Abandoned Britain
The story of the UK in six empty buildings
‘I knew everyone here’: the tower block with 164 boarded-up homes – and a few residents who just won’t leave
Lund Point in east London was once ‘a beautiful community’, according to Tee Fabikun, who has lived there since 1997. Now just four flats are occupied. Why are Fabikun and her friends hanging on? And what happened to the long-promised redevelopment?
‘Now the village is dead. It’s awful’: why was one of Britain’s best pubs forced to close?
For 400 years, The Hare and Hounds in Bowland Bridge offered a warm welcome to locals and travellers. Then the rent doubled. With two pubs a day closing in England and Wales, can the community save this 17th-century gem?
It once hosted Eric and Ernie and a boxing kangaroo – now it’s all pigeons and decay. How did Hulme Hippodrome fall so low?
It showcased the biggest stars of the day, including Stan Laurel, Harry Houdini, Morecambe and Wise and Shirley Bassey, before becoming a bingo hall, a church and a squat. It was almost turned into flats. What next for Manchester’s forgotten music hall?
The Welsh church claimed by spiders and ivy: what do Britain’s derelict churches say about our health and happiness?
Half of the most important buildings in the UK are churches and, even when congregations fall away, they are vital community hubs. But many, including beloved St Tyfrydog’s in Wales, which closed in 2020, are decaying. Can they be saved?
