Cane Hill Development

Derelict Places

Help Support Derelict Places:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

legion

New member
Joined
Apr 18, 2008
Messages
2
Reaction score
0
Haven't made it to the Hill before so took a little wander around yesterday. Didn't have a shovel or ladder handy so the fence did its job and kept me out. Having had a good ol' poke around I decided to go and have a chat to the guards :lol:. Proved interesting, apparently things are going to start to get busy up there pretty soon, two weeks time and the diggers will be in. They're pulling the place down for new flats. Time to order that hi-vis vest and a hard hat....
 
Hi Legion, welcome to DP. I wouldn't believe everything you hear, although work might start up there soon - they can't pull the buildings down until the place is completely cleared of asbestos :)
 
I agree, sounds like rubbish to me. Asbestos removal will take months.
 
Cool, maybe there is hope for me yet. The seccer was probably talking about them starting to clear the asbestos then rather than actually start on the demolition. Its a shame that they're gonna pull down such a lovely bit of architecture though (despite what went on inside)!
 
Cane Hill is absolutely riddled with asbestos. I've seen the surveys (using, I might add, all the plans and maps taken from my site) and it's going to be a long, difficult and dirty job to get it all out before demolition can begin.

Have you seen those weird shaped toilets in Admin? Even they contain asbestos!

All the best,
Simon
 
well they have started some sort of work on the water tower....there was all fresh scaffolding outside and some inside being put up last time i was there.....and as you said the asbestos removal there will take bloody for ever....they will do it ward by ward probably...get all the asbestos out then defo that section then move on....im gonna have to get myself up there a lot soon then :D
 
No - I think they'll probably have to remove all the asbestos before any demolition starts (Simon?). I should imagine it'll be a very tough job, especially in the collapsed corridors. I can only imagine they'll sheet-off all the windows, doorways and damaged rooftops and do each room/corridor in one big go. That contract'll be worth hundreds of thousands, I'd say.
 
yes it could take them months!!

However as they are stripping the good stuff will be lost! The shells of the buildings are in such good nick aswell! even the fire damaged ones, obviously I'm not a surveyor, but they look good!

Suppose 3storey prescott box's are worth more money though. also high royds devolpment is STRUGGLING to sell the converted ward block flats, partly because of the stigma attached and partly because of the way they have laid them out (e.g. weird shaped rooms and plasterboard walls in places to make a ward into two flats etc).
 
where i have seen a lot of demo happen they have done it bit by bit....just though they might of as its falling apart in places they might not want to send workers that far in.....either way as people said....its going to take....months and months to remove the asbestos....maybe even heading onto a year....i can just see it being a complicated job...im gonna be down there so often when they start work so i will try get some good photos of it in progress.....then again with all work thats 'supposed' to start...come next year and it might not of even started.....
 
The day the builders move in, and Cane Hill is stripped of it's personality, will be a very strange day. Even though I don't intend to ever go back there, or even see the buildings 'in the flesh' again, it'll be odd when Cane Hill is gone. Moreso than any other location I've visited.
 
it was the thing that got me into UE....so when its gone will be a sad day for me :p Im gonna go back and get a photo of every room i think....then i will be happy :D
 
as snappel says, its an iconic site, and loosing it = signifying nearly the end of the end, with so many sites demo'd converted/being converted already I can see by early 2010 there won't be any trace of any explorable asylums any more, barely even any converted wards as they are tending to demo them completly again.

and what with house prices heading the way they are, I think outline planning permission for so many homes in concentrated sites may be being turned down to avoid any further alterations to house prices/market.


See it while you still can! Any asylum that is!
 
I don't know how they will tackle the rotten and missing floors, i would imagine they would have to scaffold the whole place up and remove entire sections of floor and treat it all as contaminated material. As people say, it will be a very sad day when Cane Hill disappears completely but i reckon it will still be there in some form or another in 5 years time...
 
Last edited:
No - I think they'll probably have to remove all the asbestos before any demolition starts (Simon?). I should imagine it'll be a very tough job, especially in the collapsed corridors. I can only imagine they'll sheet-off all the windows, doorways and damaged rooftops and do each room/corridor in one big go. That contract'll be worth hundreds of thousands, I'd say.

They have to remove all asbestos before any demolition starts otherwise it would expose the demolition workers to asbestos fibres. But an option for Cane Hill would be to clear one ward, and demolish the cleared ward as the next is cleared and so on.

It's going to cost millions to clean the site up.

All the best,
Simon
 
wow my thinking as right :D I wonder what they are doing to the watertower at the moment....maybe the bbc transmitting stuff is coming down....
 
..maybe the bbc transmitting stuff is coming down....

Quite likely, not only is the site not really secure enough for a TV transmitter, but i think they will be turning off the analogue signal in that area quite soon!
 
analogue is all going by 2012 or something isnt it? But yer i can see that all coming down very soon....
 
Being the nerd I am Coulsdon appears to be served by the Crystal Palace transmitter which isn't getting switched off until 2012.
 
I'v also heard a rumour that Cane Hill is to be redeveloped, but not immediately. Like the Epsom Cluster, it is, I believe, owned by ''English Partnerships'' at the moment and will probably be sold on to the same clients. However, things will only start there once the Epsom redevlopment is well under way. Crest Nicholson and Linden Homes are doing the north corner of Horton (started last year), St Ebbas (Asbestos started January) West Park (asbestos work will start in the summer). I have contacts in the industry and they indicate that Cane Hill is on the list. Given the rate at which things hapen, it will likely be next year at the earliest before anything happens.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top