Last time I went I only had my phone and after seeing a post elsewhere that the grounds have been cleared of brambles I wanted to go back as it probably won’t be long for demolition or building work to start. I just hope that the two badger sets in the grounds are undisturbed and also the pigeons inside who are currently nesting in the attic.
I did this solo this time, my daughter stayed outside in the car. All rooms are open, last time a few were closed and I braved the attic and the cellar too. The graffiti “artists” had recently been I could smell the fumes as I entered that part of the building and a friend who went 2 days before confirmed there was none when they went. you can get to the attic without disturbing the lady pigeons sitting on their eggs, it is full of stuff including boxes of photographs and letters. One photo is of a deceased person laying in an open coffin, others depict the lives of a man and a woman who was a dancer. This stuff needs saving but where do you even start to find the owner or their relatives?
The cellar was pretty empty but massive with lots of different rooms, from one you could see where one of the staircases used to come all the way down. Given the windows down there and the fact the house is quite disorientating with its many rooms and short steps up and down to different levels I’m not sure it was always a cellar as I believe it’s probably on the ground floor.
The clearance of the garden has unearthed a car with a mannequin leg in it and a shed thing full of stuff.
if the images are overblown sorry, trying something different
History
this is a substantial and particularly fine Victorian era villa
Not a great deal of the history I like to find, all the info I have got comes from various planning applications. The property was first in use in 1934 and that Flat 2 had been occupied in constant use since 1950s. Wether before then it was just one dwelling is not clear, currently it is clearly split into different flats.
A local resident stated he had been into house once about 21 years ago and once about 4/5 years ago after a burglary. The property was the same layout both times and he believed that it was originally 6 flats but cannot confirm this - the property was definitely partitioned off on the ground floor with a flat either side and a long corridor from the front door to the rear staircase; believe each floor was converted into a flat either side.
Northdene has been unoccupied and effectively abandoned for the past decade or more, and therefore has not been used, or 'operated', in this way in the past 4 years, continuously or at all. it is understood a few years ago the property was raided by thieves without raising alarm; this would have been impossible had the house been occupied, particularly as 5 self-contained flats.
Other information states Northdene does not seem to have been used as self-contained flats since 1981 or thereabouts - 1970s electoral register records various voters in up to 5 separately identified flats; none are recorded between 1982 and 1987 or after 2002. Latter entries listings are simply against North Dene and not listed as individual separate flats.
However, the copious amounts of clothing left behind in the rooms didn’t indicate fashion from the 1980s and looked more from the mid 90s.
Various planning applications have been refused over time, one of those were changing to a 21 x 2 bedroom flat 3 storey building after complete demolition of the current building.
The most recent application is “Erection of a three-storey side extension to existing building to create 2no. two-bedroom units and 1no. one-bedroom unit, internal refurbishment works to the existing building, and the erection of 3no. dwellings with associated works” which has also been refused.
I did this solo this time, my daughter stayed outside in the car. All rooms are open, last time a few were closed and I braved the attic and the cellar too. The graffiti “artists” had recently been I could smell the fumes as I entered that part of the building and a friend who went 2 days before confirmed there was none when they went. you can get to the attic without disturbing the lady pigeons sitting on their eggs, it is full of stuff including boxes of photographs and letters. One photo is of a deceased person laying in an open coffin, others depict the lives of a man and a woman who was a dancer. This stuff needs saving but where do you even start to find the owner or their relatives?
The cellar was pretty empty but massive with lots of different rooms, from one you could see where one of the staircases used to come all the way down. Given the windows down there and the fact the house is quite disorientating with its many rooms and short steps up and down to different levels I’m not sure it was always a cellar as I believe it’s probably on the ground floor.
The clearance of the garden has unearthed a car with a mannequin leg in it and a shed thing full of stuff.
if the images are overblown sorry, trying something different
History
this is a substantial and particularly fine Victorian era villa
Not a great deal of the history I like to find, all the info I have got comes from various planning applications. The property was first in use in 1934 and that Flat 2 had been occupied in constant use since 1950s. Wether before then it was just one dwelling is not clear, currently it is clearly split into different flats.
A local resident stated he had been into house once about 21 years ago and once about 4/5 years ago after a burglary. The property was the same layout both times and he believed that it was originally 6 flats but cannot confirm this - the property was definitely partitioned off on the ground floor with a flat either side and a long corridor from the front door to the rear staircase; believe each floor was converted into a flat either side.
Northdene has been unoccupied and effectively abandoned for the past decade or more, and therefore has not been used, or 'operated', in this way in the past 4 years, continuously or at all. it is understood a few years ago the property was raided by thieves without raising alarm; this would have been impossible had the house been occupied, particularly as 5 self-contained flats.
Other information states Northdene does not seem to have been used as self-contained flats since 1981 or thereabouts - 1970s electoral register records various voters in up to 5 separately identified flats; none are recorded between 1982 and 1987 or after 2002. Latter entries listings are simply against North Dene and not listed as individual separate flats.
However, the copious amounts of clothing left behind in the rooms didn’t indicate fashion from the 1980s and looked more from the mid 90s.
Various planning applications have been refused over time, one of those were changing to a 21 x 2 bedroom flat 3 storey building after complete demolition of the current building.
The most recent application is “Erection of a three-storey side extension to existing building to create 2no. two-bedroom units and 1no. one-bedroom unit, internal refurbishment works to the existing building, and the erection of 3no. dwellings with associated works” which has also been refused.
