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Derelict London

Hello I’m John Escolme, one of the presenters of ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Xtra English, the live English learning programme on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Arabic, which you can hear 5 days a week at 1050 GMT on radio, and online at

I just love derelict and decrepit buildings and the blog this week has given me a great opportunity to share with you some of the great sights of run-down London!

Across Europe the credit crunch is being felt, businesses are shedding jobs, and people are being more cautious with their money. If some predictions are to be believed, the economy in the United Kingdom will be one of the worst affected by the downturn.

I’ve been wondering about how this will affect the ‘look’ of London when the investment dries up, unemployment is high, and people start to leave the capital of the United Kingdom to find work elsewhere.

The word derelict has a special resonance for me, and I predict there will be plenty of disused shops, abandoned warehouses, and mothballed railway stations in London before long.

Now I know what you are thinking, ‘he’s a real prophet of doom’.

Well not quite. I think there’s real romance in abandoned buildings especially when a former occupier has left one or two things behind in a building that otherwise would be an anonymous shell.

My interest in all things decrepit stems from a visit to a disused London Underground station not long ago.

Down Street station is in central London and is located not far from The Ritz. It was built to serve the wealthy Mayfair neighbourhood, but was so close to other stations that it remained open for only a few years and shut in the 1930’s.

This is what it looks like today. It may look like a standard Underground, or tube station, but the original doors have been blocked up, a newsagents has been squeezed inside the old entrance hall, and there’s just one tiny door to get in.



What’s interesting is that it had been used by the then Prime Minister Sir Winston Churchill as office and bedroom accommodation during the early years of the Second World War – fascinating!

When we visited we entered through the tiny front door. Down a long tunnel we descended, caked in a kind of grey soot and smelling heavily of drains!

As we worked our way down a wide emergency staircase, we noticed a number of mysterious corridors and rooms leading off in a number of different directions.

One housed an old telephone exchange, complete with the stool that an operator would have sat on. Our guide told us that the name of the operator was Miss. Biddle.

The name instantly conjured up an image of her for me. She was certainly a rather orderly, no-nonsense and proper person I decided.

Here’s where she sat amongst the machinery more than sixty years ago!



I could almost hear Miss Biddle putting important calls through to the Prime Minister. I like to think a conversation might have gone something like this.

Miss Biddle: “Hello, Top Secret Bunker, Down Street Station, Mayfair
how can I help you?”

Caller: “I wish to speak with the Prime Minister”.

Miss Biddle: “Who is this please?”

Caller: “It’s his dentist”.

Miss Biddle: “Oh, I don’t think he’s got time for dental treatment,
there’s a war on don’t you know!”

Ever since that expedition, I have wanted to see more of derelict and abandoned London, and I’ve found some great images.

This is one of my favourite scenes.



It’s The Dalston Music Hall, now, sadly demolished. It was certainly a grim site, but had stood here in the East End of London for more than 100 years. On the day of the demolition there were protesters determined to physically prevent the building being torn down. They failed.

Around the corner are some more grim buildings, in what must be the last few months of their lives. They really do look like they have seen better days.



You see, London isn’t all shimmering skyscrapers and wonderfully restored Victorian museums. Underneath the tourist gloss there’s quite a lot of poverty.

The U.K. has one of the biggest gaps between rich and poor in the western world.

Now back to the pictures.



This is an old pub in Bethnal Green. Again, you will still find buildings like this in the East End of London. To see what were once chunks of thriving shopping streets at the heart of their communities reduced to this state is sad. It is surprising too, given that the financial centre of London is nearby.



Even nearer to the financial centre stands this building, which at the time I saw it was being squatted. You can see the vast glass buildings of the various financial institutions rising up around it. It won’t be long before the wreckers move in to raise this one to the ground.

But hang on, with no end to the credit crisis in sight, and the building boom over, it may live on for just a little while yet!

Well, that’s it. Let me know how you feel about all things derelict, do you think there’s any romance in these images?

Don't forget if you are an Arabic speaker, and want to improve your English, join us live on ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ Arabic, 5 days a week at 1050 GMT on radio, and online at There are special quiz and question and answer programmes, on Saturday and Sunday at the same time.

Bye for now!

John

Credit crunch: A lack of money in the financial system.

Shedding: To get rid of.

Downturn: A decline in an economic cycle.

Derelict: In a bad state of repair, often unusable.

Resonance: Generates feelings or memories.

Run-down: In a poor state of repair.

Mothballed: To remove from active service.

Prophet of doom: To tell of worrying events to come.

Decrepit: Weakened or worn out.

Newsagents: A shop selling newspapers and snacks.

Smelling heavily: Smelling strongly.

Telephone exchange: Machinery designed to connect telephone
calls.

No-nonsense: Sensible and straightforward.

Grim: Grimey, dirty, generally unpleasant.

Demolition: The act of deliberately destroying buildings.

Shimmering: Shining.

Chunks: Sections, pieces.

Squatted: To live in a building without permission from
the owners.

Financial institutions: Banks, investment banks.

The wreckers: Slang word meaning those whose job it is to
demolish buildings.

Hang on: Slang phrase meaning to wait.

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