Photographer Captures Britain’s Decay From Asylums to Air Bases

Ora Sawyers
bedroom farmhouse
Bed room in a farmhouse | Simon Sugden

These remarkable images capture the many intriguing abandoned destinations scattered across Britain.

Photographer Simon Sugden has been discovering derelict buildings in the U.K. and collated his photos for a new e-book entitled Deserted Britain.

A automobile graveyard | Simon Sugden
An aircraft at relaxation | Simon Sugden
The decaying bar at RAF Church Fenton | Simon Sugden

Tim Sanders, from the Royal Pictures Culture, writes a foreword for the reserve and highlights the road blocks that urban exploration photographers confront in their line of operate.

“Damp and dust are ubiquitous, and there are periods when Simon is getting pictures standing up to his ankles in guano,” says Sanders.

“These ailments frequently call for him to be kitted out with breathing apparatus and just about inevitably with protecting outfits and tricky hats before moving into these vermin-infested, dusty, guano-soiled environments.”

Vegetation reclaims a Land Rover via the window of an deserted residence in West Yorkshire | Simon Sugden
Pool in an vacant spa, Merseyside | Simon Sugden
Derelict farm workshop in East Yorkshire | Simon Sugden

Britain is a submit-industrial state that provides several intriguing abandoned spots for photographers inclined to explore these types of sites.

Relics from the Victorian era these as a disused swimming pool that was after component of a mental asylum, a cruel system of institutionalizing these considered to be “insane.” In fact, many of all those that have been sent to these dark places were being struggling from anxiousness, worry, or postnatal despair.

In the meantime, a decaying bar at a previous Royal Air Drive military foundation presents a glimpse into mid-20th century pub decor with a cushioned bar and carpeted floor that modern designers would scoff at.

Disused swimming baths at a previous asylum in Liverpool | Simon Sugden
An out of date laptop or computer remaining driving in a laboratory | Simon Sugden
front cover
The book’s front address

“In this collection of amazing images, photographer Simon Sugden has introduced to the light-weight the elegance of abandoned properties and other web sites no extended residence to the action of persons,” says Amberly Textbooks.

“These properties and spots have been remaining vacant, frequently to carefully decay and rot, but a ghostly presence of their past lifetime stays. The buildings selection from mills, mines, factories and other industrial features, farmhouses and fairgrounds to hospitals, asylums, destinations of entertainment and religious properties,” it provides.

“Sometimes we uncover boats, autos, and aircraft left driving and rotting in the landscapes, character is reclaiming several, other folks feel pretty much untouched by their disuse but all have a new form of splendor.”

The e book is accessible now and can be acquired in this article. More of Sugden’s get the job done can be uncovered on his site.


Image credits: All images by Simon Sugden.

Next Post

Florence and the Machine: Dance Fever Album Review

Just before the pandemic, Florence Welch read about choreomania, the medieval European “dancing plague,” wherein hordes of people would flail and twitch until they reached exhaustion, injury, or death. Welch became obsessed with the concept. Entering her mid-30s, nearly 15 years into a career that began when she drunkenly sang […]
Florence and the Machine: Dance Fever Album Review

You May Like