plot which would have needed more work so was not viable cost wise for the council house budget, so it was given over to commercial building.

 

[Dirus_Strictus]

Krela - Thanks for that little bit of info. I always keep an eye out for 'funny' arrangements of older buildings, looking it up on old maps sometimes reveals very interesting stories.

 

[smiler]

I love looking at places where nature is improving on on our efforts, I enjoyed it, Thanks

 

[Potter]

It looks like it had certainly seen better days.