Report - Concept 2000, Farnborough 27.12.06

[ewan]

Me and Minicab managed to head over to Concept 2000 today to lose our urban exploration virginities. Concept 2000 was built in the 1980's (anyone know when?) I think I recall it being built about 1986, but since I was 5, I could be remembering incorrectly. Either way Fairview homes has submitted a planning application to knock it down and build 200-300 homes on the 4 acre site starting in July 07.

If anyone's curious the application can be found here : http://pa-dc.rushmoor.gov.uk/public...lication_detailview.aspx?caseno=J9STAQNMX7000

Access to the site itself was a very easy, however on first inspection it appeared that it was sealed up extremely tightly. Suffice to say, a little bit of cunning was needed to find the entrance. Once we did, we had the run of the place from the basement to the roof, as these pictures attest too.

All the photos can be found in this Flickr Set:
Concept 2000

Here are some highlights:

The outside of the building (all photos have had the white balance fixed to remove the orange colour cast, this photo was taken at 9pm ish)

Different view of the outside.

The front of the building from the compound. Highlights include fencing and a old pond.

There used to be lots of computing equipment in the building, one of the upper floors is largely a computer room (vented flooring), this is some of the plant. The basement was partly flooded (by about 2 inches), it may be under the water table, there are some very large pumps in here (inactive of course).

Fairly typical of the condition of the building. People had clearly been in before us (large sections of copper cabling missing) but no ones tried to set fire to it or anything.

Large room. Lots of these all over the place. Still stuck in the 90's juding by the typefaces all the signs were written in!

You get an ace view of the town from the top. This is the Clock House Roundabout (so called due to the old clockhouse).

Ham and Blackbird.

Side of the building. It's 4 stories high.

The window cleaning thingy.

In the foyer, next to the security sign (!).

Final one from the outside.

Have a look at the entire set... We're probably going to try Pyestock next.

 

[jr28uk]

Re: Concept 2000, Farnborough REPORT

Intresting What school was that mate as my school did the same!!!

I went to Rushmoor Independent School, in Reading Rd, Farnborough.

Think Concept 2000 was built by Costain and they had various open days when they were building it to try and convince local residents about the building. It was pretty radical for Farnborough in the early 80s!!!

The site origionally was, i think, the Orchard for Farnborough Abbey next door and had a couple of old buildings at the "Clockhouse" end of the site which were near enough derilict when they pulled them down.

Costain used one of these buildings as the site office and we were shown a very "glitzy" promotional video of how Concept 2000 would look when finished

I do have a copy of the agents A4 brochure from last year, (bit sad i know!!!) quite a few nice pics of the outside of it and a couple of the reception area.

According to the brochure, Concept House was built in 1981, was a "Head Quarters" style building built to a "specification significantly ahead of its time" with features like suspended ceilings with recessed lighting and "fully accessed raised floors"

It was a freehold sale with full vacant possession although the agents clients would have considered the letting of appropriate parts of the whole building again. Shame Fairview Homes got hold of it!

Not sure if Concept 2000 was ever the success they planned it to be, Royal Mail/The Post Office did use it for a while as offices and i think a call centre but im sure there was usually seemed to be a "to let" sign out side the building, like most offices in Farnborough!!