North Leamington School, Jan 2015

[mookster]

I was tipped off about this from my mate Jo who visited last week so fancied a wander myself - with a non-member friend who hadn't been on an explore in five years as well. This place is a weird one - the ground floor still has power being fed into it which means there are a lot of blinking PIR lights but none of them seemed to do anything so we shrugged it off - it's a little disconcerting having those red lights blinking at you while you walk around though! It was very windy too which meant some of the metal window blinds were making a lot of loud banging noises which gave it quite a lively atmosphere. Inside it reminded me a little bit of the old Tresham College Institute in Kettering but a lot less trashed and with some nice features.

The school was formed in 1977 from the merging of three schools: Blackdown High School (Park Road site), Leamington College for Girls, a girls grammar school (Cloister Way site) and Leamington College for Boys (Binswood Hall site) on Binswood Avenue. The sixth form centre at Binswood Hall was separate to the school until 1994, when the teaching staff was merged with the 11-16 school. This was not a simple operation, with the disparate nature of the sites. In September 2009, a completely new school was opened, built where the existing Manor Hall building was located. This new complex merged both the main school and the Sixth Form. The old site of the school has been demolished and the land sold to developers.

Well, that last sentence isn't strictly true (good old Wikipedia....). Binswood Hall as we know is still standing and being converted. The Blackdown High School site has indeed been demolished and become housing, but the original Leamington College for Girls site which sat next to the Blackdown site is very much still there and it was this part we explored. It was acquired by a charity who wanted to build a specialist respite care home on the site but since the purchase they partnered with another similar charity who have operations elsewhere, which left them not needing the site so for now it sits waiting to find a buyer. Since the closure there was evidence of both airsoft and police training use on site.

I would have got an external but it was a very ugly building and I couldn't be bothered. Because I was a right twonk and didn't take my tripod the photos aren't up to my usual standard but I got a couple of nice ones

This was the most surprising find, it must have been stuck in the gap between the drawers and counter top of the tables for years until the counters were removed.

Thanks for looking, more here https://www.flickr.com/photos/mookie427/sets/72157650213950655/

 

[hamtagger]

Jaysus that's very cool to see, cheers

Banging set of pics (and tripodless too!). Mad to see the short phone number on that letter too.

 

[sj9966]

Nice one Mooks. I tried this place a couple of years back but it was well secured. I had a near miss with secca too. Time for another look I think!!

 

[mookster]

Cheers guys. I went back today with a mate who wanted to see it, and this time I took my tripod so I was able to get a couple of better photos of areas I couldn't manage without one. It was even windier today which meant it was even noisier inside with the metal blinds bashing and crashing all over the place.

I think this has become my favourite new 'local' spot (because there is sod all in Oxford!)

​

 

[hamtagger]

Another nice set bud, liking the look of that science classroom

 

[Perjury Saint]

Good stuff mush!

 

[Matt Inked]

Interesting report mate

I'm shocked the letter and photos survived that long!

 

[The_Raw]

Looks pretty cool in there and the handhelds came out pretty sweet IMO, good work

 

[urblex]

Great stuff! Yeah we spotted a couple of those PIR sensors at Katies House that blinked but didn't seem to do anything

 

[skeleton key]

Nicely done Mooks

 

[jones-y-gog]

Nice one, you can sense the silence in those corridors!

 

[shaddam]

Cool stuff mooks, love the ivy shot !