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Report - - Bricket Wood Leisure Centre - Herts - Jan 2019 | Leisure Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Bricket Wood Leisure Centre - Herts - Jan 2019

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Proxy23

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
A kick start to 2019 with this fairly easy but highly satisfying explore. @WilsonTheHuman, @Carpathian and myself set off headed towards Herts and the swimming pool that has been repeatedly photographed by few aficionados of urbexing.

The site lies in the middle of a huge park, alongside a small lake inhabited by geese and ducks.
It was fairly easy to gain access to the building and we enjoyed a good mooch everywhere we could reach, the underground floor, with the ladies and gents changing rooms were flooded so we could only see the changing rooms from the stairs.
Amongst bushes and geese, there’s at least another 5 building blocks, one of which is a grade II Listed manor built in 1920/1930
About the 2 small houses and the Manor:
The house was built for the Yule family. Sir David Yule (1858–1928) was a Scottish entrepreneur who went into the family business, which was trade with India, then the "jewel in the crown" of the British Empire. He was involved with many additional businesses. The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography judged him "arguably the most important businessman in India" and quoted his obituary in The Times as "one of the wealthiest men, if not the wealthiest man, in the country"
Yule had married his cousin Annie Henrietta, oldest daughter of his uncle Andrew Yule of Calcutta. They had one child, Gladys. He died only three years after the construction of the house, and "lies buried in an admirably designed carved stone tomb, covered overhead by a stone and wood canopy, enclosed by an ornate iron fence inside a small wooded park, the whole being encircled by another iron fence." The Mausolea and Monuments Trust says that the sculpture itself is a draped chair with inscription from Kipling's Jungle Book and a box tomb showing his Indian jute mills and plantations.
The new main house became the home of the daughter, while her mother lived in the guest. They were world travellers who reportedly shared an interest in big game hunting and a love of animals. The 1920s mansion was said to have been adorned by a large stuffed bear which they had killed in the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. On the grounds they kept a seal, penguins, and wallabies. We did spot an old aviary which was well closed where a lonely robin had found refuge in.
A later owner of the property wrote: "In 1925 Sir David decided to build for himself a mansion on this 1200 acre [4.9 km²] estate, located only five miles [8 km] from the northwest edge of London. Prior to this he had built a 'modest' two-story house of some 14 rooms to live in during construction of the mansion. It was later to become the guest house." – these were the 2 smaller houses at the back of the garden, they had been connected to a more modern building in the recent years.
All around lie at least another 3 buildings more modern that would have functioned as accommodation for those attending trainings on site and actual management and training rooms.
We had walked around the whole grounds, peeping inside all other buildings who were secured by alarms and/or boarded up so no chance in finding a way in, none the less it took us 3 hours to go around it all (and we still left some unexplored areas!)

To this day:
The district council will have to pay £550,000 to (private) owners on top of the thousands of pounds already spent on maintenance since the centre closed its doors to the public in March this year.
The centre closed its doors in March 2010 and a settlement for the early termination of the council’s lease of the sports centre has finally been agreed. The council took the decision to close the facility in March 2009 which enabled it to provide 12 months’ notice to HSBC for the termination of the lease – but it took more than 20 months to reach an agreement. To this day, January 2019 the swimming pool lays bare naked, empty and muddy. The decision was reached by the council who stated they needed to close the facility because it needed major redevelopment work or significant investment to maintain it in its current condition, as well as the fact it had been performing “very poorly” in financial and usage terms. It also needed the money saved for the new Westminster Lodge redevelopment.
Granted planning permission at appeal in July 2016, Richard Jackson Ltd supported St. Congar Land Ltd, with the transportation and offsite highway mitigation works. Now, this stunning site has been sold for residential development use. The development is a 185 acre site located in Hertfordshire. A former training centre which has around 14 acres of previously developed land providing over 250,000 sq ft of Class C2 accommodation. The planning consent for 138 units was granted on appeal on 1 July 2016.
St. Congar Land Ltd was given the go ahead by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to build 138 new homes, which was formerly occupied by a Management and Training Centre.

The grounds have been used to shoot a new heist movie recently:
https://www.hertsad.co.uk/news/new-british-heist-movie-filmed-in-bricket-wood-1-1962420 - Plastic (2014, Director: Julian Gilbey )


Now some of the photos (full set on here: https://www.flickr.com/photos/threadsoftheinvisible/albums/72157677450288028)

Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr

Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr
Bricket Wood by Proxy 23, on Flickr

Thanks for watching!!
P23
 
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