Earls Court Exhibition Centre is a closed exhibition, conference and events venue in London that originally opened in 1887 and was rebuilt in 1937 in its most recent art deco style exterior. It is located in Earls Court within the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and was the largest such venue within central London. The founder was John R. Whitley and the first exhibition included performances by Buffalo Bill Cody as part of the 'American Exhibition'. This was followed by 'Four National Exhibitions', the title of C. Lowe's 1892 book about Earls Court and its founder.
Earls Court is widely known for serving as London's premier exhibition hall for many decades, hosting the Royal Tournament and Motor Show, Ideal Home Show, the Brit Awards (until 2010) and a number of other notable events and concerts. It was also used as one of the venues for both the 1948 and 2012 Olympic Games. It was served by two London Underground stations: Earl's Court and West Brompton, opposite the entrances on Warwick Road and Old Brompton Rd respectively.
In 2013 controversial plans to demolish Earls Court were approved in order to make way for a new residential and retail estate on the site, which is expected to be completed in 2033. Demolition work began on the site in December 2014.
With so many landmark sites in London it's simply a case of waiting for the next one to reach the end of it's life cycle. Earls Court exhibition centre's fate has been doomed for a while now, the hoarding went up last year and we'd nearly forgotten all about it until Maniac mentioned it in a conversation recently. Probably just big empty rooms with nothing in them we said to each other, but then as the conversation continued we started to wonder actually what might be lurking underneath the place and whether or not we might be able to access the roof. We made it a priority and got ourselves down there pronto with Ojay and sirjonnyp. It's an absolute beast of a site (check out the aerial view later) and we weren't wrong in thinking there might be more to it. It took two long visits to get around the majority of it and I'm sure we still missed some bits. The main arena was like a scene from the apocalypse, rain falling from above and twisted metal railings strewn across the place. The labyrinth of service tunnels were hiding some epic plant and boiler rooms amongst other things. The roof contained the most gigantic gantry I've ever seen which enabled you to climb to the very top of the structure, happy days! A really satisfying explore this one and perhaps a last glimpse of one of London's most famous venues before it disappears off the planet.
Earls Court is widely known for serving as London's premier exhibition hall for many decades, hosting the Royal Tournament and Motor Show, Ideal Home Show, the Brit Awards (until 2010) and a number of other notable events and concerts. It was also used as one of the venues for both the 1948 and 2012 Olympic Games. It was served by two London Underground stations: Earl's Court and West Brompton, opposite the entrances on Warwick Road and Old Brompton Rd respectively.
In 2013 controversial plans to demolish Earls Court were approved in order to make way for a new residential and retail estate on the site, which is expected to be completed in 2033. Demolition work began on the site in December 2014.
With so many landmark sites in London it's simply a case of waiting for the next one to reach the end of it's life cycle. Earls Court exhibition centre's fate has been doomed for a while now, the hoarding went up last year and we'd nearly forgotten all about it until Maniac mentioned it in a conversation recently. Probably just big empty rooms with nothing in them we said to each other, but then as the conversation continued we started to wonder actually what might be lurking underneath the place and whether or not we might be able to access the roof. We made it a priority and got ourselves down there pronto with Ojay and sirjonnyp. It's an absolute beast of a site (check out the aerial view later) and we weren't wrong in thinking there might be more to it. It took two long visits to get around the majority of it and I'm sure we still missed some bits. The main arena was like a scene from the apocalypse, rain falling from above and twisted metal railings strewn across the place. The labyrinth of service tunnels were hiding some epic plant and boiler rooms amongst other things. The roof contained the most gigantic gantry I've ever seen which enabled you to climb to the very top of the structure, happy days! A really satisfying explore this one and perhaps a last glimpse of one of London's most famous venues before it disappears off the planet.
1. Epic external shot found on google images, standard.
2. Entrance Hall
3. Main arena
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6. Restaurant posters
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8. Some machines and bits around the perimeter of the arena
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11. Service tunnels underneath
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13. Some old photos presumably taken here
14. Restaurant kitchen
15. There were 7 of these huge boiler tanks (I'm guessing that's what they are....), you can just about see through the door how long they are
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17. Plant room
18. Found this little control panel in there
19. The Roof
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21. Up on the gantry, I used incandescent white balance on this shot
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24. The last climb to the top
25. Sketchy hand held shot looking down with the arena visible below
26. Taking a break at the very top of the roof inside one of the little black areas seen on the photo below
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