Thank you. I think it was very badly damaged to the point it will prob be demolished. Ha ha you will be looking for toilet shots now
The fire destroyed more of the roof and some of the trusses, but there was already a massive hole in that before the fire. The fire was restricted to the roof and top floor, it didn’t even touch the rest of the building. Thankfully, a neighbour saw the fire very early on and the fire bridge were on scene fairly quickly. We weren’t allowed into our studio until the following afternoon.
In the weeks running up to the fire, there had been an issue with young teenagers in every afternoon/evening, damaging the windows, sometimes putting them through when we were a work in one of the nearby buildings. Twice I came out to find glass on top of my car, and the nigh before the fire, a window pane was put through as I was in our door way, directly opposite.
Two years later, and not demolished, it’s listed, and hasn’t been deemed dangerous enough - bits are constantly failing off, we regularly find more glass, or lumps of concrte or brick in the alleway
Almost a exactly a year prior to the fire, there was a collapse off the Heanor Road end of the building, some rubble landing on the main road, but the majority, a massive pile of bricks, a lintel or two, fell down onto the raised area near the Heanor Road end of the building, just behind the wall.
The absent landlord (southern based) has no interest whatsoever in maintaining the beoyond the requirements to keep his insurance. We were not one little bit surprised that there was a fire, we’ve been predicting it for years. As it is a listed building, the only way to get permission to knock it down is if it becomes a danger…
Despite working in the building across the alleyway for the last 12 years, I’ve never been inside, so these photos are a fascinating insight for me, thank you