Institute For Animal Health, Compton.
Straight outtacompton Newbury!
Straight outta
Background
A heavily simplified timeline.
The Pirbright Institute, initially under the Agricultural Research Council, was set up in 1914 within the Surry village of Pirbright to test cows for the presence of Tuberculosis. At the time, the disease was identified to have been transmitted to most humans through the consumption of infected Milk.
The labs began to further focus into the identification of diseases within livestock throughout the post war periods with Compton being the second major expansion of the institute in 1937 following expansions to the Pirbright site in the mid 20's.
From 1939 and into 1942 Pirbright and Compton were commissioned as Institutes for the research and study of Livestock disease with Compton being commissioned as the Institute for Research on Animal Diseases.
In 1987 Compton, Houghton Grange and Pirbright became under the umbrella of the Institute For Animal Health under the directive of the BBSRC with the related Neuropathogenesis Laboratory of Edinburgh remaining as a satellite facility.
In 2005 Compton would welcome the Jenner Institute for Vaccine research onto the site within their own dedicated structure.
From 2007, following the Neuropathogenesis Laboratory becoming part of the Roslin Institute and the closure of Houghton in the 90's, The Institute for Animal Health would begin first of two phases into redevelopment at the home site of Pirbright to bring research close to home. By 2012 the second Phase had begun, with the Institute now becoming The Pirbright Institute, most research and been pulled from Compton and the site would partially close in 2015.
Post-closure, Compton has remained somewhat dormant with two thirds of the site left in decay.
A small section of Compton is still utilised, under MSD Animal Health, for identifying and testing of common diseases with access to the site possible through the disused section.
Pirbright continues to carry out research into common diseases and exotic strains for illnesses related to potential, or past, major outbreaks.
Compton is up for demolition although the process is expected to take a fair amount of time some work has begun as of mid 2023.
The visits
I began writing this in increments, after each visit, so this may be slightly messy.
The Initial Visit.
Arriving in the early hours with the summertime sunrise quickly removing our cover, a walk around the fence confirmed our first major concern of the site being partially used. We could quickly confirm that the currently active industry onsite was one which conducts animal research to this day but the disused section was contained itself which could lead to some complications.
At the forefront is the former Pirbright institute connected by a gated road to another somewhat disused section which is connected onto the live buildings. It was unsurprising that cameras are strategically placed at gates, fences, buildings and, corners of all sections. The massive infrared cameras and the twinned fences being a well maintained affair made plotting routes in and around a bit tricky.
Eventually we decided to get over the fence to have a better idea of what we are looking at. Once through the foliage and over both fences the land is rather open with long grass and untamed bushes being the only inital sign of disuse.
Trying our best to keep out of trouble we skirted behind anywhere that may be patrolled or monitored before eventually finding ourselves scrambling around the first of several buildings.
Again, unsurprisingly, the buildings were the usual secure laboratory affair with ground floor windows incapable of opening and doors few and far between. We managed to get onto some of the pipework and low roofs to see the only sign of promise being a window blocked from opening by an A/C unit with any other weaknesses in the building an award affair to exploit.
With the sun rising and a few other ideas in our mind we backed off and tried a few other buildings with some promising signs before slithering into the boiler house.
The Boiler House:
It's nothing spectacular and can be compared to the utility and boiler rooms of hospitals or mild industrial sites. To us it was a structure on site that we could mark as "complete" giving some more promise for the future buildings.
Some nice and expected boiler house peelyness.
Boiler number 4 was situated in its own shed and was surprisingly photogenic.
As the sun rose further we decided to make our way back, before we would be pinned inside as security walked within viewing distance leaving us to nervously wait inside before gunning it out of the facility.
Attempt 2
We'd return a week or so later with our timings re-evaluated to match the surroundings. Our main targets were the interconnected Henderson and Stewart buildings. With time still a way off what we'd hope to be the shift change period the receding darkness didn't play too much to our concerns and, our confidence of the time we had, lead to a thorough search for plotting us a way in.
Still being too dark to properly "explore" it was a good hour or so before anything took place.
The sun rises here was stunning each and every time.
By the time it was light enough to see inside, we headed in properly and the first thing that hit us was the smell. Overly sterile and chemical as if something had been spilt.
I'll cover the buildings in their respective halves.
Henderson.
This was clearly of a different age to the Stewart building notable in the overall size and design.
The first floor lead us to numerous laboratories, similar to those within class rooms, along some eerily dark hallways. The ground floor seemed to have a more utility and storage feel with more rooms allocated to auto-claves, freezers, stores and smaller laboratories with a lecture theatre towards the front.
Common within both floors was the damage caused by police training as well as some evidence of nesting pigeons.
Lecture Theatre.
Entrance
The oldest laboratories in this section with a lot of bird remains.
The numerous sample fridges which broke up a lot of the site.
A lot of this section had been cleared of obstacles for police training and was remarkably devoid of any interest.
Heading partially underground, the rooms here were all clinical and shiny with autoclaves claiming most of the floor space.
Interconnecting Corridors.
The Stewart and Henderson building had clearly been detached at some point with this corridor later conjoining them. Not too much to speak of here apart from the slight elevation change and feeling of isolation between both labs.
Stewart Building.
This was clearly the newest, or most recently refurbished, of the pair and was much more standardised. The upper and lower floors were the same with larger communal labs to each side of the corridor with cryogenic stores intruding on their space.
What we did find notable was each lab had been allocated to a team within Pirbright or under the lead of an external agency which worked along side the institute. There were numerous drawings along the glass as well as some polaroid's which the teams had left behind.
Medical Room
Stairs
Corridors
The endless labs
Auxiliary equipment.
We packed towards the late morning scoping a few other areas within for interest before having a monitor of security protocols. After a brief scare and a few passes of patrols, we felt safe to leave and got ourselves to the fence again.
To Be Continued...
