Tollgate, Hotel, Gravesend – Kent – July 2016
One from the back catalogue, a mate reminded me of it today
The History
There has been a pub on this junction since 1827. It was demolished in 1922 as part of a road-widening scheme and rebuilt nearby. Over the years it has been gradually increased in size to take advantage of its prominent position on what was becoming a major roadway. By the 1990s it was huge and had been rebranded as the Tollgate Motel but closed in 2010.
The Tollgate Hotel was bought by the Highways Agency under a compulsory purchase order in November 2006 for £4.85 million when the A2 was widened.
Once that was finished, for several years it was offered for sale and marketed as a site suitable for continued hotel use.
Current plans suggest that the 114-room Tollgate Motel is to be demolished to make way for the drive-thru McDonald’s with car park, 16-pump BP petrol station and an M&S Food shop.
The Explore
It happens quite often, you have a day with nothing to do so you text around to see who is up for doing something and eventually you end up out exploring. This time my partner in crime was @oakley, I picked him up and we headed off out. Firstly scoping out a new site but with no luck and calling in at this one on the way to somewhere else.
This wasn’t a bad site to get into and one I’d driven passed many times and not even given it a thought until a non-exploring friend mentioned it and I had a look to see if I could find a report on it.
We made our way through piles of nettles, being thankful that I decided against wearing shorts as my legs would have been stung to bits.
The building was pretty typical of a 70’s styled hotel and could easily have passed for something from a low budget horror film, I’ll add in spooky and eerie for the daily mail fans amongst you.
The rooms were pretty trashed however one yielded some old school porn mags, you know the type you’d have found in bushed on the way home from school lol
The corridors where pretty nice and fairly photogenic and made for good places to spy on the secca.
Now let me get to that secca, This is the one site I had not expected to see any sign of secca, Let alone a trick alarm system and live in secca. Yup some random old guy is living in a motor home on site.
After we tripped the alarm the first time and watched him do the walk of shame from his comfy motorhome to the top of the site and back, it then went off a further three times until he called up a few mates and it felt like we were being hunted down by the cast of the film Cocoon ….
Not long after we left and headed to our main target for the day
As always enjoy the pics
One from the back catalogue, a mate reminded me of it today
The History
There has been a pub on this junction since 1827. It was demolished in 1922 as part of a road-widening scheme and rebuilt nearby. Over the years it has been gradually increased in size to take advantage of its prominent position on what was becoming a major roadway. By the 1990s it was huge and had been rebranded as the Tollgate Motel but closed in 2010.
The Tollgate Hotel was bought by the Highways Agency under a compulsory purchase order in November 2006 for £4.85 million when the A2 was widened.
Once that was finished, for several years it was offered for sale and marketed as a site suitable for continued hotel use.
Current plans suggest that the 114-room Tollgate Motel is to be demolished to make way for the drive-thru McDonald’s with car park, 16-pump BP petrol station and an M&S Food shop.
The Explore
It happens quite often, you have a day with nothing to do so you text around to see who is up for doing something and eventually you end up out exploring. This time my partner in crime was @oakley, I picked him up and we headed off out. Firstly scoping out a new site but with no luck and calling in at this one on the way to somewhere else.
This wasn’t a bad site to get into and one I’d driven passed many times and not even given it a thought until a non-exploring friend mentioned it and I had a look to see if I could find a report on it.
We made our way through piles of nettles, being thankful that I decided against wearing shorts as my legs would have been stung to bits.
The building was pretty typical of a 70’s styled hotel and could easily have passed for something from a low budget horror film, I’ll add in spooky and eerie for the daily mail fans amongst you.
The rooms were pretty trashed however one yielded some old school porn mags, you know the type you’d have found in bushed on the way home from school lol
The corridors where pretty nice and fairly photogenic and made for good places to spy on the secca.
Now let me get to that secca, This is the one site I had not expected to see any sign of secca, Let alone a trick alarm system and live in secca. Yup some random old guy is living in a motor home on site.
After we tripped the alarm the first time and watched him do the walk of shame from his comfy motorhome to the top of the site and back, it then went off a further three times until he called up a few mates and it felt like we were being hunted down by the cast of the film Cocoon ….
Not long after we left and headed to our main target for the day
As always enjoy the pics
well I had a play at the neighbouring bike park actually. u are right though there is site offices there & cameras all around the fence line I didnt bother with it as it looked knackered anyway
