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Seconds out, round 2! 
I posted a report on this site earlier but it is langusihing now in data hell somewhere. So here's something approximating to the original!
Having headed over to Derby to do the Ashton Hall Asylum (report to follow) Tonto and I came back via Sheffield to look at the Hall of Grafitti in the former Yorkshire Water pumping station at Lower Bradfield.
A 'lil bit about the site...
In the tiny picture-postcard village of Lower Bradfield just outside Sheffield, an abandoned water works sits at the side of the road, overgrown and completely surrounded by unsightly Heras fencing. The water works was built in 1913 to filter and treat water taken from the Dale Dike, Strines and Agden reservoirs in the nearby Loxley Valley. In addition to treating the water, supply pressure was raised here with huge pumps before sending it on into Sheffield. The water works was cutting edge in it's time and it even had the first telephone to be installed in Bradfield back in 1930.
Clean, safe and seemingly limitless mains water running readily under pressure from a tap 24/7, is actually a relatively recent innovation in Great Britain - it was only in 1880 that Sheffield City Council assumed responsibility for the supply of water to the city whereas previously the public had relied on local wells, stream etc. - the provision of water was the individual's own responsibility until late in the Victorian era.
In the next big change in 1974 Yorkshire Water Authority took over supply from the city authority and then finally during the Thatcher government some years later, the entire UK water industry was privatised with the Water Act of 1989, and Sheffield began to be supplied by the newly created Yorkshire Water plc. In their hands modernisation of the system began and the pumping house at Lower Bradfield was abandoned in 1994 when a new pump house and processing plant was built elsewhere. Since that time the building has remained an eyesore in an otherwise beautiful village.
The entire site appears never to have been much more than walls and a roof, and in much of the machinery area there are not even concrete floors, just a bed of coarse sand. A separate room is situated towards the front of the building where huge, blue painted, open topped, inspection tanks give the appearance of a primitive bath house. Here, workers checked the water quality and then added chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride.
The biggest open area within the building has a huge expanse of undecorated wall and inevitably that has attracted the attention of graffiti artists over the years. I am not normally a lover of the artistic efforts of your average chav - there is a limit to how many times I wish to see crude, testosterone fuelled, phallic representations crudely daubed by acne riddled wide boys; or witty and erudite one liners such as, "Daz sucks c*ck" etc. etc. etc...*yawn! This building however has attracted a totally different kind of artist, most of whom actually have at the very least a smattering of real talent and many of the paintings are actually quite remarkable works of art.
It's a shame then that the combination of damp and sunlight are causing massive and rapid deterioration, bringing much of the plaster "canvas" off the walls - indeed, the beautiful girl's face painted in the corridor at the side of the main pumping hall has already lost a third of one side including an eye.
I posted a report on this site earlier but it is langusihing now in data hell somewhere. So here's something approximating to the original!
Having headed over to Derby to do the Ashton Hall Asylum (report to follow) Tonto and I came back via Sheffield to look at the Hall of Grafitti in the former Yorkshire Water pumping station at Lower Bradfield.
A 'lil bit about the site...
In the tiny picture-postcard village of Lower Bradfield just outside Sheffield, an abandoned water works sits at the side of the road, overgrown and completely surrounded by unsightly Heras fencing. The water works was built in 1913 to filter and treat water taken from the Dale Dike, Strines and Agden reservoirs in the nearby Loxley Valley. In addition to treating the water, supply pressure was raised here with huge pumps before sending it on into Sheffield. The water works was cutting edge in it's time and it even had the first telephone to be installed in Bradfield back in 1930.
Clean, safe and seemingly limitless mains water running readily under pressure from a tap 24/7, is actually a relatively recent innovation in Great Britain - it was only in 1880 that Sheffield City Council assumed responsibility for the supply of water to the city whereas previously the public had relied on local wells, stream etc. - the provision of water was the individual's own responsibility until late in the Victorian era.
In the next big change in 1974 Yorkshire Water Authority took over supply from the city authority and then finally during the Thatcher government some years later, the entire UK water industry was privatised with the Water Act of 1989, and Sheffield began to be supplied by the newly created Yorkshire Water plc. In their hands modernisation of the system began and the pumping house at Lower Bradfield was abandoned in 1994 when a new pump house and processing plant was built elsewhere. Since that time the building has remained an eyesore in an otherwise beautiful village.
The entire site appears never to have been much more than walls and a roof, and in much of the machinery area there are not even concrete floors, just a bed of coarse sand. A separate room is situated towards the front of the building where huge, blue painted, open topped, inspection tanks give the appearance of a primitive bath house. Here, workers checked the water quality and then added chemicals such as chlorine and fluoride.
The biggest open area within the building has a huge expanse of undecorated wall and inevitably that has attracted the attention of graffiti artists over the years. I am not normally a lover of the artistic efforts of your average chav - there is a limit to how many times I wish to see crude, testosterone fuelled, phallic representations crudely daubed by acne riddled wide boys; or witty and erudite one liners such as, "Daz sucks c*ck" etc. etc. etc...*yawn! This building however has attracted a totally different kind of artist, most of whom actually have at the very least a smattering of real talent and many of the paintings are actually quite remarkable works of art.
It's a shame then that the combination of damp and sunlight are causing massive and rapid deterioration, bringing much of the plaster "canvas" off the walls - indeed, the beautiful girl's face painted in the corridor at the side of the main pumping hall has already lost a third of one side including an eye.
And the piccies...
First of all, if you click on the link below you will get an interactive panorama whch you can pan and tilt to your hearts content!
http://360.io/SNqYRU
The first hall you enter as you come into the building is pretty lame and gives no hint of what awaits you...
Lots of lovely light from abundant sky lights make the place very bright inside...
The water treatment hall is one of the few large areas with a proper floor....
These big tanks were for the operatatives to check water purity and to add chemicals...
Lovely light and shade...
Lots of crinkly paint work but sadly the plaster is coming off everywhere...
Holy!
Psychedelic spaghetti...
...inside the Hall of Graffiti...
...and finally, may favourite...
Thanks for looking, hope you liked our pix!
First of all, if you click on the link below you will get an interactive panorama whch you can pan and tilt to your hearts content!
http://360.io/SNqYRU
The first hall you enter as you come into the building is pretty lame and gives no hint of what awaits you...
Lots of lovely light from abundant sky lights make the place very bright inside...
The water treatment hall is one of the few large areas with a proper floor....
These big tanks were for the operatatives to check water purity and to add chemicals...
Lovely light and shade...
Lots of crinkly paint work but sadly the plaster is coming off everywhere...
Holy!
Psychedelic spaghetti...
...inside the Hall of Graffiti...
...and finally, may favourite...
Thanks for looking, hope you liked our pix!
