Oriental City Shopping Centre - Colindale - May 2011

Oriental City was a shopping centre in Colindale, London specialising in various oriental foods and items. It is located on Edgware Road
The centre contained a large oriental supermarket, and a food court with a range of foods from different areas of South-East Asia; stalls offered Malaysian, Thai, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean and Japanese. The food court was immensely popular with surrounding office workers and the North London community; and often became very crowded at weekends

Aside from the food outlets, the centre also previously housed an import game shop, a Sanrio store, and one of the largest oriental bookshops in Europe, called Asahiya Shoten. In the period shortly before the centre closed down, shoppers could find a tailor's shop, a jeweller, a hairdresser, a beauty shop, Chinese medicine shops, a martial arts store, and a large furniture store. Oriental City was also host to a Sega Dome arcade

Planning application was submitted on the 8th June 2010 to demolish the shopping centre, here are some snippets from the proposal...

1. Redevelopment for mixed-use purposes,with a replacement Oriental City to include a Sui Generis amusement arcade and separately a new B & Q and bulky goods store and a health & fitness studio which together should provide 500 jobs

2. 520 residential units (comprising 1-, 2- and 3-bedroom flats, 4% being affordable) located in eight blocks rising to 3, 6, 9 and 18 storeys

3. A nursery and primary school for 480 children

4. 1,098 car-parking spaces

The Oriental City in its hey day

Right, On with the photos....

The menu at The Hunan Restaurant. I'll have the number 24 with a number 53 on the side, Fried Frog with Pig Ear in Special Sauce!!! Nom Nom!!!

Visited with, wait for it... Skeleton Key, Priority 7, Trog, Wevsky, Silver Rainbow, Space Invader, Obscurity and a non member called Ben. Yup 9 of us mooching around the shopping centre, it was like it was open again

Harold Wood Hospital Morgue - May 2011

This was a quick fly by visit to Harold Wood purely for the famous morgue.

This is for the history buffs...............The hospital was opened in 1909 by West Ham County Borough council, as the Grange convalescent home for children, which operated with the nearby Plaistow fever hospital. The Grange had been a private house, built in 1884 by John Compton, owner of the Gubbins estate. The convalescent home was maintained by the county borough until the Second World War, as an emergency hospital. After the war it became a permanent hospital, and in the 1960s was significantly enlarged.

The hospital later became part of the Barking, Havering and Redbridge Hospitals NHS Trust. It was closed on 13 December 2006 with patients and functions relocated to Queen's Hospital and to King George Hospital. The site vacated by the hospital has been earmarked for a 470-home housing development.
The original plan to keep certain NHS facilities has been superseded and the entire plot has been approved for residential development. Local residents are opposing the proposal of over 800 dwellings, including a 9 storey block.
Before we done the morgue we had a quick mooch around the hospital and found this gem, you have heard of the famous fire extinguisher room, well meet the floor buffer room............

Right, on to the meaty bit........

Kingsmoor House - Harlow - May 2011

Kingsmoor House is a Grade II* listed 18th century coach house with 19th century additions

In 2006 planning permission was granted to convert the building into 9 apartments, but this has never happened and now the place is slowly decaying

Taken from "The History of Harlow (H.D.C. 1969)

It was at this time, about the middle of the 18th century, that a new property at Parndon came into prominence. Kingsmoor House was never a manor and it's origin is obscure,
but by the 18th century it had become a considerable residence with well disposed grounds, standing on a light elevation above the common.
Here was the home of the Risden family, and of a branch of the Houblon family. It was later purchased by Mr Todhunter who is commemorated in the stained glass windows in St Mary's Church (Gt Parndon).
Later it was used as a private school.

 Kingsmoor House in 1970, it was owned by Harlow Council and held various clubs and community classes including a pre school.

 Up the narrower stairs to the attic and the servants quarters