Todays location was something of a surprise. From the outside, it looks like your typical school building constructed in the 1960s. In my hometown, 1960s Brutalist architecture protrudes from the townscape amid the jungle of buildings centuries older, and the public typically regard the demolition of older buildings in favour of the modern as acts of vandalism. Personally I quite like brutalist architecture, but thats one of my less popular opinions. But you know what they say. Opinions are like nipples. Everyone has them, but only some make a good point.
But enough about my tits.
While it does go without saying that more modern architecture is somewhat lacking in character compared to the buildings of centuries gone by, this school was full of surprises, as many of the interior hallways were remarkably hand painted with amazing works of art. And while the windows are smashed and the doors kicked down, at the time that I visited the artwork had mostly somehow endured. But this gave me a sense of urgency. You see, I had to document it all before it was gone forever.
This school dates back to 1964, initially for pupils aged eleven to sixteen. It closed in 2013, when it merged with another school and moved premises. However in 2016, asbestos was discovered in a local primary school, and those teaching facilities were moved here temporarily while the local authority got their shit together.
Now it's several years later, and the school has remained unused. However, it's not remained untouched. On any given day, the school is crawling with intruders, and the fact that they haven't all been respectful is apparent by the condition of the place.
Here's the main reception desk.
In a lovely attempt to be progressive and multicultural, each room is labeled in four languages, even on occasions where the word is similar enough that a translation isn't really necessary.
I'll get the admin side of things out of the way first, given that it's probably the least exciting part of the entire building. Here we have the office behind the reception desk. A picture still hangs above the door frame.
In the offices was this tray of colouring pencils, which have been strewn across the floor rather than, as you'd expect, used as a means to graffiti. I'm quite surprised by that. In fact this school has a shocking lack of graffiti.
This was the headmasters office, now almost entirely featureless.
The schools core values still hang on the walls. The last one "We look after property" seems pretty ironic right now.
Here's a historic photo of a football team dated 1929-1930. What this is doing here is anyones guess.
Near the offices we found the best part of any abandoned building... the toilets.
Yep... Still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs.
Nearby there was a nice little cupboard that still has loads of old files and paperwork.
Check out this relic!
Here we have an instruction sheet on how to shut down the CCTV cameras.
But quite frankly, the admin side of things doesn't really interest me as much. Onto the schools main hall!
It's seen better days.
In the past, the new secondary school students would assemble here and be assigned to various "Houses," each one named after a cathedral. Presumably this remained the assembly hall when the school came under primary school usage too.
It was in the hall that I found my first graffiti, but don't get too excited.
"I know your her."
Why can't any of these people ever spell?
Lying around the hall are these big wooden backdrops on wheels, which along with the background on the actual stage seem to indicate that there was a stage production here shortly before it closed for good.
It was possible to get under the stage, but there wasn't much down there.
This room is somewhat large, and the label of "Lost Property" is somewhat baffling since when the door is closed, it will be on the inside of the room, indicating that the Lost Property room is through the door, where the image was taken from. But that would be a coridor. It makes no sense.
If, perhaps, the room was the Lost Property room, and felt the need to label itself such on the inside, then even so, it's pretty big.
I've seen floor plans for the school, which label each classroom accordingly, but this one is blank. I have no way of knowing for definite what it was for.
It's decorated with school work though, which initially made me wonder if this was an old Textiles room.
However it's the bunting at the back, miraculously not torn down by vandals, that makes me think that this area was the school library. It spells out "We love to read" which is quite a relatable statement. The room is certainly spacious enough to be a school library, and could easily have been lined with book shelves, with a few seating areas.
The walls of this area have these name tags, no doubt originating as some sort of school project, the context of which is lost on me. Glitzy Groovers makes me wonder if it was some kind of school dance club. But Marvellous Muffins? Was that some sort of cookery group?
Heres an alphabet mat left over from the schools most recent usage, with some torn bunting next to it. I guess not everyone loved to read after all.
Just ahead of the main hall is this tiny room decorated with shield-shaped schoolwork.
It may not look like it, such is the way of 1960s architecture, but according to the floor plans that I found, this room was the schools chapel. Its awfully small but I assume it was once fitted with a few seats and a small altar, and probably imagery of Jesus dying in agony.
Poor Jesus. People talk of the second coming but really, the poor guys going to freak out when he gets back and sees the cross everywhere. It's pretty barbaric! Imagine if JFK was coming back from the dead and everyone greeted him with sniper rifles!
This hallway led, as you can probably guess, to the gym.
Allegedly the changing rooms have remained unchanged over the decades, although I assume they were less trashed, and they probably smelled worse than they do now. In fact the current state is probably an improvement.
Check out the changing room toilets! They're still in better condition than the toilets in some pubs and clubs.
The changing rooms are decorated with these motivational posters. Or at least, I assume they're supposed to be motivational. Looking at this list of traits, I suddenly realise why I am not a good sports person. I have none of these things.
The gym itself is a work of art, painted with various sports, the floor warping wonderfully beneath my feet to add a sloped sensation to my walking. In the corner was a climbing wall, and I wasted no time giving that a go.
From what I understand the gym was painted like this relatively recently, with students from the 1990s having to do their PE in a normal boring gym. This would mean that there was some sort of millennium gym revamp, which may have coincided with the painted hallways that we'll get to in a bit, but I cant be certain.
Either way, this is still perhaps the most unique gym I've ever come across, so far. My next blog will also have a somewhat unique gym, but that's another story.
To my absolute delight, pictures exist of a table tennis tournament that took place here in 2013. Allegedly the local table tennis club utilised this space quite often, but the 2013 tournament was the last time.
(Picture not mine, obviously)
Check out the warping of the gym floor! This is caused by water damage.
The climbing wall was harder than it looks, which is saying something. I mean, I've climbed several churches in my time. But this sort of climbing is a completely different style and I found it delightfully challenging. I must look at doing these climbing walls under more legitimate means.
Oooh! Pirate paraphernalia!
Onto the kitchen and cafeteria, which in its day was bizarrely governed by gender segregated queues. I honestly haven't got a clue why. At numerous points in life I have queued for food in shops and whatnot, and seldom has the reproductive organs of the other people in the queue been even remotely relevant.
There was one isolated incident that springs to mind, which owes itself to my God-like legs. I was standing in the queue at Greggs, the familiar UK high street bakery, and the woman behind me reached down, clasped her hand around the back of my lower leg, and stroked up my calf muscle. I jumped in shock, not expecting to be suddenly touched up in a bakery, and the woman just laughed.
At which point I conceded that while it was true that my calf muscles are indeed spectacular, if I were to go around groping every human with a physical characteristic I found visually appealing, I would be in jail whereas alas, in this situation my complaint would likely not be taken seriously due to my several inches of flesh between my legs that facilitates the removal of waste fluid.
She looked a bit baffled, as I bombarded her audio receptors with words of multiple syllables, so in the end I just told her that she was a cunt, and then ordered my food.
But I digress.
The nearby toilets give the first a set of toilets some competition in terms of how spectacular they are.
But at least they promote good hygiene.
Now, having covered admin, the assembly hall, the gym and the kitchen, it's time to check out the amazing painted hallways of this school.
Okay, bad example. But this hallway actually leads to the good bits. In its day it was known as The Bridge and it provided a short cut from the classrooms to the cafeteria area that was exclusive to Year 11 pupils, which for those of you who arent from the UK, means 15-16 year olds in the final year of school. I have no idea why they were treated to a private means of traversing the school, but it probably has something to do with getting to their exams in a swift, stress-free manner.
Here it begins. But what's this? It seems that at some point the science block was blocked off, turning this chunk of coridor into a small connecting hall. The wall has since been smashed down, restoring the hallway to as it once was.
We have our first glimpse at the artwork though, all of which relates to the subjects taught in the rooms.
There are stairs here, leading upwards to music, or downwards towards art and technology. I'm pretty sure there was an IT room around here too. Curiously theres a door built onto the stairs, clearly a new addition to the original buildings design. But why? My best guess is that maybe in 2016 when the school opened up to Primary School pupils, some areas were closed off due to being unsafe.
So what I'll do is I'll show what's down these stairs, and work my way back up the building.
The art block is perhaps the most decayed of the entire building, its carpet pretty soggy and sqwelching beneath my footsteps.
Consdiering it's the art block, its walls are also pretty barren compared to the rest of the school.
Likewise, the rooms down here are mostly featureless and samey.
As you can tell by the self portraits board, many of the children were invisible.
School work does still hang here though, and it seems odd. Why wasn't all this cleared out?
There's this amazing jungle mosaic at the end of the art block.
Throughout the school, the phrase "What are we learning right now?" can be seen. I think its meant to encourage a sense of urgency to be productive in class.
This room is littered with playing cards.
Here's an anti-smoking poster designed by a student.
In one of the classrooms I came across the "class song" which was supposedly sang by the little kids who attended here. The lyrics are... well, dont expect this song to be in the charts any time soon.
Especially intriguing to me is the enigmatic Miss Johnson. Who is Miss Johnson? She's sort of just slapped on the end there. "Miss Johnson helps us."
I hope she helped them come up with a better song.
Some student work can be found on the walls, talking about the impact acquired brain injury can have on an individual, socially, professionally and in terms of mobility. Having worked with those who suffer from acquired brain injury, I'm quite happy to see this. It's an area that certainly fascinates, and that I think more people should be educated in.
The art block toilets are pretty dire.
Now according to the floor plan that I found, this was the "House craft" room which I suppose is an archaic way of saying "Cookery." Now it's currently a junk pile.
Here's a chldrens bible, looking pretty tatty.
Here's some graffiti, oddly in short supply in the school. Now that I've finally found it, it makes no sense!
There's a little storeroom right at the end of the school, but now it stores nothing but air.
It has got these cute positive posters though.
But my favourite area of this whole building is the stairway leading back up to the science block. The walls are covered in this amazing handpainted artwork.
Check it out.
I tried to get a shot with all of it in. It depicts ocean life with a reimagining of the famous Michelangelo painting of God and Adam touching hands.
On this side we have more art. I tried to take multiple shots and merge them to make one big one, but I know nothing about photography so the proportions are a little off.
I actually really love this work. Theres a little caveman looking up from his rock, watching Adam and Daddy G reach for each other, probably thinking "For fuck sake, Dad, put some clothes on before you go galivanting around in the clouds."
At the top of the stairs is this picture frame, still displaying photos of students.
And here we have the science block, with the sun at the far end, and the eight planets plus Pluto, in all their inaccurately scaled glory.
When I was a kid, Pluto was still classified as a planet, but it has since been reclassified as a dwarf planet, due to being so adorably diddy. It's actually the closest celestial body in a whole plethora of dwarf planets that exist in the outer solar system, known as the Kuiper Belt, but that's largely irrelevant. I think the term "Planet" is arbitrary given that it's a word made by humans, with specifications also invented by humans for a system of categorising that humans also came up with.
Whatever you call it, Pluto exists, circling our sun, just like Earth but smaller and colder. The only beef I end up with, as a fan of astronomy, is that Plutos inclusion draws attention to the exclusion of the other Kuiper Belt worlds. Why can't we have the likes of Eris here? Eris is pretty chunky and has it's own moon and everything.
Speaking of moons, Earths is the only one to get depicted on this lovely little wall, but that's okay. If we stopped for every moon in the solar system, the walls of this hallway would look like a ballpit. Io is pretty though, and would have been my choice of moon to include if I had any say in it.
So here we have the science labs, with the tables all still here.
On the whiteboard, it seems that some of the local kids were giving a guy called Jake a talk about his failing love life with a girl called Kay. One wonders how that ended.
The science lab is not without its leftover paraphrenalia. The white bottle, Potassium Chloride, is used to make fertilizer, and is also used for food additives. In higher doses it is sometimes used for lethal injections. Chromium Nitrate is less exciting, used mainly to remove stains from metal.
Check out this hallway! Its gorgeous!
All of this is hand painted, and uncredited, but surprisingly lacking in vandalism given how smashed up the school is. Are even the vandals appreciative of it? Does nobody want to be that one who destroys something so awesome?
The science labs themselves have taken the brunt of the vandalism, in such violent contrast to the hallways outside.
I really love this particular piece.
Someone has vandalised Jesus, and they haven't even done it in an entertaining or clever way. But I guess if any artpiece is going to get vandalised, it would be the religious stuff.
His face looks particularly sorrowful, and traumatized though. That's probably the face he'll make when he comes back and sees crosses everywhere.
While the floor plans that I found dont specify it, I'm going to assume that part of the science block was also dedicated to religious education.
How ironic.
I really like this painting though, showing hands of every race linking up around the world.
As you can see, the balloons are at the end of the science block that we originally saw, where there had been an attempt at erecting a wall in the coridor. We're reached the end of this coridor. However, we still have the music department upstairs.
Its similarly decorated and I love it.
Someone has written "Harvey Price express" on the side of this balloon. Not knowing anything about celebrities, I had no idea who Harvey Price was, but a quick Google search revealed that he was the son of Katie Price, better known as Jordan. And the resemblance between Harvey and this chap in the balloon is pretty good. Finally, some graffiti that's actually clever.
At the far end of the music block was this door with red tinted windows.
It's a prayer room. Obviously this was a religious school and here the kids had a room specifically designed to facilitate any desire they had to get in touch with Daddy G.
It's remarkably unvandalised.
Now I often come across as a critic of religion but the truth is, my actual beef is with all the bigots out there who put their words in the mouth of God and claim its absolute truth, using religion to mask their own agenda. That makes them a coward as well as a bigot.
However, this room seems to be solely for sending out good vibes, trusting their faith in God to actually help people. And he may not be my God, but I approve of this practice. It's nice to see.
The room has a huge map of the world with post-it notes stuck to it, so that people can send their good vibes to particular areas, which they no doubt did whenever shit happens. Maybe it sounds silly, but is it really any different to people putting up a profile picture filter whenever something bad happens?
This is how religion should be. This is religion done right. Faith in a loving deity and praying that he helps people who are suffering. None of this "live the way I want you to or you're going to hell" bullshit. Just good vibes.
One would have thought that a room dedicated to praying would be the first thing smashed to bits but to my surprise the only vandalism is this teeny bit of writing scribbling out Tel Aviv, and renaming it "Poo."
Now heres where the prayer room gets interesting. People had to request a prayer form and fill it out. It sort of adds an office vibe to the workings of a God who is supposed to be all-knowing and all-seeing. One wonders if God has a receptionist.
I especially like that one can request to have their prayer anonymous. It's kinda fun to think that theres a way to anonymously contact God. I just have this mental image of God recieving various prayers and suddenly he gets this one negative message. Its badly spelled because these sort of people can never spell, and it just says something like "Your not a , nice person , Gog. Your an apsolute , disgrace , innit."
And Gods just like "I'll smite this cretin! ...Oh, wait, its anonymous. Damn that school!"
Joking aside, a load of prayer notes were dedicated to this one guy. I'm censoring his name to protect his dignity but it's a pretty sad situation .
From what I can tell, this refers to a fourteen year old boy who died in his sleep in 2013. That must have been pretty brutal for the family. I mean theres no nice way to find out that you've lost a fourteen year old family member, but finding them dead must be pretty traumatic.
He was a football fan, and at a game in his town the crowd paid their respect at the 14th minute with a full sixty seconds of applause. It would have been a nice gesture had the fans of the opposing team, Manchester United, been tipped off to what was going on. The mancs were winning 2-0, and upon seeing a load of people applaud seemingly at random for a full minute they got very confused. So in their confusion they started taunting and mocking, much to the offence of those who were just trying to honour the boy. Interpreting the Mancs as being disrespectful to the dead, they began mocking the 1958 Munich disaster, an air crash that took the lives of eight Manchester United players.
It's all a bit of an unfortunate misunderstanding, really.
Onto the English department, unusual to the rest as it's quite tower-like, with two stairways, which can be accessed through the central door. The doors next to it lead downwards to toilets.
The artwork continues up the English block, and Tolkien fans will be happy because it's all Lord of the Rings themed.
As before, the classrooms are pretty samey.
"What are we learning now?"
Well, I'm learning that the local vandals have a surprising level of respect for artwork and prayer rooms. I've also learned who Harvey Price is.
Curiously, as with the science block, theres a wooden door installed across the stairs. But unlike the science block this one is barricaded by the coat hooks. It seems a little excessive, but it is possible to get to the other side of, by taking the second stairway up and then heading back down this one.
It's just a shame that this stairway was blocked off, given that the Lord of the Rings Artwork continues up here.
I love this message. "You are the author of your own life story."
They're words very relatable to me, as someone who is dedicated to filling my life with excitement and adventure. One of my greatest concerns with life is that our leisure activities have become just as autonomous and regimental as our work activities. Such a life is not for me. Not while there are secret little places to discover.
Scrawled here it says "Tweet of the week. Teach to different learning styles."
This is actually a mindset that I'm really in support of. So many people out there failed school simply because the teaching methods were rigid and unaltering to suit the varying ways that kids learn. As someone who grew up with dyspraxia, it's actually incredibly relatable. I'd probably be less fucked in the head if attempts were made to understand me rather than simply tell me that I was wrong.
Someone has drawn a clock on the wall.
Here there would have been a "kindness tree" adhered to the window. I presume it would have had the same function as the prayer room map, where people could stick their positive messages.
Onto the English blocks cellar!
Another nice little motivational message that I find relatable.
Separate from the main school building is the old language block where students learned German, French and probably Spanish. Its painted with various landmarks, like the Great Wall of China and the Rio Jesus.
The Rio Jesus famously depicts the prophesised body language of Jesus after the second coming, when he gets back to Earth, sees images of him dying everywhere, and just wants a hug.
I'll hug you, Jesus.
Given some of the decorations down here, I doubt the rooms were entirely for learning languages.
Here are some useful tips that help us tell the difference between the Illuminati and regular humans. Now we can finally expose Queen Elizardbeth!
The school has a remarkably pleasant vibe about it, which I wasn't expeciting given that it's been smashed up. It's largely in part due to such colourful halls, but also the things that hang on the walls indicate that they promoted good ethics just as much as academic success. Here on the wall a student explains his understanding of "fairness."
Such stuff sets the school apart from your usual monotone educational facilities whose sterile atmosphere serves no purpose other than to prepare us to be nothing more than obedient little employees. This school didn't want to produce good employees, but good individuals, and that's nice.
The indoctrination methods of the educational system is actually my biggest problem with it. We're not taught to be productive adults, only drones motivated by financial gain. And honestly I love myself enough to say I'm worth more. But you see, now we enter into the realms of self love, and that's usually when I get called arrogant. But to love oneself is very different to being arrogant or narcissistic. While real and potentially dangerous, those things come at the expense of others. True love for oneself comes at nobodies expense. I was once faced with the question "Why do you love yourself so much? You're no better than me, you know."
And my response was "So why don't you love yourself too?"
See, humans steer towards competitiveness. Self love isn't about competing. That's a mindset we need to get out of. I know it's difficult because the social hierarchy is something so deeply ingrained into us, from our school years where we're taught the importance of obedience to authority figures and the importance of conformity, to the workplace where we're reminded of our inferiority to our managers and told that success is measured by ones place on the career ladder, and when insecure people do try to insert their dominance by bullying us.
What self love proposes is the dispensing of a hierarchy, because ultimately when it all boils down to the basics, we're all just individuals of a race of primates indiginous to this world. We eat, poop, and die, just like every other example of our species. We shouldn't feel bad for loving ourselves. We shouldn't feel miserable because we hate ourselves either. And we certainly shouldn't feel inferior to others. We shouldn't fall into this doctrine of "mind your superiors." I say this about your superiors- You have none.
But I digress.
It still baffles me how something can be so smashed yet so preserved. The glass crunches underfoot but nobody has touched the art.
The school also has a couple of cabins for additional lessons.
It's the BFG!
And here they were learning about Ancient Egypt.
This particular one caused my eyebrows to raise. It was so bizarrely immaculate. I soon realised, however, that the tables were actually bolted to the floor.
Here on the wall we have guidelines for proper sentence structure. So now there's no excuse for using horrendous grammar when you send God anonymous hate mail.
That's all I have for the school, which I understand is still rotting away in a gradual state of decline. The school is remarkably well traveled, and many kids go there to hang out ironically after school. I ran into a bunch of them myself during this adventure, and they fearlessly approached me, asking me if I was one of those big famous youtubers. It's cause for concern, perhaps. Youtube has changed the face of forbidden tourism by normalising, and even glamourising it. The fact that I soon had a little entourage of students lurking behind me is troublesome. I wouldnt hurt anyone, but anyone could be lurking in these old halls, and not all of them will be friendly.
So while I'd be hypocritical to tell anyone not to do something, what I will say is if you do go to a place like this, be wary of strangers, and if you're underage, tell someone where you're going, or go with a group. Otherwise you might end up locked in a basement in Telford or something, and that would be awful.
As for the future of the school, apparently plans are already underway to bring the entire thing down and replace it with a big bland housing estate. It's kinda sad to think that such effort went into decorating a place so uniquely, and now it's all going to disappear, never to be appreciated again, and that is sad.
Help the blog out by sharing it wherever you want. Next time I'm going to blog about an abandoned airfield that has some phenominal graffiti, and then after that I'll be doing a rooftopping blog. In the meantime, don't forget to like my Facebook page and follow me on Instagram and Twitter.
And be nice to each other.
Thanks for reading!
