Billy Banks Estate RIP (The Final Goodbye)
I consider The Billy Banks Estate to be my first real “Urban Exploration”. Sure I had visited a couple of places before this but they were nothing in my eyes compared to this colossal derelict council housing estate.
I am not going to bore you with the history of the estate all over again, I think I have covered this in my previous reports which can be found by clicking the links at the bottom of this post. What I have written here is just a few paragraphs about my time here, about my feelings and thoughts. It may not make sense but I hope you enjoy this final report anyway.
When I signed up to this forum, I started searching for local places to explore, I became addicted very quickly to exploring and needed somewhere to “get my fix”. At around 11pm, I discovered a report covering the first phase of the estate, I had no idea if there was more but I had to find out!
As I pulled up at Royal Close, Penarth, South Wales, it soon became clear that the estate had been demolished and the new houses were being built. My heart sank a little as I was so excited about visiting such a large derelict location.
It was around 12:30am and was pitch black due to a local power cut and for some reason, despite living in South Wales all my life, I have never been to this side of Penarth. I had no idea where I was so just started driving around the streets. Within a few moments, I found myself on High View Street staring at caravans (The New Age Travellers) and just one lone resident playing his guitar. My heart was now going at 100mph, I was so excited and couldn’t wait to get my camera out…one problem though…it’s the middle of the bloody night!
The next day, I set of to explore “The Billy Banks Estate” and the addiction began…
For almost 12 months, this derelict estate became my second home. Most local residents knew who I was and what I was doing and even helped me out by providing information about when it was a buzzing and happy housing estate.
Many have asked why I spent so much time at the estate and the simple answer is, Addiction. I was addicted to finding something different buried within the crumbling buildings and no matter how many times I had stood inside each property, It’s something that I always knew would happen. I don’t know what made this estate different to any of the other locations that I have visited over the past 12 months but something there grabbed my heart and wouldn’t let go.
Throughout my time at the estate, I have managed to meet some great people, most of which were past residents at the estate and I have stood inside and photographed every single property (that had some sort of a floor at least).
I have seen things that have brought a tear to my eye such as family photographs and personal letters as well as those that have made me smile such as birthday cards, children’s toys and school certificates.
Several fires broke out during February 2012 after the New Age Travellers and last remaining resident had moved out. It was at this time I knew the estate’s days were numbered and I was right! It wasn’t long until I found myself being kicked out of the site by the new security team. I was so annoyed with this, I ended up filming “Billy Banks After Hours”. A short video (not the best that I have done) showing me breaching their so called security after dark. After all, I knew the estate better than them and I wish I was joking.
From this moment on my relationship with the security team was not the best. I had my life threatened after I took a photograph and released a video showing the security team making threats, sleeping on the job and talking about using air guns on site. I was then told by an insider that if I was caught on the site, they were not going to let me leave. To this day I don’t know if this is would have happened but all it done was make it more exciting for me. Odd, I know!
Despite everything, I continued to enter the site daily. I would stand on site for most of the demolition work to try and take exclusive shots, shots that no other would try and get. I watched each block come down, some in less than 4 hours.
There was just one block that I could never do, I don’t like climbing palisade fencing as I have seen some nasty injures so this wasn’t an option for me. However, a few days before the block was due to come down, a small gap was made in the fence by the contractors – After jumping up to the first floor balcony, I was in. This was latter called “The Final Block” and I released a short video here on the forum. (Link at the bottom).
Just a few days after this visit, it was pulled down in less than 2 hours. That was it, The Billy Banks Estate was no more.
I could have spent days writing up everything that I have learned from my time here but I think you have all probably had enough now anyway! Although if you would like more information, please send me a PM as I will soon be launching my website and this will have a lot of information that I have gathered about the estate. When it’s launched, I will send you a quick email with the link
Over 10,000 images were taken over 10 months and over 48 hours worth of video footage was captured. Here is a very small selection of photographs to say a final goodbye to what was “The Billy Banks Estate, Penarth, South Wales”. Most are repeat images but these are the ones that I feel best represent this now demolished housing estate.
I would like to say thank you to everybody that has taken the time to read my reports on the estate and if you didn’t like them, ah well I can’t please everybody! I would also like to say thank you to everybody that took the time to explain to me what life was like on the estate prior to the evictions, without your information, I would never have known what a great place this estate really was.
Good Bye Billy Banks…
New Age Travellers Occupied High View Street Penarth, Acting as Security for the Estate
The sofa with a view
Children once pretended to knock a building down...now it's real!
Residents would see the Fire Service onsite almost daily
"My First"
The one that made things difficult!
Billy Banks After Hours
The room with a view
The Billy Banks Estate, Still trying to stand strong and proud
This is it, The Final Block
Good Bye Billy Banks...
Links
[ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=20302"]October 2011 Thread[/ame]
[ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=21642"]March 2011 Thread[/ame]
[ame="http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=22384"]Demolition Update Thread[/ame]
Videos
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7oFKCeb8TWo&hd=1[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lhFvrxtF0&hd=1[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_f5pBubzd0&hd=1[/ame]
The "Final Block Demolition" video should be here later tonight / tomorrow
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m3lhFvrxtF0&hd=1[/ame]
[ame]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t_f5pBubzd0&hd=1[/ame]
The "Final Block Demolition" video should be here later tonight / tomorrow
Thanks for reading!