If you live in London, you’ve heard of the Millennium Dome, that failed tourist attraction on the north tip of the Greenwich Peninsula, constructed to celebrate the coming of the 21st century. I visited it once as a child, and apart from the main event, which i actually enjoyed, the rest was art faggotry at its best. One of the attractions being a dark bubble that played soothing music as you walked in, because as we all know that’s what people spending upwards of £20 per ticket want to do, sit down and listen to music in a dark, enclosed parachute.
Pleasureland, the amusement park on the sands. Located in Southport, which if you don’t know is in the north of England. Pleasureland had closed for the winter season, but due to costs of maintenance and the fact it was little used it would never reopen. Until 2008 there was a campaign to save the parks roller-coaster, which i have been told is, or sadly was the last remaining wooden roller-coaster in England.
Frequently exploring in London, i often used to pass these while commuting to the nights adventure. Resting just west of Shoreditch, sits a series of abandoned 83 Stock tube carrages which once saw use on the Jubilee line. Oddities that you cant help but climb to investigate.
Even today, this still remains one of the most unique and adventurous locations Ive ever had the privilege of accessing, the result of a stupid gamble that could have left us adrift in the north sea. Everyone knows what an oil-rig looks like, those ominous floating hulks of metal, towed out to sea to drill the black gold which powers our everyday lives. Catching the occasional television show on discovery i had always wanted to visit one myself, a dream i feared unattainable, especially in the current climate of duct-tape your baby to the floor to be sure, health and safety.
For a long time the fate of Shoreham cement has been balancing on the knife edge held by the local council executives. Shoreham’s owners at the time, Blue Circle, had planned to redevelop the site, bringing it up to modern standards, aiming to reopen it in 2010. I don’t know anything about the cement industry, i don’t really care enough to look into it. However, from the cement works I’ve seen in and around London, sites which take up less then 1/30th of the space Shoreham does, i cant help but feel it would be easier and cheaper to just bulldoze the entire site and start anew?
Drapers Gardens, a now demolished skyscraper which once stood at 100 meters (328ft) tall. Completed in 1967 it was demolished into 2007, making way for a modern, 16 story tower. Drapers currently holds the record for being the tallest building to be demolished in the UK.
