Billy Banks - Feb 12

This place has been on here a lot recently, but this is my take on it anyway!

Last stop of the day. I was expecting this estate to be in a not so nice council estate itself, but we parked up alongside a pleasant green, with lots of families playing, surrounded by old victorian looking terrace houses. I know estates like Billy Banks were the dream vision of the future, but what possessed the council to build something like this in such a place is beyond me.

We walked into the estate with ease, so easy in fact that there was an elderly couple, at least in their 80's walking their dog around the estate, a hip incident waiting to happen if you ask me.

All the houses flats that we managed to enter were either burnt out or devoid of any atmosphere. That said the estate as a whole feels quite eery and post apocalyptic.

A little bit of info - http://www.doctorwholocations.net/locations/royalclose
The Billy Banks Estate was built upon the remains of a limestone quarry, overlooking the Penarth Flats. Originally considered a modern estate and even winning awards, it went into decline in the 1980s and a decision was made to redevelop the site in 1998. Most residents left by 2002, and the estate is now generally derelect and due to be rebuilt into luxury apartments.

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Metal thief's, get em!

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Cheers Ears!

Makes you wonder how they can abandon a whole estate with todays housing shortages not that there could ever be any suggestion of an inducement by a developer!

That place gave me the shivers, the sense of foreboding was overpowering, ugh

I love seeing this place...great pics Tank.

Never get tired of this place! cheers

Looks like the kind of place you can spend all week at and still not get tired of the photographic opportunities!!

I love the look of this - practically oozes potential.

Nice shots bud

gingrove said:

Makes you wonder how they can abandon a whole estate with todays housing shortages not that there could ever be any suggestion of an inducement by a developer!

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Methinks maybe the costs associated with rebuilding a ruin are far greater than those of a brand new building, so they would rather let an old estate crumble than somehow refurbish it...?

Thank you, sir, for those photos. I loved the rasta scarecrow, but the rest is genuinely atmospheric as well.
Kinda reminds me of old 60's and 70's grandiose housing projects of our late government. The feel is the same, the state of the places as well. Seems like nobody cares for them at all. All the better for "derelict-lovers", though.

gingrove said:

Makes you wonder how they can abandon a whole estate with todays housing shortages not that there could ever be any suggestion of an inducement by a developer!

Click to expand...

I've been down there alot recently talking to the contractors (Crest) and past residents, including the travellers who have now relocated to a old rubbish dump in Sully. It seems that the place was falling apart and I was told that there were times where the residents from the Phase 1 site (Royal Close side) were evacuated to a butlins camp to allow the council to carry out urgent repair work. People say this is the reason that everybody was evicted.

Another person told me that a bad family, just the one, moved in and started causing problems. Nice residents were moving out daily as they were fed of up their cars getting smashed up, clothes stolen and fights in the street. "The police lost control" a resident told me. The same resident said "We used to all meet in the gardens on a weekend and enjoy a football match" and also "a stolen car was just inches from hitting my daughters and killing them".

With the Billy Banks estate now being fully secured (as of March 2012) who knows what is to come. A local resident has kept me informed with demo plans and it went from November 2011 to March 2012 and it is now April 2012.

I have been told my the developer that they must ensure that each one of the properties are empty prior to demo as they have been told about squatters living in a property, metal thieves, photographers and youths & local residents walking the area.

I am sure the photographs of this place will still be coming, I know that I will be down their over the next few weeks to take "The final Billy Banks Photographs". It's a shame to say that no matter what the place is like as there is alot of memories still tied up.

I am sure it's the same couple as photographed on this thread but a couple stopped me a few weeks ago and asked if I had seen their home. I asked for the number and went on a hunt. This was the first time I had ever been asked what somebodies home was like at the estate. Whilst showing them the photographs, I could see a tear in their eye. This to me shows that the memory of the estate was once a good one and will never be forgotten.

Sorry for the long post but sort of lost track here!

Urbex-SW said:

Another person told me that a bad family, just the one, moved in and started causing problems. Nice residents were moving out daily as they were fed of up their cars getting smashed up, clothes stolen and fights in the street. "The police lost control" a resident told me. The same resident said "We used to all meet in the gardens on a weekend and enjoy a football match" and also "a stolen car was just inches from hitting my daughters and killing them".

Click to expand...

Only takes one, I experienced the same thing