Hello everyone. Before we get to todays derelict house, I want to quickly mention a charity fundraiser- A Harley Quinn cosplayer friend of mine is helping to raise money for animals that are lost or abandoned during hurricane season in the US, with funds going to search & rescue, medical attention, food, shelter and readoption costs. They're open to donations of any quantity, but as an added incentive, anyone who donates $25 dollars (because it's being made by Americans) gets a Harley Quinn cosplay calendar, of which my friend is August! The conversion rate is generous too! In UK pounds, $25 is just £19.07. But as said, best of all, the donations are going towards saving animals. The whole natural disaster thing is a problem that we don't really have in the UK, but across the pond it's quite the issue and it's sadly not uncommon for families to leave their pets behind, willingly or not. If you want/can, donate to the fundraiser here.
Now on with the blog! Today I'm looking at a house in Shrewsbury that the local newspapers recently named the Nuisance House, which sure was nice of them, because it saves me having to think of a name for a fairly nondescript bungalow myself!
The newspaper article then completely fails to justify the name, as nothing about the house particularly makes it a nuisance. It's just sitting there minding its own business with barely any glass left in its windows.
The newspaper article talks about how the police have finally located the mysteriously absent owner of this derelict property after a lengthy search, after local kids started using the house as a den. According to the article, the house has been abandoned for at least a year, with plans to demolish it delayed for some reason, while the landowner fell off the face of the Earth.
My problem with the article is, it's written as if it's a follow up to an earlier article asking for information. It talks about how the owner has finally been located, and the case is closed. It's a closing chapter, in a way. But there is no article for this to be a follow up to. It's just them saying "There was a house that the police couldn't find the owner of, but they've found him now."
They've basically published a story after it ceased to be news.
Over on Twitter, the police did post a little plea for information, and one would have thought that the newspaper, with its audience, would assist by posting their article in conjunction with that. But no, they decided to completely ignore that, and use their considerable reach and influence to bring attention to the problem... after the problem was solved. How convenient.
Imagine if the media didn't touch World War 2 at all until 1945, and then just said "This just in: A short Austrian man tried to take over the world and purify our species in what he considered a step towards genetic superiority but was actually pretty cruel and bigoted. But don't worry, we took care of it. So if you had any bombs drop on your house in the last six years, and you're wondering why, it was probably just him. Winston Churchill says, Sorry for the inconvenience. It won't happen again."
So anyway, I wasn't too keen on the Nuisance house, but since the papers made me and моя обработчики chuckle and facepalm, I decided to pay it a visit.
The house isn't that old, and from what I can tell from the sources available, it was empty for at least a year. It seemed that the owner tried to get planning permission to do something, and work did begin with clearing out the garden, but when the planning permission hit delays, the owner just thought "Fuck it" and buggered off. The house sat empty, until the local kids started hanging out in it.
I'm not sure what this little out-house could be. It's literally the size of a dog kennel, but it has a window. What, was Fido claustrophobic?
There's a thermometer on the exterior wall.
And here's a police sticker, obviously placed here when the police became aware of the kids hanging out here, and began searching for the houses owner.
The front door was wide open, but the floor was covered in smashed glass.
Presumably this was the lounge. It's fairly trashed, with a mixture of original belongings and litter. But there's still a plant in the corner!
I love that the plant is still upright and unvandalised while all around it is utter chaos. It's as if the people who smashed up the place suddenly had a crisis of ethics, and said to each other "We can't smash the plant, it's a living thing, dude. Its making oxygen for us."
There's a ruined basketball hoop on the wall here.
What I love most about the newspaper article was the phrase "we are now getting calls that some kids have started using it as a bit of a den... and possibly more."
Possibly more? How ominous. What's the upgrade of a den when you're a small child? Is that when you pretend that its a castle or mighty kingdom, and stick a flag on the roof and a sign outside saying "No Girls Allowed"?
Basically, the article is saying that police received phone calls saying that kids were hanging out in this derelict house, but nobody knew for sure what they were actually doing there. The obvious accusation to hurl at them would be the vandalism of the property, but at no point does it say that the kids are responsible for its present condition, which seems like a pretty big thing to leave out if you're just going to say that kids were using it as a den. It's almost as if it was smashed before the kids started hanging out there. Maybe they were just bored, and they saw an abandoned house, and took advantage of something cool and unusual. And seriously, what child didn't like playing in a den?
Imagine that conversation though:
"I'm bored, Tim. Fancy doing some ecstasy and maybe later we can mug an old person for their pension?"
"I've got a better idea, Jack. Let's hang on to our childhood a little while longer and turn this abandoned house into our den."
"Oh my God, Tim. That's an amazing idea. This will be the best 9th birthday in the history of 9th birthdays. Way better than Teresa Mays 9th birthday because, you know, they didn't have electricity or running water back then."
"That's a remarkably articulate thing for a fellow 8-year-old to say, Jack."
"It's because I read the Shropshire Star, Tim. It's a torrent of information and wisdom."
"Oh yeah? Let me check it out............ oh wait, we better put the derelict house plan on hold, Jack. The newspaper says that by using it as a den, or a form of escapism, we're committing anti-social behaviour."
"Oh well, Tim. Esctasy it is."
The kitchen was pretty empty and surprisingly not smashed up.
There's a memory board on the wall, but with no pictures attached.
There's also a week planner, but there's nothing on it.
This bedroom is completely smashed up, but oddly comes with its own shower cubicle. Not an ensuite bathroom, but an actual cubicle. I've never seen anything like it.
There's a map of America on the floor.
I'm honestly quite baffled by this shower. It's not as if the communual shower is particularly far away. It's a really small bungalow. Did whoever lived here just dislike sharing? And if so, then why does the shower cubicle open out onto a window that's clear and not obscured like a bathroom? Whoever used this shower shared their whole body with anyone who just happened to be walking by at the wrong time of day.
The second bedroom was tiny.
The third bedroom was pretty empty and apart from smashed glass, was pretty tidy. It had a wardrobe in the corner, which still had hangars but not clothes.
Outside, the garage door was been blocked. Someone really wanted to secure this building! Lucky for me, there's a door around the back.
It seems that the mattress was left here when the house was emptied.
And that appears to be that. With the owner of this property located by police, plans are being put forward to demolish it.
It's not a tragic loss, really. It's a fairly non-descript bungalow, with little historic significance, and had the youths been more discreet with their usage of it, they might have had a den for a lot longer. Police attention shut it down, and launched a search for the owner, who seemingly only really pushed ahead for the demolition once he found out what had happened to the place. The landowner wasn't living here, and any posessions left behind must have been unwanted.
The house is in quite a nice neighbourhood though, and the demolition of a smashed up eyesore will only improve it, and lay the potential for future homes.
Thats all I have today. Next time, I'm checking out a fully furnished abandoned house in Shropshire, of tremendous mystery and intrigue, and then I'm back in Shrewsbury for something underground. In the meantime, share this blog where you want, follow my Instagram, like my Facebook, subscribe to my awful Youtube channel and follow my neglected Twitter.
Thanks for reading!
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete