History
I'm not going to go in to great detail, the history has been posted here recently and is all over the internet. Lillesden manor was built in 1855 for Edward Lloyd - a notable banker - in a chateau-esque fashion. It is set in 200 acres of parkland. It was sold following the great war and became a girls school, which over the years was subject to various amalgamations. It closed in 1999 and is likely to be redeveloped into apartments in the near future.
The Explore
After seeing Bartje and Dicky21's reports I couldn't resist. I visited this site twice, first in the middle of the night, having screwed ourselves over having read a report on "Bedgebury School". "Bedgebury it is then". Or not. Well in the end we ended up in Lillesden which seemed to be the name of the estate itself rather than the surrounding area, at this point it was about 2 a.m. The outside of the building was awe inspiring, coming from Thanet we aren't used to stuff like this .
The place is rather stripped internally but it's the architectural features that make this such a worthy explore, sandstone masonry and huge mirrors to begin with. Spent a few hours wandering the site but had to return to take advantage of the light. Upstairs was a bit dodgy, the lead thefts have caused significant damage to the flooring. Opening doors to see three floors of drop was quite comical. All in all a good explore and I'd definitely recommend it, it's not often you see buildings of this quality.
Visited with four different non-forum UER's.
The Photos
As always constructive criticism is welcome, pm me if you fancy a visit, I could photograph this place forever. Hope the tonemapping is reasonable
I'm not going to go in to great detail, the history has been posted here recently and is all over the internet. Lillesden manor was built in 1855 for Edward Lloyd - a notable banker - in a chateau-esque fashion. It is set in 200 acres of parkland. It was sold following the great war and became a girls school, which over the years was subject to various amalgamations. It closed in 1999 and is likely to be redeveloped into apartments in the near future.
The Explore
After seeing Bartje and Dicky21's reports I couldn't resist. I visited this site twice, first in the middle of the night, having screwed ourselves over having read a report on "Bedgebury School". "Bedgebury it is then". Or not. Well in the end we ended up in Lillesden which seemed to be the name of the estate itself rather than the surrounding area, at this point it was about 2 a.m. The outside of the building was awe inspiring, coming from Thanet we aren't used to stuff like this .
The place is rather stripped internally but it's the architectural features that make this such a worthy explore, sandstone masonry and huge mirrors to begin with. Spent a few hours wandering the site but had to return to take advantage of the light. Upstairs was a bit dodgy, the lead thefts have caused significant damage to the flooring. Opening doors to see three floors of drop was quite comical. All in all a good explore and I'd definitely recommend it, it's not often you see buildings of this quality.
Visited with four different non-forum UER's.
The Photos
As always constructive criticism is welcome, pm me if you fancy a visit, I could photograph this place forever. Hope the tonemapping is reasonable