This was my 1st trip to a theatre, I cant say abandoned as it clearly isn't now! 1st impressions of the place from the outside, it doesn't look like a theatre at all! It is now an oddley place building. It looks reasonably secure around the exterior. Now for any people who want to go see this wonderful place, you can turn up and find the door to the side of the building and knock!! There was also a bell to ring too. As we went through the door I was met by a rally nice guy called Ian. He welcomed Myself and friend Danny in. After a very pleasnt introduction, Ian pointed out where to start and where not to go. When i say where not to go, it's not that it's off limits to anyone it's more that people now live in here and call this there home. So it's there little bit of privercy!!
The ppeople who are living in here have managed to decerate the place well. It's now ful of happy people!
It's so nice to see that this wonderful building has been brought back to life! There is plenty of history out there on this place so I don't need to go into detail about this! As it stands the guy who owns this place has been convicted for baby snatching and a few other heinous acts! He has been extradited and no longer has his assets in the UK!
Back to our tour, when we went through the doors into the theatre the only way to describe it is breathtaking! I was very pleasntly surprised to the condition of this place! It was odd to se that it was used as a church meeting place! It is full of books and info sheets! I am not kidding, there are boxes and boxes stact all over random parts of the place!
While Danny and I was looking around there was a team of videographers and a band shooting a music video here! When they was recording the bands video it was loud, and the bands music was carried through pretty much every part of this place. Now, in the basement we went a little deeper and come to a random wall that had a hole large enough for us to climb through. After venturing through the hole in the wall we noticed how very still and silent it was! There was no sound from the band! It was completely dark inside! It was cold and damp! The only noise we could hear was a hiss that sounded every so offten! I put this hiss down to a water pipe with air in it! We turned off our touches and swithched to night vision to see if there was anything we could find! The only thnig we found was continued tunnels and random doorways. There are random bricked up walls with recited doorways! There was also some very old urinals and toilets! I was guessing that we was under the main stage as we found wooden stairs that went up to a trap door that was sealed shut! There was about 5 of them that stretched along the basement! The further we went the stranger we felt! The feeling was like a presure building up. It gave me a headache. Now I know that there will be someone who can tell me that this is normal for going under ground etc, but this was my 1st experiance of it! Considering we thought we was under the stage we couldnt hear a thing it was silent! It also had a foul smell. Damp and mold covered parts of this basement.
So if any others go down into the basement either take an extra touch with you or spare batteries and most importantly a pack of headche tablets! The feeling was similar to needing to equlise like you do when you are scuba diving. But it was awsome to see all of this
Well after our explore of the basement we worked our way up to the top of the place. The detail that had gone into the decoration of the theatre was still very grand! So many small wall carvings and decoration!
It is such a shame that places this grand fall into decay! The upper floors wasnt as fun as the basement. There was plenty more boxes full of more god loves you books! Other than the many books of the church there was nothing here that said to me it was used as a church! As you can imagine there was lots of mess on the upper floors as these was made into the residents sleeping quaters! It was really interesting to see that they had made thee own warm den to relax in! I walked in on afew of the residents area as you would never have guessed they are there! I appoligised and the pleasnt youg lady apeeared to show us how to reach the top area of the place! We had been warned that the floor isn't very safe! We went on with extra care! There was more toilets and a bar area! One thing that stands out that i thought was awful was a bottle that was full of hundreds of dead flys in brown water! It was rank! We also found at the very top a sadly faild attempt at a pot plant!
Well after this we traveled back down towards the exit. We thanked Ian for the hospitality. You really can see the hard work that has gone into making this place a home!
I hope you enjyed the report and the pictures i have put up with the report.
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