Tales of the Urban Explorer: Carnegie Library
The sky was getting darker and we feared rain. This is not a good situation for Urban Explorers but foreboding skies can be used advantageously, so long as all that annoying wetness stays up there.
Carnegie Library is situated on a bustling junction and I had to be patient to get my shots, with no vehicles in my images. That sadly was never going to happen.
This is one exploration I have avoided as I feared 'failure' would be the result as it is rarely seen anywhere on social media.
I knew it to be somewhat derpy but I remember seeing images online such as a fantastic swirling staircase adorned with glittering jewels from another time.
…’priceless glittering jewels from another time eh? some would-be thieves had gone in there and likely nicked them’…
The Carnegie Library in Shipley was once one of the grandest buildings in the town and dates back to 1905.
When the new Shipley library was opened in 1985, the building closed. It was sold to private owners in 2006 and has since been left in a state of neglect.
After standing empty for many years the building, on the busy junction of Leeds Road and Carr Lane, is now a shadow of its former self, and has a variety of foliage growing from its crumbling shell.
Source
We eyed up the building noting broken windows and even more so the height we would need to be at to climb inside them.
There was always only going to be one way into Carnegie Library and we were going to take full advantage of the situation, hoping the nefarious door-smashers were not still in there.
Dark and I mean dark. Without strong lighting, anyone entering through here would be subject to total blindness. It seemed there were tunnels in the basement, and we meandered through a mini-maze before being forced to crawl through his gap to progress.
“You know, I think some bastard took a piss here on the way out as a deterrent for the next lot of explorers”, I said to @anidiotexplores who was already disappearing into the distant gloom.
Sorry jeans, I gestured silently without a trace of sincerity.
A set of stairs came into my vision and I hoped the tunnel section was ending. I am not a fucking dwarf and hole-crawling through piss is not my idea of fun.
Ascending to the top, I was thrown into the familiar sights of extreme derpiness, combined with several stale mattresses belonging to the homeless.
I knew this was going to be a shit-hole, but could I find anything besides a discarded fire extinguisher and a deluxe leather mattress covered in rubble and pigeon turd?
Inside was a broken Edwardian toilet, if that sounds majestic well let's say I am sparing you all from what I had to see.
In the distance I spotted the highlight, that fantastic visually draw-dropping staircase, except it was looking much more forlorn than what was expected.
Some dead trees and bushes had managed to get in the way, how I don’t know as I spotted no compromise in the roof directly above.
If this was the crowd-puller then pulling my own dick might be more enjoyable; the decay was severe and made worse with what I would guess at past arseholes pulling off the decorative pieces simply for kicks.
This is one of the many occasions that one does not hold on to the banister for support, despite the stairs being clogged with encrusted mud and dirt.
The top of the stairs; it’s preferable if you don’t look down. My vertigo fortunately is not at that delicate level.
…'walking up stairs like these is more like walking up a slippery slope. Sometimes you need to take a run-up to get to the top'…
The top floor of Carnegie Library was hardly improving. Gone were the rows and aisles ladled with musty old books, the occasional one sporting a heavily use copy of 'Knave' between the covers.
The upper roof had seen some rain damage destroying part of the false roof, with green-encrusted timbers scattered everywhere.
The surface appeared stable regardless, at least in the visible areas.
For a moment I thought it was an old PC, but power supplies never looked like that. Is it a heating device of some type?
The door is marked ‘R’, but what of the rest? I can’t think of what used to be in there.
An over-turned fridge or freezer. What kind of library was this?
The remains of the bannister, jewels removed long ago, stolen and sold at the closest pawn shop.
At the far end of the top floor was another set of descending steps in worse condition than the original set.
Housing makeshift ladders, fallen beams from above, bannister ends and much more underfoot shit I figured this was one descent to veto.
Disappointed with the lack of visuals we made our way back to the ‘fabulous staircase’ noting the vertical floral wallpaper.
This library contained some strange coverings; maybe they had papered over this lilac and turquoise paper previously and this was some by-product from the 60's hippy era?
The front door of Carnegie Library; it’s not been opened in years, possibly decades.
We exited trying to avoid the piss in the tunnels with futility. On our exit, two boys of possibly ten or eleven eyed us dubiously from a distance.
"If you're thinking of going in, make sure you can see in the dark, or forget it”, I yelled across the road.
They continued to stare without uttering a word; where’s your bloody sense of adventure?
My younger self would be heading in WITHOUT the lights.
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Another shithole. I guess you have to crawl over some wonderful stuff at times. Must smell delightful.
I was thinking that if our wonderful(?) new government want to build lots more housing they should force owners to convert places like this or demolish them for new homes. That's better than building on the greenbelt. You've shown how many buildings are sitting empty.
I try my best to avoid it, walking though 'squelchy stuff' is another thing, that happens quite frequently.
This time I didn't vote, the Monster Raving Looney Party had no candidate in my locale 😒
Your exploring shoes must be lovely!
We didn't have any novelty candidates unless some Christian party bloke counts. At least we got rid of the Tories here.
Yes, I have a set exclusively set apart for the task.
😱
That was a pretty disappointing staircase. I was expecting a lot more based on your description. I passed a number of buildings on my recent trip that I wondered what it might be like to explore. I was busy driving though and my wife was busy sleeping, so no shots!
A bloke I sometimes collaborate with, has done several US trips, including your backyard and has encountered no problems while exploring. Be a little more daring!
I've seen some shots from Detroit. There are some cool old buildings down there.
Thank you for this. I can almost feel the unstable floor beneath me. Wondering if I should climb questionable stairs, walking past ugly peeling wall paper. Walking around green mossy wood. Wondering about moldy matrices and old broken equipment. What an adventure.
They are all mini-adventures, despite the mess inside. Not all a great and I have many more just like this who's interiors were not mind-blowing.
Don't think I could convince my wife to let me do this! The visuals were pretty disappointing and it is sad when space is taken up by place that honestly appears dangerous and could be used by something else.
Are you a genuine US person? if so welcome to HIVE and kudos for buying some. You remind me of myself 6 years ago.
Over there, are guns, something that are rarely seen here, and it's also not criminal to enter abandoned buildings.., that's the difference.
I knew it was crap inside, but if it's abandoned then I am inside if possible.
Yep, I'm from California.
We do have guns here and unfortunately a lot of homeless in my area who are suffering from mental health issues and or drugs so a lot of them are unpredictable making it less safe. Most of them are generally nice people though.
I'm sure you've found some amazing places I'll have to take a deep dive into your past explorations.
It's been years since I visited California. I remember the beach right next to LA International, the plane rumbles were setting off car alarms.
I don’t make it up to LA very often since I’m down near San Diego, where the pace of life is a bit slower. Which I really like.
You gave me a hint on what to do if we wanna go in by having a torchlight😅😅
The walls of the building must be very strong because it looks like that
Nice adventure!
Anyone who sees this building outside is never going to know that this is how it looks like inside
It’s a beautiful abandoned building though
You had a great adventure
For heaven's sake!... Damn!... That place looks like it had been designed from the inside by Picasso (perhaps a Picasso being a little drunk, but Picasso anyway) and you had taken photos of it... BRAVO!!!!... Applause for this amazing lot of shots @slobberchops friend!... I like a lot!
!discovery shots
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LOL, this one was a little messy, especially the crawling required for that hole. Just one book would have made the difference, and reminded me it was a library once.
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I hope you had a bath when you got home, fuck that place must stink
I can't recall it being any worse than all the other horrid places we enter, maybe a touch of nose-blindness has entered my psyche?
One we did recently, that did stink.., I mean...
cheers for that, fuck me!
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I got good money for a wooden step ladder like the one in your picture years ago. I auctioned it on ebay not expecting much but it went mad and then some body made a big offer, if I drove into town and dropped it off at a high end pub under renovations. I will have to drop back in one day and see if it is still there.
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STOPI don't think that was worth the effort, or going through the piss hole. I guess the darkness and difficulty of getting in made a lot of people turn back.
My nose wouldn't allow the body to follow into that piss hole smell..., another urban explore adventure to tick off your list, with little to show how magnificent this place was.
!BEER
I put with all kinds of 'shit'.. not literally, to get in places. It's getting tougher to get in anywhere.
Cottages in the countryside off the beaten track I think you had more preserved appeal. Getting in anywhere always a problem as the years go by....
Beautiful building ! Even though it was knackered I still really liked the pic of the staircase ! It made me think of the end scene of Titanic where they all come back to life on the staircase - but for some reason I imagined that as this staircase but with skeletons !
It's been a long time since I saw that, 1997 I think at a Cinema...
Very knackered building, maybe too late to save it.
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[-]acidyo (82) 3 months ago
Haha at "I shouldn't make commercial" :D Maybe something to worry about when you have more youtube subscribers! Quite interesting content though, these things should get more subs on there and here.
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[-]gogreenbuddy (67) 3 months ago
Yeah thought that was funny too
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BEER.That's a great looking building. I imagine that you have much older buildings there, but 1905 was a long time ago.
Uff, absolutely terrible and crazy-colored chaos 😎
Looks like the "R" door once said READING ROOM." Which would make either perfect sense, or no sense at all. Wouldn't the entire library be for reading? Dunno though, as I've never been in a library overseas. Something I need to rectify one of these days...maybe in Bulgaria! :)
You do seem to have interesting luck with the wallpaper. I was noticing the combo here of tan palm fronds and ferns, both seemingly from the same era. Rather tropical for a library in the UK.
!PIZZA