I cant believe it's been nearly 3 years since my last update on the goings on at Longbridge. The CABs have totally gone now (above ground at least) and the remaining expanse of concrete hard standing apparently repurposed to store cars. Before Sqibbs vacated the site in 2020 they managed to sneakily put in an application to demolish the 'energy centre' (a sort of power plant come boiler house) and unfortunately despite a few attempts at getting in there before them they eventually beat us too it. Recently some more demolition plans were announced for the site, SAIC the Chinese custodian of the MG brand have moved out of the design centre and what they called the conference centre (which was originally the Austin exhibition hall}, The elephant house, the distinct round house building you can see from the road has been vacant a lot longer but until now I had not really put the effort in to exploring it as it was almost possible to see the entire building through its vast expanse of glass and quite frankly it looked a bit shit.. still i needed to get in to complete the set so put the effort in this time round.
Initially explored solo before returning with Dweeb for a better look in the daytime.
Starting with the Elephant House, built originally as a showroom for commercial vehicles (but I'm not sure exactly when!) An interesting building no doubt but kind of ruined with the addition of modern double glazing. Despite some sources referring to it as a design studio as far as I know it's always been a showroom and nowadays other than the one nice staircase leading down to the toilets in the basement there was really nothing much to see in there. Ruined by modernisation and used by MG as a sales centre long after 2005. This is one of the buildings they seem keen to keep but not sure what the plans are.. it would make an good car showroom I guess!
Next up the design centre, a fairly utilitarian building at the back of the conference centre consisting of two mostly single storey blocks. One housed a big open plan office with small satellite offices each branded (presumably) with the names of different up and coming MG prototypes. The other had 3 'bays' with cast iron floor plates where car models would have been created. You could still see the clay they used to make the models ingrained into the floor around each bay. On the face of it there wasn't so much to it but I was surprised I found it more interesting than I had anticipated. Not something you see every day! I did wonder how it all fitted in with the model room on the back of the Kermlin that I posted in my previous report. I'm guessing this building was built a bit later on and essentially replaced it.
Initially explored solo before returning with Dweeb for a better look in the daytime.
Starting with the Elephant House, built originally as a showroom for commercial vehicles (but I'm not sure exactly when!) An interesting building no doubt but kind of ruined with the addition of modern double glazing. Despite some sources referring to it as a design studio as far as I know it's always been a showroom and nowadays other than the one nice staircase leading down to the toilets in the basement there was really nothing much to see in there. Ruined by modernisation and used by MG as a sales centre long after 2005. This is one of the buildings they seem keen to keep but not sure what the plans are.. it would make an good car showroom I guess!
Next up the design centre, a fairly utilitarian building at the back of the conference centre consisting of two mostly single storey blocks. One housed a big open plan office with small satellite offices each branded (presumably) with the names of different up and coming MG prototypes. The other had 3 'bays' with cast iron floor plates where car models would have been created. You could still see the clay they used to make the models ingrained into the floor around each bay. On the face of it there wasn't so much to it but I was surprised I found it more interesting than I had anticipated. Not something you see every day! I did wonder how it all fitted in with the model room on the back of the Kermlin that I posted in my previous report. I'm guessing this building was built a bit later on and essentially replaced it.
Last up the Exhibition Centre. This had much more for an explorer to get their teeth into. Essentially consisting of a large hall for exhibitions and car launches which was very much similar to a theatre in design and layout. Along side this there was a kitchen and dining hall which I think was latterly used as another show room. At one time there was even a billiard room upstairs but sadly this wasn't one of the bits that had been left untouched for 30 years..
The exhibition hall seemed to have once been one large room but at some point had been narrowed creating two galleries down each side. This appeared to have happened quite a while ago as the plaster work on the partitions must have been early 70s or older. On the original outer walls the plaster work was more traditional with classical columns.
The gallery on the right hand side was previously the 'museum' and at one end contained a mock up of Herbert Austin's office. It's the real thing but after being moved three times it makes you wonder if you can still call it his office or if it's just now a collection of his stuff that someone else used for quite a few years after his death.. anyway it's in Gaydon now if you want to see it presumably with the rest of the tat from the museum.
The opposite gallery contained a cafe which had been built where the original buffet counter would have been. Behind this remained an amazingly original corridor with advertising store rooms and rooms for buffet preparation and wash up many of which had original 50s signage and fixtures and fittings. The corridor allowed access to the kitchen and from there through into the dining hall. The end of the dining hall had been a bit carved up but still retained a cracking staircase that would have taken you up to the billiard room presumably for after dinner entertainment!
The hall was accessed from a circular lobby area and stairs took you up to toilets and a now boarded off cloakroom containing a multitude of old MG advertising junk. From here you could also access one of two projection rooms. One over looking the dining hall was quite traditional projection room but clearly had just been used as a store for many years. The other was more of an control room and looked as if it had been abandoned for at least 20 years. This still contained a small 16mm projector and a multitude of different eras of sound and visual equipment along with other bits and bobs.
With these 3 buildings covered theres nothing much left we haven't seen at Longbridge now. The CAB compressor house remains still but is on the list to be demolished along with the design centre and a few other bits and bobs over the next month or so. This just leaves MG still using one building as a 'technical centre' but that is little more than an industrial unit. What the fate of the Kremlin, Conference Centre and Elephant House will be remains a mystery other than that they are all designated to be 'soft stripped' soon. Guessing one big housing estate!
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