I do not know if there has been a recent boom in ruin enthusiasm. It has been a fascinating hobby for any number of people. Obvious hotspots include Detroit, where I lived for two years. Abandoned shells of huge department stores and multistory car parks in a recently thriving city centre, with roads like a tank training ground. Check out the poignant and occasionally riotously funny book ” The Last days of Detroit”.
Part of the appeal must be the brutal contrast with the sky high hopes for such areas. There is a 1965 documentary on the gleaming super modern Detroit and its hopes for even better times to come…. er, er, two years before the 1967 riots. And there was Motown’s shiney new mayor Jerry Cavanagh, another Irish American politician on the climb, eager to fill the Presidential shoes of the recently slain JFK. 1967 killed his political career.
One of the newer ruins in Great Britain is St Peter’s Seminary on the west coast of Scotland, eagerly acclaimed as one of the most important new buildings in Scotland, fully ready to receive hordes of eager trainee priests. Sadly, recruits to the priesthood fell through the floor after it was completed. It was abandoned to the elements after less than 15 years. The owners never succeeded in making it watertight, which is really bad news on the west coast. Ruin buffs love photographing its concrete carcass.
There is a massive concrete bunker on the east side of Reading University’s campus. Unlike the 1940s WW2 “temporary” wooden buildings nearby, this 1950s Regional Seat of Government was never needed. It deserves more visitors, but I don’t know if it is still safe to go inside and check out the WW3 accommodations.
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