The Billy Banks Estate - March 2012 (Photograph Crazy!)

I think it is known by many that I am addicted to the Billy Banks Estate in Penarth and I have spent many many hours down their taking photographs – many of the exact same thing but in a different light, colour and with different cameras.

Over the last few weeks, a lot has changed at the estate as it prepares for it’s demolition. The last resident and New Age Travellers have left, High View Street has been secured, the site “cleaned up” and of course the metal thieves have put in the hours to do their part even further. (Thanks to the ones that took a railing that I wanted to use in a photo! T£$Ts!!

I mentioned it on another thread that I spoke to a previous resident of the estate who told me about what the place was like to live in. He told me that at the start, things were great. they would all come out and play a game of football in the squares and they all had a open door policy. A few years later though, the council moved in a very rough family and things went down from there. His daughters were almost killed after a stolen car has gone through their wall, property was being stolen from peoples homes and the place turned out to be the place for crime.

Even in the recent weeks, there has been fires at the estate, young teenagers trying to get into some of the worst hit properties there and of course as previously stated, metal thieves. All of which has lead to the developer finally attempting better security on the estate – spend a few moments looking at it though and its all very clear. For some reason it is a sad thought to think of the day that I will no longer be able to photograph this place, the day that so many families memories get taken away, the day that over priced houses are built there. The developer hasn’t even sold all of the phase one properties yet so it will be entertaining to see what happens.

All of the visits I have done on this site has only ever resulted in positive feelings. Even the day I ran into a few metal thieves, I actually learned a lot still. This estate for me has made the Urban Exploring bug even more addictive as being asked by past residents to see photographs of their previous home and listening to their stories means so much – but will soon be over.

All of the photographs on this thread are new, I have another thread for this estate which can be found by clicking - http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=20302&highlight=Billy+Banks.. I hope you enjoy my photographs and this thread.

P.s, If you were at the estate over the weekend and saw myself and my wife, sorry we didn't say Hi, we were in a moment LOL!


Thank you very much for looking and sorry it turned out to be such a long thread but this estate deserves it in my mind.

Urbex-SW

Fantastic collection of images there and I found WALLY!!

Fascinating pictures my friend, loved the last thread to. Thanks for sharing.

Good collection there..we visited only a few days before you and those baths sure have travelled!
Did you get to see the last persons place at all?Some of your shots suggest you may just have done so.

Love it love it

And thankyou for the 'distant' shot!

Great photos! cant have much longer surely?

klempner69 said:

Good collection there..we visited only a few days before you and those baths sure have travelled!
Did you get to see the last persons place at all?Some of your shots suggest you may just have done so.

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I have been down there alot this week and a few days before there were cookers everywhere! I had a photograph somewhere, no idea where the hell it's gone now mind but everywhere you turned, there was a cooker!

I got a few of the last residents place - inside pics on my first thread (Internal Link)

maximus said:

Love it love it

And thankyou for the 'distant' shot!

Click to expand...

No worries, took alot longer than planned but everything has been up in the air. I will be trying to get a better shot soon hopefully but working out to be a bit of a pain!

Thanks for checking the thread out and everyone's comments

lovely report and editing!

looks like they would of been quite nice houses back in the day.

After Hours @ The Billy Banks Estate

After Hours @ The Billy Banks Estate​

I wasn't going to post these photo's and video here as it's not really a report - more of a "stick it to the man" type of thing.

The video will explain the reasons for this post and I hope you enjoy that and the photographs. The estate in the dark was amazing but I was still shocked on how dark it was - the video doesn't lie, it was really that dark!

Not many photographs were taken during my time there - well in fact they are all here but like I say, it's more of a point!

Security for the estate earlier that day told me:


Thanks for looking and I hope you enjoyed this!

maximus said:

Love it love it

And thankyou for the 'distant' shot!

Click to expand...

Same here, I've been waiting for someone to post a distance shot. Cheers.

Thanks

I'm going to be taking some more distance shots of the estate over the next week or so. It's going to be so strange to not see it there anymore!