Fails of the Urban Explorer: The Newby Square
Occasionally you get one of those days where everything goes well. That day was the 12th September 2020 when @dizzydiscovery, @goblinknackers, and I did a full day in derelict Bradford and it's surroundings once again.
Just when I think everything has been visited in this West Yorkshire city, some more turn up begging to be explored.
After visiting a couple in Halifax the week before my visit to @c0ff33a's place, that is the September HIVE meet-up we picked up @goblinknackers who was moaning and groaning about me 'leaving him out' and threatening to stop voting my Urbex posts.
That day we visited TEN, and NINE were successful; it was our best trip yet. This one was the single fail and even then we got inside.
I would be pissed-off if I lived on this nice private estate and had this burnt-out wreck next to my house. It’s been infiltrated by some other explorers recently so I was confident about getting inside.
Fire damage has reduced at least some of The Newby Square to a partial wreck, but it could be salvaged I figured.
The architecture is hardly desirable, it being of an early 70's style that used to be common amongst pubs and dodgy working men's clubs.
Just a few months earlier The Newby Square was set upon by arsonists, and I wondered if it was going to be demolished.
An eyewitness, who called the fire into 999, said there was "a loud bang" which caused him and his sister to look out of their window.
The cause of the fire is not currently known.
Not known? It's the firestarters again, who else?
The back door was closed but opened when we turned the handle, another success! However, all was not good inside and we could hear noises from the basement.
I started taking photographs and looking around the ground floor which had signs of renovation. No bar, no beer glasses, no nothing really.
Whoever it was downstairs obviously heard us clumping around and arose from the basement. A middle-eastern looking, fattish middle-aged bloke made his way to the room with a look of anger in his eyes.
With him was a teenage girl, presumably his daughter.
‘WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN HERE..., ARE YOU GOING TO BURN DOWN MY PROPERTY AGAIN?', he snarled with a thick accent, eyes flashing at us all and drool spitting from his mouth.
@dizzydiscovery went on the defence immediately, bolstered by the fact there were three of us!
‘Is this your property?, we walked through the open door and are Urban Explorers’ - as this would solve everything!
The word Urban Explorers had obviously not registered with arabman and he marched up to @dizzydiscovery with intent.
‘Yes it’s my property, and you need to leave NOW!', he said with a wiggling finger pointing in his face.
‘OK, calm down will you, if you want us to leave, we will leave’, said @dizzydiscovery backing off and looking for some personal space.
I don't want your COVID arabman, thanks very much
At this point, @goblinknackers chimed in, 'You speak Urdu?'
‘No Urdu’, stated ’arabman’, who seemed to be calming down by just a couple of degrees.
@dizzydiscovery was fiddling with his phone and pointing, ‘see here, Dizzy Discovery - Urban Explorer’, he motioned.
‘arabman’ was having none of it and was taking photographs of @dizzydiscovery.
He must be their leader and henchman
We contemplated leaving at this point but the teenager chimed in unexpectantly, ‘Dad, he’s telling the truth… look’
With us all being cleared of the atrocious crime of arson, arabman explained to us that his pub had been closed for years and then torched 3 months ago.
He still did not trust us and insisted on walking us out of the grounds, but did mention the pub was going to be converted into a mosque.
Now I felt sorry for those residents nearby, not because of the mosque but the fact that this eyesore is going to stay.
Some buildings can be fixed up, but these prefab horrors will always look like that..., a shit-hole.
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Wait, you lost me at the whole @goblinknackers upvotes posts thing. Sorry this one didn't turn out to be a winner for you. It sounds like the rest of the day was, so that is good. Interesting that it used to be a bar and now it is going to be a place of worship.
He has me on his auto-voter and wants to do the Urbex trips but we don't always visit his side of the pond. So the deal was we need to bring him along or I don't get votes. It's all tongue in cheek stuff.
Yeah, I was kind of joking too!
I think anyone would be confused if you introduce yourselves as @slobberchops @goblinknackers and @dizzydiscovery. Not everyone is au fait with online handles :)
That was never a nice building, but at least it may get some use.
I was still taking photographs while dizzy was wrangling with arabman. @goblinknackers is good at defusing things but his language trump card didn't work on this occasion. dizzy snapped arabman as a revenge tactic which didn't go down very well..., the drama.., can't beat it!
Reminds me of Rita Sue & Bob too, I'm sure there's a pub in that film that looks like that, there's one near me, shut down now, that looks exactly the same, horribe eye sores. Another great post though :-)
Lol if you want a laugh I live in the middle of the housing estate in Rita, Sue and Bob - and it still looks pretty much the same as the films complete with the scrappers running horses with carts.
These places remind me of when I was young, and not in a good way. Working-Mens club.., you go there just to drink and get pissed.. ugh. Not for me.
Considering I live in Bradford I have to agree it is a derelict sh*t hole, this is one of the slightly more attractive derelicts it has. I have sympathy that idiot arsonists just like to see stuff burn, that happens way too much around here where properties are empty - and seriously sometimes the council board up a flat and within days it's alight - either they don't have decent tools to board the building up or the arsonists have access to some heavy duty battery powered cutting gear.
I really like the Urban Exploring idea, at the Halifax meet up we were discussing all the places you had been and it would really be fascinating to see the history in a building closed for many years. But it also seems like as soon as anyone knows where they are there is a negative element that just wants to go and film themselves trashing it - ruins the whole concept and you have to wonder why people just want to destroy things just for the hell of it.
Quite a few old pubs around Buttershaw have been totally demolished now, most likely to make way for housing. It's a shame to see old buildings disappear - it's a part of our history.
This was the week before the meetup at your place, we did THREE in Halifax before we got over to Bradford.. none of have been written as yet. Was an amazing successful day.., though some of the successes were better than others.
There's one down the road from you, named Old Mill. Last time we tried it was sealed but it's been opened up since. Go along and get the bug!
Well, at least it wasn't nettles that caused the failure, but a nettled arabman instead.
I thought a bit about which I'd rather for a neighbor. Dodgy, grimy pub with all the needles and condoms and peeing in the neighborhood bushes or the call to prayer 5 times a day. I'm thinking Mosque wins this time.
Well being Bradford I was amazed there were no needles knocking about. I have gotten accustomed to seeing them everywhere I look in that city.
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Great post. I have found it under trending. I Think I have to take a look more and more under trending.
Greetings Michael
!invest_vote
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Thanks.
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Keep up the good work!
Guess that’s another pub you are barred from?
As much as I looked, not a single beer glass... terrible.
😂
You are building quite a mini team there!
Oh, there's just two of us usually, @goblinknackers only if we are in his area.
Ahhh!
Thanks for continuing to make Hive awesome.
If he wants to reduce the risk of a second arson attack he could probably do better than converting it into a mosque.
Well... this is Bradford we are talking about..., enough said!
He should convert it into a pound store then.