Ebenezer Mission Hall, Brambledown, Isle of Sheppey, October 2026
Ebenezer Mission was established in 1925 as a junior branch of the Independent Order of Good Templars - an international temperance organisation - by self-described evangelist John Dyer and his wife Agnes, who lived next door. The following year the mission was described as an 'interdenominational church' with Mr Dyer as minister, in which role he served until his death in 1936 at the age of 84. During the War the mission hosted Sunday services for sailors from the nearby Sheerness Docks and served as a depot for Air Raid Precautions; although Agnes was sadly killed in an air raid in 1940, members of her family helped the mission continue until c.1971
Found in a Sheerness back street, Isle of Sheppey, September 2026
Horley Place, Surrey, August 2026
A large late Victorian villa, Horley Place served as St Joan’s Boarding & Day School for girls from 1935-51
before becoming a guest house, Skylane Lodge, which closed c. 2007.
It is now to be demolished to make way for a 'bus depot.
Orchard Hospital, Kent, August 2026
The Orchard Hospital was built by the Metropolitan Asylums Board in 1900-2 as an 800-bed
isolation hospital for smallpox patients. It served as an overflow hospital for cases of infectious diseases until the
Second World War when it was commandeered for use as an army camp. The wooden huts were destroyed by incendiary bombs,
leaving only the brick-built sanitation blocks.
O Brother, where art thou? - Lingfield, Surrey, Spring 2026
Horns Lodge Inn,
South Chailey, Sussex, February 2026
Once described as a cornerstone of the community,
the Horns Lodge closed in 2019. After being used for an illegal cannabis grow operation,
it was broken into by vandals and suffered a deliberate fire, destroying part of the downstairs.
Horton Cemetery, Epsom,
Surrey, Summer 2025
9,000 former patients of Europe's largest psychiatric hospital colony,
comprising Horton, Long Grove, The Manor, West Park, and St Ebba's Hospitals, lie buried here.
Burials continued up until 1955. In 1997, NHS Estates sold
it to a property developer, who, rightly refused planning permission to develop the land into a leisure centre
or pet cemetery, in his greed, spite and indifference has refused to maintain it or
allow public
access. A memorial was erected by public appeal,
but has recently been knocked down by a careless driver.
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Ridham Marshes, Kent, Summer 2025
Part of a once-extensive system of standard- and narrow gauge lines serving Ridham Dock and Kemsley Paper Mills - supposedly the line here is not officially closed but mothballed, with an operational coloured light signal at the main line south of Swale station, although it would take a gargantuan effort to for trains to run again.
Elm Tree Inn, Isle of Sheppey, May 2025
The Elm Tree was previously a beer house called the Greyhound. It was renamed the Elm Tree some time between 1960 and 1975, the name being taken from the number of elm trees that once lined the road. The pub closed c.2020 and has been completely stripped internally. Apparently there are plans to convert it into flats, assuming it doesn't fall down first...
County Highways Depot, Broadbridge Heath, Sussex, Easter 2025
This regional maintenance depot was built in the 1970s on the site of a redundant army camp. It was declared surplus to requirements in 2018 and closed shortly afterwards.
Cliffe Marshes, Kent, September 2024
This pontoon excavator dug clay-silt from the marshes for use in the nearby Alpha Cement Works. It has been abandoned since the plant closed in 1970.
Near Horley, Surrey, Summer 2024 Disused nurseries, Bury, Sussex, June 2023
Pendell Anti-Aircraft Operations Room, 2022
A defended Anti-Aicraft Operations Room (AAOR) near Merstham, built in 1951 to command the several heavy gun batteries of the London South Gun-Defended Area of the national anti-aircraft defence scheme, codenamed "Nucleus". One of the batteries survived until recently at Worms Heath near Warlingham. After being rendered obsolete by modern missile systems, it became the Metropolitan Police's Southern War HQ, in which capacity it served until 1991. The lower storey is now completely flooded.
Smallholding, Mannings Heath, Sussex, 2022
Disused care home, Crawley, 2022
A large Edwardian villa which has been extended by a rambling assortment of low-rise corridors and rooms into a 40-bed elderly care facility. The home was evacuated due to serious flooding from the neighbouring River Mole on Christmas Eve 2013 and never re-opened.
Disused sewage works, Broadbridge Heath, Sussex, November 2023
Downlands Park Care Home, Haywards Heath, Sussex, Spring 2023
A rambling Victorian residence originally called Parkfield. In the early 1900s the house became a private boys' preparatory school, which operated for nearly 70 years, but in 1974 was acquired by Downlands College, a specialist school for children with severe dyslexia and dysgraphia. Downlands closed in 1985 as result of changes in local authority funding for special schools and the building was converted into a 46-bed care home. It was destroyed by a deliberate fire in January 2023.
