In South Kirkby on Tuesday, I passed a derelict building and took this photograph:-
I had no idea what purpose the building had once served so I searched Google Streetview for some answers. You may not be aware of this but within Streetview you can often find imagery from different years and for South Kirkby you can look at the place from seven different points in time - beginning in April 2009 and moving on to April 2021.
Here's an image from April 2009. The car park is rammed and the place is clearly thriving.
By August 2011, the place seems much quieter but the grounds are still nicely maintained:-
Now we have reached 2016 and the almost abandoned property is up for sale
Moving on to April 2021, the site is now neglected and security barriers have been erected in the forlorn hope of keeping vandals and other ne'er-do-wells out
Below I have snipped the top left hand corner of the current Streetview scene. Each of those white dots on the scale allows visitors to look back at historical imagery. It is still there though superseded by the latest imagery.
By the way, I found out what the building was used for in the past. It was a health centre that hosted the South Kirkby CMHT. CMHT stands for Community Mental Health Team. I guess that funding issues and so-called "rationalisation" meant that this service became more centralised as satellite centres like the one at South Kirkby were shut down.
That's handy information. I always assumed that only the most recent view was available.
ReplyDeleteAs the gamekeeper said to the duchess, "Happy to have been of service ma'am!"
DeleteInteresting how a well maintained property can soon fall into decay.
ReplyDeleteThat's just what I thought Red.
DeleteA Health Centre. I would have guessed church hall or maybe a library. it's a shame it had to fall into ruin instead of being maintained and used for almost any other purpose.
ReplyDeleteYou are right. By maintaining properties we are respecting the planet's limited resources.
DeleteYou know I have a soft spot for abandoned places, but this one triggers more sadness than fascination.
ReplyDeleteI didn't know about the timeline in Google Street View; there are a few places I have in mind now that I want to look up. Thank you!
In some areas you might only have two or three versions. Seven sets of imagery is above the norm I think.
DeleteThank you for showing how one can see historic Streetviews. I was sad when our former house changed and my late husband and I were 'removed' and I have just found us again.
ReplyDeleteWho removed you Potty? The Mafia? Glad to have been of service.
DeleteSuch a shame, on all counts. That a valuable service has been lost, and a building plot has been left to decay.
ReplyDeleteIn an area where coal mines closed the mental toll was heavy.
DeleteStreetview history can be fascinating. I did a similar post three years ago about a once-thriving pub called The Green Bottle in Spawd Bone Lane, Knottingley, of which there's no trace now except on past Streetview.
ReplyDeleteSpawd Bone Lane sounds rude. I would much rather live on a street called Honeysuckle Crescent or even Dunham Way. Streetview is a wonderful facility isn't it?
DeleteThe Green Bottle in Spawd Bone Late, Knottingley ...
DeleteIt is like the Land of Green Ginger.
And the Blue Remembered Hills.
I believe that the blue remembered hills are in Shropshire though they might only exist in imagination.
Delete*Be it granted me to behold you again in dying, Hills of home !*
DeleteStevenson was seeing the Pentlands, and maybe the Lammermuir Hills too, as he lay dying in Samoa.
You can see the blue Pentlands, on the horizon, when the Glasgow train approaches Edinburgh.
My home hills are the Old Kilpatricks, and the Campsies, and I feel an affinity for your own hills, around Sheffield.
I was on the train to Stirling one perfect summer's night.
A Canadian woman was talking to her husband:
*I had forgotten how close the mountains are,* she said, speaking of the Ochil Hills in Clackmannanshire.
She had left Stirling as a child for Ontario.
Oh I remember the Ochils well but why did I not think to climb to the summit of Dumyat? I had four and a half years to do that.
DeleteI often see derelict property on my travels around Cork, Limerick and Kerry. Your derelict property could be repurposed to be a community centre or temporary accommodation for the homeless.
ReplyDeleteOr a hostel for Ukrainian refugees. Trouble is the damage and deterioration has now gone too far Dave.
DeleteWow, that's quite a precipitous decline. I'm tempted to post snarky comments about Tory austerity schemes. In any case, it's sad that such an evidently well-used facility was closed and then permitted to fall into ruin. Is it still for sale, or has it been sold, I wonder?
ReplyDeleteI do love that function on Street View. I've used it to look back through photos of my childhood home when my family still owned it. (My mom sold it in 2015.)
Feel free to leave as many snarky comments about Tories and Tory austerity cuts as you want. In a place like South Kirkby, car ownership figures will be significantly lower than in more affluent communities so just getting to an alternative CMHT centre will be challenging for many.
DeleteThat's some interesting perspective through time there. It is easy to anthropomorphize buildings and houses, isn't it? They grow so lonely-looking and dejected when no one is using them/walking their floors any more.
ReplyDeleteAll that busy activity gone. All those conversations around mental health issues - all gone. Just echoes now.
DeleteTo me there's something unappealing about mid 20th century architecture - much of it seemed to have be constructed with built-in obsolescence. Though I'm surprised the land hasn't been snapped up, or perhaps it's not a large enough area for yet another Amazon warehouse?
ReplyDelete