The Limelight

(Disclaimer: Joking aside, I fully understand the risks/dangers involved in these adventures and do so in the full knowledge of what could happen. I don't encourage or condone and I accept no responsibility for anyone else following in my footsteps. I never break into a place, I never take any items and I never cause any damage, as such no criminal offences have been committed in the making of this blog. I will not disclose a location, or means of entry. I leave the building as I find it and only enter to take photographs for my own pleasure and to document the building.)

Today I'm looking at The Limelight, a rock bar that closed in 2010 but still has a loyal following to this day, with people mourning its loss all over the internet. It seems that once upon a time this was the place to be, and even though it's been rotting for almost a decade, the building still retains its character. It's impossible to look at the buildings exterior without thinking "Damn, I bet this place was great." As soon as I saw it, I knew I needed to check it out.

 The Limelight began life as a church in 1869, with a connected church hall, and luckily for me, an old photo of it from this era does exist.

The church had long since closed its doors by the time it became the Limelight, although it enjoyed a period as a snooker club, until that too sank and the building became boarded up.
It was then found by a chap who was already organising rock events in the town, but was looking for a larger venue. All of the pubs he had looked at were simply too small, but once he spotted the derelict church-turned-snooker club, he realised that this was to be the location of the future of the towns live music scene, and looked into obtaining it. Renovations took around eight months, with regulars from the towns rock nights volunteering to help out, purely out of a desire to see their town get a permanent rock music venue. While the main church was turned into a bar and concert hall, the building next to it became a rock cafe. The Limelight opened its doors in 1994 and was a massive hit. It attracted bands from all over the country, and gigantic audiences, so much so that they had extensions added on just to accomodate the crowds.

As soon as I entered the Limelight, into the remains of the beer garden, I spotted a security guy and had to hide. Fortunately I hadn't been seen. This was going to be a slow one, of waiting, hiding, and wishing that my feet had volume controls. Nevertheless, I persevered. I had an advantage, you see- The security guy didn't have any reason to tread lightly, so I'd always know where he was. All I had to do was take my pictures, and leave undetected. Of course, I had the disadvantage of dyspraxia, which makes me about as subtle as the holocaust.

The main entrance leading out onto the street is boarded up, but as always I'll start the interior shots from here. Footage that I've seen of the interior suggests that this entrance was walled off into some sort of foyer area, with event posters on the wall being the first thing people saw as they came in. Stairs to the left and right then led into the actual building.
Although I could be wrong on that, and I might have seen footage of a completely different bar and been mistaken.

Looking at the old footage, this floor was very pub-like, with pool tables, games machines, and whatnot. The bar, I think, was on the right, where this big square fenced off hole now sits.

The falling of the Limelight started in 2007 when the owner decided to sell it, and go on to live in a narrowboat. In spite of his success, running the venue for so many years was proving to be too stressful for him. He mentioned that he wanted to hand the venue over to someone who would continue to drive it towards success. I don't know much about the next owner, but it seems that things didn't go according to plan.

Down there is the concert hall, where old band posters still decorate the walls. I decided not to go there straight away, because that's where security guy was.

In spite of closing, the derelict nightclub continued to attract the local media, first with an arson attack in 2015, causing it to be the blackened wreck you see here, and secondly in 2017 when urban explorers found a body hanging in here. Luckily the urban explorer in question didn't do a Logan Paul and broadcast footage of the hanging man for views and ad revenue, but instead did the sensible thing and called the police.

It must be pretty horrifying to find a dead human body in a derelict place, and I actually dread it happening to me. 

The body was identified as a twenty-six year old Polish man. He had come to the UK when he was sixteen but he had been homeless. In the lead up to his suicide, he had been battling with alcohol and drug addictions but also claimed that he wanted desperately to return to Poland.
Interestingly, he'd been arrested in 2016 for scrawling "We are not the enemy, We want respekt" in huge letters across the floor of the town square, possibly in regards to how people treat the homeless, foreigners or both. It's not really clear and we can't really ask him.

He'd spelled "repect" wrong, but that's a minor oversight likely more to do with a language barrier rather than trying to look edgy. In many countries, the C only makes the sound of an S, and the K is used to make the typical K sound. English, being notoriously contradictory for no reason, uses C for both sounds, a habit it probably picked up from the Welsh, who have no K, but use S for S and C for K, without exception. Language is really quite fascinating, and so it's easy to see why some mistakes are made. But I digress.

The man pleaded guilty to the charge of criminal damage but not guilty to the charge of disturbing the peace. He was released on bail, with another court appearance scheduled for the following year in April. He didn't live long enough to see it, taking his own life in February. Stories like this really affect me, having struggled with mental health myself, and experienced the vast, vast absence of help that's out there. The signs were there that this man was struggling. The graffiti was a literal cry for help. Perhaps if he'd been offered help, he'd still be alive, and could have kicked his habits. But here's the hard, sad truth about mental health in the UK- It's easier to get drugs than it is to get help.

Every time someone kills themselves, the public say things like "If only someone was there for them." But there's still several billion people to be there for, and while I do think councelling and therapy is best done by the professionals, sometimes all someone needs is a friend, and that can be enough to stop them reaching that stage.

Moving on with the adventure...

 At either ends of this floor, stairs lead upwards.

 There's still a fridge in the corner, the interior of which I did not care to see.

 With security beneath me, I decided first to tiptoe up the least creakiest-looking of the stairways, this one.

 The upper floor was often refered to as the rafters bar due to it having the ceiling rafters in place. It's actually undergone a few redesigns over the years, having pool tables, its own bar, a dance floor and allegedly also its own little bowling alley at one point. Now, it was pretty bleak.

 Thanks to the very much still active Facebook page for the Limelight, I was able to find older photos of this area.

 It sure is sad to see it so barren.

 I actually really like that as a night club it still retained its church-like windows.

 It was time to make my way downstairs...

These windows in the curved walls faced out over the balcony and beer garden.

There's still a cash machine in the corner, no longer containing any money.

 Here are the ladies toilets, largely stripped out, and barren, but still in better condition than the toilets in some active pubs and clubs.

At long last, it seemed that the security guy had gone. I was finally able to check out the concert hall.

 Posters still cover the walls down here, as sad reminders of happier times. The Limelight in particular seemed to specialise in tribute bands, and a lot of these had posters and logos identical to the bands that they were a tribute too, so much so that at a glance one might not notice the difference. However, to my amusement a lot of the tribute artists had named themselves with amusing wordplay that indicated that they weren't quite the genuine artists. Among my favourites were Nearvana, and Alike Cooper.

While this concert hall isn't really underground, the front doors do lead through the floor above, due to the stairs outside leading up to the front door. However, it suddenly dawned on me that if the church service was held on that floor, then this floor beneath it may have once been a crypt. It seems quite fitting. Some might find the idea of playing rock music in a former place of worship to be an odd contrast of two polar opposites, spanning the buildings history from virtue to vice, but for rock music to be played in a former crypt, now that's pretty cool. And thanks to the Limelights Facebook, I have found a photo of this room packed with people, all enjoying the show.

It's a sad but shocking contrast. This room was once bursting with life, and fun, and amazing music. The atmosphere would have been brilliant. Even today people tell fond stories about this place.

It's really sad to see the place like this. From where I stand to take this picture of the stage, so many other people have stood to take in a prettier view.

The attached rock cafe was being converted into houses, and so I didn't really take much interest in it. That would have been the end of the story, had my way in not been blocked. I'd climbed a wall, and gone in through a door, but at some point the security guy had locked the door. I was trapped in the Limelight. How exciting!

I could see a way out too, but who should be between me and it? Only the security guy sat eating sandwiches in his car. I was getting pretty hungry too but somehow I doubted he'd be up for sharing. I could have just ran past him and escaped, but if he saw me running, he might have called the police, so I went for the more pathetic option, which I probably wouldn't have done had I not already seen the building, and turned myself in.
I explained to security that I was just taking photos, and after he put me on the phone to his angry boss who screamed at me for a few minutes, I was let out.

So what does the future hold? Well, the Limelight is to be converted into houses, which means it will be stripped of all of its former character and made into something bland and generic. It deserves better to be honest. Its got wonderful architecture, and historic significance as both a place of worship and as a music venue. And the world needs places for expression. It needs music and art. It needs places where people can go where the atmosphere is guaranteed to be good, where they can just chill out, and have fun. It's sad to see it like this. Allegedly attempts were made to buy it in an attempt to revive it as a nightclub and give new life to the Limelight once again, but these attempts failed. The building is doomed.

That's all I got. My next blog will be a derelict care home, followed by something I haven't done in a while- a rooftopping one. And then I have something exciting- My current accomplice Jess (Not the one I did the rooftop shoot with) is going to be making Youtube videos of the places we explore alongside my blog posts. It's sort of a creative team-up. Shes a video editor, and I'm a blogger. We're combining the two. I said when I started this blog that it would be more of a team effort, and it all starts three blogs from now. I'm looking forward to it! I can't edit a video, but Jess can. Nevertheless, subscribe to my Youtube, follow my Instagram, like my Facebook and follow my Twitter. Share this blog post where you want.

Thanks for reading!