History:
I don’t know the exact date of when Brooklands first opened, but while leaving the site an old couple came up to us and said that they had seen us exploring the building and they told us the park was opened in around the 1950s... I can only find stuff from the 1960s but it’s possible it was open around then... it closed down a couple of years ago and is now nearly all gone... however I know the iconic train was first introduced in 1966. You can still see some of the train track today.... The local council had big plans to change Brooklands from the childrens fun place that it was to a “science adventure park”. Until that happens (if that happens) there is little to recommend for a visit at the moment. The park has been undergoing a renovation for years which resulted in a lot of items in the Park getting taken away... Boat rides on the lake got taken away then the mini karts. The lovely mini iconic train that you could go on had been taken away to....
Explore:
Visited with @oleo.21
So after walking half an hour in the heat we arrived at the park and saw the builders demolishing it at 2pm. We walked around for a bit, and decided to come back around 6pm as we had found our access in and wanted rid of the builders so we could take a look into the ballpit as our very good friend Matt (a non member) had been in here last week and said it was amazing!
6pm - When we arrived at the site we was delighted to see that our plan had succeeded and there was no builders in site!!! We sped up the path and dashed to a opening in the fence and scaled the outside of the building until we got to the part that had been demolished as that was an obvious opening. It was very difficult as the rubble was moving but we got in. I went here as a child when it was open and running so I remember the place well.... it was actually quite sad seeing it in it sorry state. I’m aware that the local teenagers are using this as a place to smoke weed and spray paint but that will no longer happen as this place has got a matter of days before it’s completely gone. Any residents walking through here are very clicky and ask questions... very annoying... It was rather amusing noticing them assume we was criminals considering we was leaving the building with cameras and tripods... it was quiet obvious we were photographers
:
The ballpit itself is so trashed and ruined but yet so cool at the same time... The floor is absolutely fucked here, you have to be careful on where you stand as you could literally fall through at any moment! There was apparently a recent fire so hence why the floor is bad as it got soaked.... The place was extremely hot, I remember that as a kid to be honest... it’s basically a wooden shack with a plastic warehouse like roof, jazzed up with a colourful castle exterior design made out of wood. We believe a homeless man is or was living here as we found a suitcase full of personal items and the room it was in smell like urine and basically cigarettes and alcohol... This was the only part of the building that smelt bad!
I found the empty paddling pool fairly interesting and had some fun taking pictures with of course a fish eye lens! If I remember correctly the goldfish used to squirt water out into the paddling pool when it was open...
The crazy golf course is literally invisible as the overgrowth is mental, it’s extremely trashed and you can hardly tell there is a golf course there now. However I really liked the model camel, I always remember when the crazy golf worker left the cabin all the kids would climb on the camel and then get told off when the person came back ....
There’s some good dog walking areas and you can stroll around the lake but there’s currently no decent play areas or refreshments as the cafe was demolished a week ago, and you have to pay for the car park!! Everywhere looks very abandoned. The council are talking about spending £2,000,000 on regeneration but they really need to get on and do something quickly.
There are some travellers living on site, they were friendly. We was disturbed by people looking in and wondering why we was in a demolition site and obviously spoke to an elderly couple while we was leaving as I mentioned at the start!
None the less a really interesting explore that I’ve been meaning to do for a year at least!
I don’t know the exact date of when Brooklands first opened, but while leaving the site an old couple came up to us and said that they had seen us exploring the building and they told us the park was opened in around the 1950s... I can only find stuff from the 1960s but it’s possible it was open around then... it closed down a couple of years ago and is now nearly all gone... however I know the iconic train was first introduced in 1966. You can still see some of the train track today.... The local council had big plans to change Brooklands from the childrens fun place that it was to a “science adventure park”. Until that happens (if that happens) there is little to recommend for a visit at the moment. The park has been undergoing a renovation for years which resulted in a lot of items in the Park getting taken away... Boat rides on the lake got taken away then the mini karts. The lovely mini iconic train that you could go on had been taken away to....
Explore:
Visited with @oleo.21
So after walking half an hour in the heat we arrived at the park and saw the builders demolishing it at 2pm. We walked around for a bit, and decided to come back around 6pm as we had found our access in and wanted rid of the builders so we could take a look into the ballpit as our very good friend Matt (a non member) had been in here last week and said it was amazing!
6pm - When we arrived at the site we was delighted to see that our plan had succeeded and there was no builders in site!!! We sped up the path and dashed to a opening in the fence and scaled the outside of the building until we got to the part that had been demolished as that was an obvious opening. It was very difficult as the rubble was moving but we got in. I went here as a child when it was open and running so I remember the place well.... it was actually quite sad seeing it in it sorry state. I’m aware that the local teenagers are using this as a place to smoke weed and spray paint but that will no longer happen as this place has got a matter of days before it’s completely gone. Any residents walking through here are very clicky and ask questions... very annoying... It was rather amusing noticing them assume we was criminals considering we was leaving the building with cameras and tripods... it was quiet obvious we were photographers
:The ballpit itself is so trashed and ruined but yet so cool at the same time... The floor is absolutely fucked here, you have to be careful on where you stand as you could literally fall through at any moment! There was apparently a recent fire so hence why the floor is bad as it got soaked.... The place was extremely hot, I remember that as a kid to be honest... it’s basically a wooden shack with a plastic warehouse like roof, jazzed up with a colourful castle exterior design made out of wood. We believe a homeless man is or was living here as we found a suitcase full of personal items and the room it was in smell like urine and basically cigarettes and alcohol... This was the only part of the building that smelt bad!
I found the empty paddling pool fairly interesting and had some fun taking pictures with of course a fish eye lens! If I remember correctly the goldfish used to squirt water out into the paddling pool when it was open...
The crazy golf course is literally invisible as the overgrowth is mental, it’s extremely trashed and you can hardly tell there is a golf course there now. However I really liked the model camel, I always remember when the crazy golf worker left the cabin all the kids would climb on the camel and then get told off when the person came back ....
There’s some good dog walking areas and you can stroll around the lake but there’s currently no decent play areas or refreshments as the cafe was demolished a week ago, and you have to pay for the car park!! Everywhere looks very abandoned. The council are talking about spending £2,000,000 on regeneration but they really need to get on and do something quickly.
There are some travellers living on site, they were friendly. We was disturbed by people looking in and wondering why we was in a demolition site and obviously spoke to an elderly couple while we was leaving as I mentioned at the start!
None the less a really interesting explore that I’ve been meaning to do for a year at least!
