MidlandsMaster
Member
Cavendish House, Dudley, West Midlands
So after a long awaited few years of checking back there quite often we saw our opportunity and headed in. Torches in hand and hats and thick clothing on as it was quite a cold chilly evening, and unfortunatley light was starting to fade on us.
So up on entering it was apparent that this what was once a gorgeous building back in its hay day but had unfortunatley fell fowl to vandalism and graffiti since being closed (as has many other places I've visited) which always saddens me upon arrival, and it's usually my first comment to my fellow sidekick and Explorer Mark.
So we weren't exactly sure where to start because the place is quite a large area with many rooms and side rooms. So we just browsed about the lower floor and got a feel for the building and immediately it just felt right. To me this building still had all its character dotted about and I knew it was going to be a decent explore (coupled with the excitement after waiting years)
The first thing that struck me was the amount of glass. This is one of the only places I've done that I have seen so much broken glass scattered around the lower floor space. Going up the stairs I was suprised to see that all the origional period feature hand rails were mostly still attached to the wall (a few had fallen off over the years or possibly been ripped off many moons ago) but mostly I was suprised was till attatched!
The main concrete walls in places were mostly in tact but it was obvious there was quite a lot of graffitti dotted around. And upon the first floor there is an array of rooms that used to be huge office spaces, unfortunatley most of the ceilings are now on the floor and the odd wire hangs down with bare ends but clearly power to the place was cut off many moons ago.
Going up onto the second floor up the next set of stairs, for the most part it looked exactly like the first set with the general theme of loose handrails and the floor littered with debris. That's actually how most of the stairs ways leading to the next floor all was so I'll not mention that again. You tend to get the idea instead of me being a bit repetitive on that one.
So by this time darkness had really quite faded but with all windows boarded up (just a few missing and a few with some strange square cut holes here and there which seemed odd) It was torches up to high brightness while we stopped to take a quick breather and take in our vast office like surroundings.
One thing I did notice however that the theme was obviously the same on most floors and if I'm completely honest the place unfortunatley seemed more damaged and vandalised the higher up we went.
I was particularly impressed by the Fact there was a few of the old type square sinks still in tact. (After all i have fond childhood memories of them square sinks) and up on the 4th floor got quite interesting. On the way up there we saw some blue and white police tape scattered around. But searching anything on the Internet doesent reveal anything major happening here at all that I can see. So if anyone has any idea as to why that's there then please let me know because it's an odd place to see pieces of tape like that just randomly dotted about. And then onto the next floor there seemed to be quite a few corridor type walkways with small rooms off to both the left and the right. Which I'm presuming were small interview rooms or maybe even single office spaces for one person. However most did have slide signs that said Vacant/in use on them.
This brings me to my next subject here, the lifts and lift shafts. Most of the lift doors were closed but on a higher level the lift doors were open and the shafts were exposed! Quite dangerous indeed. Also there were a few fire reels with hoses still rolled up neatly and a few fire extinguishers still surprisingly attached to the wall that hadn't fell victim to vandals over the years.
There was also ripped blue tarpaulins that used to cover some door ways that had signs on that were a warning about asbestos. There was one room that looked too badly wrecked that had an asbestos warning and as it was so badly damaged we decided that it wasn't worth going into that one for obvious reasons.
So as we got to the roof space we could feel the chill and looking around the place there was quite a few dead birds and a lot of pigeon excrement dotted about. And that was only the second to last floor!
The floor leading onto the roof space had smashed doors and a few fixtures and fittings knocked off onto the ground, also there was a blanket of wet soggy mud and pigeon carcasses and feathers from what was probably years ago and the smell was quite a pong! One part of the roof space seemed badly flooded so we headed the other way into a room with old type industrial machines that I'm assuming may of been to operate the lifts? But I can't be sure of that.
The there was the roof space itself. It had unfortunatley started to drizzle a little when we were having a look about the place and was now completely dark, the roof had a view as far as the eye could see and some of Dudleys most iconic and historical places could easily be seen.
Also another thing I noticed that can be seen from ground level at quite a distance was some graffiti at the highest point in big black lettering. This is unfortunate that this buildings gone so downhill and apparently is earmarked for demolition under the portersfield development scheme which is to help regenerate Dudley which is now quite a quiet place compared to the hustle and bustle of the high street as I remember it when I used to walk the high street with my friends as a teenager.
A lovely place, Decent well worth waiting for explore with a few photos taken on mostly every floor.
Since we visited it has now been secured all round with razor wire on the perimeter fences and welded up fence bars and due to the amount of rubbish dumped there of a household nature a sign saying Warning! CCTV in operation in this area you are being watched and a fine amount given fur fly tipping.
It will be a great shame to see this place go but it's looking a bit tatty as the years have gone by.
IMG-20170126-WA0038 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
Just One of the many boarded up doors around the site
IMG-20170126-WA0060 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0058 by Sy Hanson
, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0064 by Sy Hanson
, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0069 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0058 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
So having lived round this area since birth this was a place I was watching very closely with a friend of mine. I did the usual perimeter fencing walk many a time and could not see a way in for many years. However i read plenty of history on the place and found lots of information on the buiding being something to do with the Former Department for work and pensions offices in the mid 1980s.So after a long awaited few years of checking back there quite often we saw our opportunity and headed in. Torches in hand and hats and thick clothing on as it was quite a cold chilly evening, and unfortunatley light was starting to fade on us.
So up on entering it was apparent that this what was once a gorgeous building back in its hay day but had unfortunatley fell fowl to vandalism and graffiti since being closed (as has many other places I've visited) which always saddens me upon arrival, and it's usually my first comment to my fellow sidekick and Explorer Mark.
So we weren't exactly sure where to start because the place is quite a large area with many rooms and side rooms. So we just browsed about the lower floor and got a feel for the building and immediately it just felt right. To me this building still had all its character dotted about and I knew it was going to be a decent explore (coupled with the excitement after waiting years)
The first thing that struck me was the amount of glass. This is one of the only places I've done that I have seen so much broken glass scattered around the lower floor space. Going up the stairs I was suprised to see that all the origional period feature hand rails were mostly still attached to the wall (a few had fallen off over the years or possibly been ripped off many moons ago) but mostly I was suprised was till attatched!
The main concrete walls in places were mostly in tact but it was obvious there was quite a lot of graffitti dotted around. And upon the first floor there is an array of rooms that used to be huge office spaces, unfortunatley most of the ceilings are now on the floor and the odd wire hangs down with bare ends but clearly power to the place was cut off many moons ago.
Going up onto the second floor up the next set of stairs, for the most part it looked exactly like the first set with the general theme of loose handrails and the floor littered with debris. That's actually how most of the stairs ways leading to the next floor all was so I'll not mention that again. You tend to get the idea instead of me being a bit repetitive on that one.
So by this time darkness had really quite faded but with all windows boarded up (just a few missing and a few with some strange square cut holes here and there which seemed odd) It was torches up to high brightness while we stopped to take a quick breather and take in our vast office like surroundings.
One thing I did notice however that the theme was obviously the same on most floors and if I'm completely honest the place unfortunatley seemed more damaged and vandalised the higher up we went.
I was particularly impressed by the Fact there was a few of the old type square sinks still in tact. (After all i have fond childhood memories of them square sinks) and up on the 4th floor got quite interesting. On the way up there we saw some blue and white police tape scattered around. But searching anything on the Internet doesent reveal anything major happening here at all that I can see. So if anyone has any idea as to why that's there then please let me know because it's an odd place to see pieces of tape like that just randomly dotted about. And then onto the next floor there seemed to be quite a few corridor type walkways with small rooms off to both the left and the right. Which I'm presuming were small interview rooms or maybe even single office spaces for one person. However most did have slide signs that said Vacant/in use on them.
This brings me to my next subject here, the lifts and lift shafts. Most of the lift doors were closed but on a higher level the lift doors were open and the shafts were exposed! Quite dangerous indeed. Also there were a few fire reels with hoses still rolled up neatly and a few fire extinguishers still surprisingly attached to the wall that hadn't fell victim to vandals over the years.
There was also ripped blue tarpaulins that used to cover some door ways that had signs on that were a warning about asbestos. There was one room that looked too badly wrecked that had an asbestos warning and as it was so badly damaged we decided that it wasn't worth going into that one for obvious reasons.
So as we got to the roof space we could feel the chill and looking around the place there was quite a few dead birds and a lot of pigeon excrement dotted about. And that was only the second to last floor!
The floor leading onto the roof space had smashed doors and a few fixtures and fittings knocked off onto the ground, also there was a blanket of wet soggy mud and pigeon carcasses and feathers from what was probably years ago and the smell was quite a pong! One part of the roof space seemed badly flooded so we headed the other way into a room with old type industrial machines that I'm assuming may of been to operate the lifts? But I can't be sure of that.
The there was the roof space itself. It had unfortunatley started to drizzle a little when we were having a look about the place and was now completely dark, the roof had a view as far as the eye could see and some of Dudleys most iconic and historical places could easily be seen.
Also another thing I noticed that can be seen from ground level at quite a distance was some graffiti at the highest point in big black lettering. This is unfortunate that this buildings gone so downhill and apparently is earmarked for demolition under the portersfield development scheme which is to help regenerate Dudley which is now quite a quiet place compared to the hustle and bustle of the high street as I remember it when I used to walk the high street with my friends as a teenager.
A lovely place, Decent well worth waiting for explore with a few photos taken on mostly every floor.
Since we visited it has now been secured all round with razor wire on the perimeter fences and welded up fence bars and due to the amount of rubbish dumped there of a household nature a sign saying Warning! CCTV in operation in this area you are being watched and a fine amount given fur fly tipping.
It will be a great shame to see this place go but it's looking a bit tatty as the years have gone by.
IMG-20170126-WA0038 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
Just One of the many boarded up doors around the site
IMG-20170126-WA0060 by Sy Hanson, on FlickrIMG-20170126-WA0058 by Sy Hanson
, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0064 by Sy Hanson
, on Flickr
IMG-20170126-WA0069 by Sy Hanson, on FlickrIMG-20170126-WA0058 by Sy Hanson, on Flickr
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