Silverlands
Visited multiple times between August 2014 & February 2015 with DirtyJigsaw, Sweet_pea, gigi,
Adam X, James Kerwin, Richie, The Raw, Lenston, Extreme Ironing, Spidermonkey, M Thornley, ZeroUE.
The exact date Silverlands was built is not known, but is thought to be around 1820, give or take a few years. Initially it was used as a family home, and in 1938 the Actor’s Orphanage
moved in, supporting destitute children of actors and actresses. These children however were evacuated to New York in 1940 due to the conflict of World War II. In the early 1940’s
a nursing school was set up to train medical staff and they were joined in 1945 by the children who returned after the war.
The orphanage closed its doors in 1958 but the nursing school remained at this site until the 1990’s.
It sat empty for a few years, at which point the National Probation Service announced plans to refurbish the building and transfer patients from Wolvercote clinic for “residential
assessment and intervention programmes for adult males with allegations of, or convictions for, sexual offences involving children”. This announcement was met with disgust
and strong opposition from local residents and parents who have their children at one of the 23 schools within just 2.5miles of the site. After protests, it was confirmed in 2002
by the Home Office Minister that Silverlands would not become the new home for this clinic. At this point, it was abandoned, however not before an estimated £3.7m was spent
refurbishing the Grade II listed building.
Silverlands was always a location I wanted to visit, it was near the top of my list when I first started exploring in December 2012, new to the game I was put off by stories of PIRs, CCTV,
Loudspeakers and security. It was the infamous site… “Get in, snap a few photos and expect security with you within 20 minutes… shortly followed by police.”
I have since made 13 visits over the last 7 months with many different explorers. All security features were turned off for a short period of time, I guess this was due to the security
call-out costs. It appeared in the Daily Mail and in just a couple of weeks the place deteriorated a lot. All security measures have since been re-instated and are now live.
External - The view from the outer perimeter fence.
External - The front door.
Through the front door, the main entrance.
The grand staircase
Looking up from the first landing.
From the top of the stairs, one of the many chandeliers.
The lift shaft.
Upstairs is a TV screen which flicks through the CCTV cameras.
The most famous room in Silverlands, the decay is beautiful.
The same room at night, it's amazing the lights still work.
A few months before the above photo, before all the light bulbs were replaced.
A close up of the details of this room, with the decay and growth.
Another room on the ground floor, more decay.
And my favourite room, also on the ground floor.
Smoke lingering in the dilapidated room.
Another room with working lights.
It's difficult to explain just how bad the water penetration is when it's raining....
So I recorded this video, please watch in HD
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gJ0EVbKZgFA[/ame]
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