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About
Nothing of this Earth is static or eternal. Decay and change are the universal certainties: decay and change in the built envionment are an important part of the urban and rural landscape.
The derelict building across the road has more significance to us than we are ready to admit. It can change the character of an area. It is a haven for outcasts, a retreat for those wishing to avoid the law, a blank canvas, a political issue. Disused buildings are disused for a reason. Their abandonment reflects changes in society's structure and attitudes. Farmhouses are too isolated from roads, churches suffer from shrinking congregations, industry falls to competition or reduced demand, the mansion becomes obselete as owners struggle to utilise divisions of space which are now largely irrelevant to them and too expensive to maintain. Lack of explanation for these often unwanted, unloved 'eyesores' fosters fanciful urban legend. They become entwined in local mythologies as 'the haunted house', the abandoned lab where cruel and bizzare experiments were enacted or the 'asylum' closed for hideous crimes perpetrated by those in charge.
The experience of derelict buildings, especially from the inside, is a unique one mixing sadness and excitement with apprehension and awe. It is addictive, indescribable, somehow compelling and draws us in. Buildings are alive like us, but their lifecycle is slower. They are customised, added to and taken away from. Thy grow old, shift and settle then begin to decay. Every surface, corner and item of furniture seems to harbour artefacts and memories (real or imagined) of past users. Abandoned space has much to tell those who listen and look and wait patiently.
I set up this website five years ago to share the fascination and beauty of derelict space; to inform, illustrate and entertain. Though it's not really my main aim, I also hope to raise public awareness of buildings at risk, although my opinions on what, if anything, should be done about them remain mixed.
Dan A. Gregory
Photographer - Archivist - Historian - Psychogeographer
I was born in 1988 in Crawley, Sussex and am a graduate of the University of Wales Lampeter. I am currently working as an archive assistant and am engaged to be married.
I was introduced to disused buildings at an early age at Ewhurst Brickworks by my father who worked nearby. At the time, the works were largely untouched with coats hanging in the canteen, bricks still in the kilns and machinery slowly rusting into the ground - I remember finding the way nature was taking over fascinating.
At the same time growing up in the '90s I saw my town changing rapidly around me and a lot of buildings disappearing with seemingly no record being made. It wasn't until 2004 that I realised that other people might be interested in seeing disused buildingsrecorded online and I started my first website, Derelict Horsham (closed in 2007). Since then, I've visited many such disused sites, most of which are now on this website.
Aside from decay and disused space, interests include historical geography, social and institutional history, archaeology, architecture and mediaeval literature.
Content
Although every effort is made to ensure that this information is accurate, accuracy cannot always be guaranteed. This is an amateur website and I fund its upkeep with my own time and money. Please respect my rights as writer and artist by not using my materials without due credit or for personal gain.
Acknowledgements
Thanks to Messrs. G. M. and B. A. Gregory, Baines, Thoms, Nadim, Knightley, Cullen, Harris, Ward and Osborn, Pte. Mayne and Misses Barnwell and Debansi for help with field visits.
Special thanks are rendered to A. A. Harris for help with transfer and expertise, to my family, and to Miss R. Flook for support and advice. The Derelict Miscellany is hosted by 1&1.co.uk on Linux-based servers powered solely by renewable energy.
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