Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society Department Store, Woolwich

The impressive department store occupies a prominent place on Powis Street, Woolwich. Built in 1938 By the Royal Arsenal Co-operative Society in the art deco style.

The Royal Arsenal Co-op was founded by workers at the local royal arsenal in 1868, their principal aim was to provide reasonably priced food for local workers. The co-op developed and came to offer a range of services locally which included bookshops, chemists, undertakers, laundries, insurance and savings stamps clubs and a department store. The co-op was founded on on the democratic principals of one member one vote and paid a dividend to members.

The store was to become a popular high street store for the next 50 years, selling clothing and housing a bank. The RACS experienced a period of decline in the 1980's and was eventually merged with the Co-operative Wholesale society, Who in turn became known in the Uk Simply as the Co-op.

1965

The exact date of closure is unclear, but it seems to have been empty from the early 2000's. The building is popular locally but is currently under threat from the local council who have plans to demolish and re-develop the site.

Nice Art Deco staircase - The rails spell the words "Co oP" - look carefully!!

 

 

Up and up untill we found the roof

  Then on the way back down on the 2nd floor we found the executive suite of a local tramp, in this next photo is pretty much his whole life, washing line, dinner table (complete with in date pork pie) and his bed. :(

 

Brown's Folly Mine - Wiltshire

Now, a couple of years ago, if I had gone out for a mates Birthday then I probably would have ended up down the pub with a kebab to follow and a taxi home.

Then I discovered Urban Exploration and a whole new bunch of mates.

So it was off to Browns Folly for a weekend of fun for Obscurity's Birthday!!!

Those in attendance were..........

Me!!!, Skeleton Key, Wevsky, Space Invader, Obs, Mrs Obs, Maniac, Frosty, OliverGT,

Toad, VW DirtBoy, Elvis, Raptor Jesus, Trog, Mrs Trog, Tommo, Emerson & Northern Ninja

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The History Bit

Browns Folly Mine is a Bath Stone quarry which was originally part of Monkton Farleigh Mine however when the War Department converted part of the quarry in to an ammunitions store they separated part of the quarry which is the area now known as Browns Folly.
  

This photograph shows the quarrymen and their tools. In the front are the sawyers with their Frig Bobs. In the backrow note: - In the middle, two of the men are holding lamps mounted on holders. These holders, like long handled bats could be put into a hole in a pillar or in the harness to give the horse some light. The man middle right is holding a holing iron, which is used to chisel out the hole for the Lewis, just below. The Gaffer or Ganger is wearing the bowler.

 
 

Closed in the 1930's, Browns Folly Mine is an SSSI (Special Site of Scientific Interest) because of its national importance for hibernating and roosting bats.

The main adit into the quarry was blasted by the military probably to prevent access to the Monkton Farleigh Ammunition Depot connected to Brown's Folly.

My Photos

 

Kensal Green Cemetery - London

The General Cemetery of All Souls, Kensal Green, is one of England's oldest and most beautiful public burial grounds

The plan for London's first garden cemetery was initiated by the barrister George Frederick Carden, who was inspired by a visit to Père-Lachaise in Paris in 1821. Alert both to the need for new burial grounds, and the commercial potential of the venture, Carden founded the General Cemetery Company in 1830, with influential supporters including Andrew Spottiswoode MP and the banker John Dean Paul of Rodburgh
  

The cemetery was established by Act of Parliament which had its final reading in July 1832, during a cholera epidemic -- a coincidence that implicitly made the case for reform.

The Bishop of London consecrated the first 48 acres in January 1833, and the first funeral was conducted a week later. 

From the funeral of HRH The Duke of Sussex in 1843 to that of his nephew HRH The Duke of Cambridge in 1904, Kensal Green was the most fashionable cemetery in England

Its notable personalities include some 650 members of the titled nobility and over 550 individuals noted in the Dictionary of National Biography. 

Kensal Green is the resting place of the engineers Sir Marc Isambard Brunel and Isambard Kingdom Brunel, the mathematician Charles Babbage, and the novelists Wilkie Collins, Anthony Trollope and William Makepeace Thackeray; Lord Byron's wife, Oscar Wilde's mother, Charles Dickens' in-laws and Winston Churchill's daughter; a cross-dressing Army doctor and the surgeon who attended Nelson at Trafalgar; the creator of Pears' Soap, and the original WH Smith; the funambulist Blondin and the Savoyard George Grossmith; the first man to cross Australia from south to north, and the last man to fight a duel in England; the Duke's nephew who ruined the richest heiress of the day, and the English adventuress who became a French baronne disgraced by the accusation of murder.

Kensal Green boasts some 140 Grade I, II* and II Listed buildings and monuments, including the magnificent Anglican Chapel (Top 2 pano's)

The Cemetery is cared for by "The Friends of Kensal Green Cemetery" which is an independent registered charity