Tales of the Urban Explorer: Highbury Cricket Club
Not to be confused with Arsenal FC’s old football ground, Highbury Cricket Club has been disused since the year 2004.
It's also one of the shortest explores I have done and considered ditching it, as there was very little to see.
After doing some searching, I found some information on the internet and decided maybe it's worth a write-up.
I found another recent report and noticed the author has been 'Banned' from the 'prestigious' www.28dayslater.co.uk website.
I wonder why ‘Kyle_Urbex’ was banned? was it because he’s one of the new style lads who likes to take selfies of his own arse in a photograph, and the 28dayslater crew don’t like his type?
I like @grindle’s description of these younger dudes as ‘ninja’s with masks’, it always makes me laugh!
There have been plans to convert the land into a daycare centre but it seems little has progressed on that front.
The last competitive match was played in September 2004, and after 76 years it was left to rot away and the grasses to grow wild.
In 1977 the club installed a small bar in the pavilion in order to generate more revenue. This marked the start of a period of improvements being made to the club, eventually resulting in a bigger clubhouse and better-changing facilities.
Getting to the place required some horizontal scrambling under a fence making a nice mess of my clothes. It wasn’t raining that day, or I may have considered abandoning this one.
If Highbury Cricket Club once hosted a lovely pitch, it would now be better suited as food for hungry cows.
Just getting to the old clubhouse was not so easy, such was the lush vegetation growing everywhere.
Cookridge were the last sponsors, but we don’t know who the last opponents were.
Walking around the back revealed no access points to what was going to be an obvious wreck inside. 16 years is far too long to expect anything exciting within those walls.
There was a way in, but we had to climb over the failed anti-climbing fence to get to this hole.
Inside was what I would have expected, but still, I could guess this was a former changing room for the players.
The long benches and hooks on the wall give it away. The two inner small rooms were worse than I expected.
There were some collapsing toilets but I don't go for toilet photographs in even the best of places. Who wants to look at a pile of decaying 16-year-old shit?
A section of the building was inaccessible and wading through this mass of brambles to get to that door was out of the question. The bar had to be in there.
It doesn’t look very open even if we had a couple of machete’s to get there.
The other way was via the roof and our friend 'Kyle_Urbex' seems to have got in (looking at his banned report). Did he climb up this ladder with no rungs?
Note to ones-self: Never climb rung-less ladders when there is a smattering of moss on them. In fact, leave rung-less ladders completely alone.
I did try and slipped, falling on my arse after just a few steps howling in pain. I will leave these antics for those younger ‘ninja’s with masks’ dudes.
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Man that building looks like it was falling in big time.
I went past a golf course we used to play in as teenagers and it was unused. Covid casualty this year I guess. Wonder how many years til it looks like this. 16 I suppose!
Yes, I'm wondering how Kyle go into the bar section, and how he got out again. Better ninja skills than me.
I have a derelict golf course coming up, not to much too look at on the course unless you like log grass, it was the clubhouse I was aiming for.
Whenever I see this, I think of you. https://www.facebook.com/OntarioAbandonedPlaces
Maybe it will be the first few as I follow in your footsteps?
Just don't get yourself arrested, here we can do this without fear of it, it may not be the same where you live.
Might make for a good post!
So there are extreme hardcore urbex upstarts who get banned for posting arse photos? - now you are getting into exciting new areas! Run with it!
28dayslater is full of the old crew of UX people, a lot of them are up their own arses and very elitist. I never post my content there, as if there is something to criticise, it will happen.
The younger guys have taken to wearing masks, and doing these photographs from behind looking like ninja's about to infiltrate some old buildings. It's not looked upon fondly by the old crew.
Me.. I don't give a shit, if they want to look like ninja's then let them. I find it all amusing.
elitist urbex?
that sounds like high res beausage photography!
Looks like my old Honda from the 90's!
This seems like it was a pretty big facility at one time. It is too bad that they weren't able to keep it up. At least this one wasn't a fail even though you didn't find anything super interesting. They definitely need to get some cows or goats in there to maintain the grounds!
It was a bit crap to be honest, maybe too crap to even post.. I did think about deleting the pictures. They are not all great to visit.
I must admit that the pink graffity looks so cool on this lol
I keep meaning to look for artists sig's, some of them have it. Most of the graffiti I see is pretty crap.
Hahaha true. I think that if they would actually try to make a good job on their art, they might get more attention
"rungless ladder" sometimes you perform like a right fucking noob! 😂
We all have bad days, there was the topmost rung which I should have sprung on and hauled myself up. With all my experience, rungs.. or lack of should prove no obstacle. Same with stairwells with no stairs!
fortune favours the brave!
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Good to see local cricket going from strength to strength.
Oh, hang on.....
I was never a big cricket fan!
I quite like it - that and the Grand Tours, great wallpaper TV!
Man, that thing looks like it's about to collapse! Your Urban posts make me wish I lived in your country. The adventures look like so much fun! I always feel drawn to the history of old buildings. It's as if there is some sort of residual energy that hangs like an invisible fog over these places - sometimes detectable by the strange odors of decay and forgotten material trends of dilapidated architecture.
Thanks for sharing this!
P.S. The graffiti was great as well. :)
They are fun, that's why I do them! Shame you can't there, I think it's a criminal offence and you are likely to get shot right? There is energy at some places, though I am quite numb to the sensation thankfully.
Ya, I'm pretty sure we'd get in a lot of trouble here. There are cameras on EVERYTHING! I feel like we're turning into China! Anyway, I'll be posting some pictures and videos from our trip to Chicago soon, if you want to tune in. The client I'm writing for flew us 2,000 miles for the purposes of the work we're doing and it was all pretty awesome. We stayed in the magnificient mile stretch of Chicago in a 4-star hotel. I was working most of the time but my fiance got lots of pics and videos when she was walking around. :)
Cameras on everything? I see broken cameras quite often and many threats but that's generally what they are. I follow you so will see anything you post in my feed.
Ya. Anything historical is usually loaded with cameras. Old buildings that aren't as significant are usually repurposed or torn down. I suppose it often has something to do with governmental land policies or something - along with the fact that there isn't nearly as much history here because the U.S. is still a very new country. No castles and such really.
Rung-less ladders are never a good idea lol.
You gotta make the most of the local amenities!
It really is sad they let a place like this go. This obviously looks like it had a lot of prospects. I definitely agree with you about no one wanting to see a pile of decaying waste. The graffiti definitely does add some character to the place. Lol.
Hello slobberchops, The reasoning behind my banning from 28dayslater is exactly that reason, They all decided against my urbex top as well as the dramatic pose outside a new location I explore, I guess some people are stuck in their ways old school what not which is fine, I have my own way of doing things and they have theirs😊 All that matters is the passion for Urbex is there, You're right unfortunately this isn't one of the greatest locations majority is ruined which is expected after all this time, Neat location though nonetheless. P. S I climbed a tree to get to the bar and accessed through a roof🤫 Ninja skills! Nice report though😊
Hi Kyle, good to see you on here though I'm surprised you found this post and the reference to you in it. I often think of HIVE as self-contained and when someone from 'the outside' sees it, I'm in shock.
You know, this make me sick.., and I personally invite you to post your stuff on HIVE where you can't get banned by anyone. I rarely visit 28days these days as the better leads are on Facebook and via direct connections.
I don't post my stuff on Facebook any more as the communities have too many rules, you can't do this, you can't do that.. fuck em, I want to do what I want..
My visit to that cricket club was with Lost Places Forgotten Faces, who like you is also a masked ninja hehe.., what of it.., we are all there for the kicks, thrills, adventure and photography.
Nice one, you are more daring than me, was good to see there really is a bar in there, but how did you climb out?
PS: Use this too see changes to your account. HIVE is a daunting place for a new user, but I can help you out.
https://hivetasks.com/@kyleurbex12
UX posts are here:
https://peakd.com/c/hive-104387/created
I appreciate the response, Yeah 28days can be full of up their ass nobs, Both myself and LPFF have been banned from 28days for the same reason aha, Getting out was easier I just hung from a wall and used the rungless ladders as support, It is hard to miss the bar I don't actually think anybody else has found it either😯 My main platform is mainly Instagram and Facebook but I'll be sure to put a report on here at some point😁
The difference between Instagram / Facebook and HIVE is that you get $$ for your work here.
This was another bone on contention on 28days and derelictplaces. In their opinion you should do all this for FREE. I love doing UX, but I love it more when I get a few dollars for every post I do.
As for Highbury Cricket club, even with you extra information, I won't be going back for a re-visit!
There's nothing to stop you from cross-posting your content on those platforms and here, just make sure you stick something in the footer stating you have done this and the FB /IS links.
When there's money involved, people get tetchy about plagiarism.