Report - Six of the best from Bishops Avenue, London - April/May 2019

[jsp77]

History
There has been for many years many empty properties alone the Avenue and slowly one by one they are being knocked down for future developments.
The Avenue in London connects the North side of Hampstead Heath at Kenwood, Hampstead to East Finchley and is on the boundary between the boroughs of Barnet and Haringey.
It is considered to be one of the wealthiest streets in the world.

Explore
This is based over two visits, not really worth doing 6 posts as not much to photograph in some, so i thought i'd just post all in one report.

First time the 3 of us (PV and another) met in McDonalds at silly O'Clock for a quick coffee near by and the drove to the Avenue just before first light.
We had a quick scout about looking entry points at a few locations as the were all close together and soon found ourselves in the Towers awaiting for the light to shine.
After the Towers we worked our way around a few more and left without any issues

The second visit saw the 3 of us meet again and was slightly different, the first location we got spotted and had to make a hasty retreat.
After a while we found ourselves inside another and upon leaving we bumped in to a Guy giving a guided tour of the area and they were looking at the vacant properties and he was telling party all about them.


The Towers - looks nice from the outside, but up close i'd say built on the cheap for wow factor - ground floor swimming pool and bullet proof glass in the garage.

Another house close to the Tower's, not really much to photograph as trashed - The best feature was the swimming pool.

The Georgians - this one had a lovely chandelier and wrought iron staircase.

This house was one of best, lovely marble floors and nice stairs with swimming pool.

To be continued...…..

 

[jsp77]

Now for the final two house's

This house had a retro spiral stairs with a swimming pool.

The final house Oak Lodge was built in 1927 and has stood empty for more than 30 years. This was a bit of a death trap in places due to the floors, but had a few nice features.
Wood paneling in the front room and nice wooden main stairs.

Thanks for looking

 

[HughieD]

Really enjoyed that. Nice to see them all on one report. As fantastic as they are surreal...

 

[jsp77]

Thanks HughieD, it made sense to st
ick them all in the same report.

 

[Calamity Jane]

Agreed, nice to see them all together, its easy to compare them like this. I do really like the retro stairs. Great shots of those. Most of the stair cases have great appeal. Lovely & ornate.

 

[jsp77]

Agreed, nice to see them all together, its easy to compare them like this. I do really like the retro stairs. Great shots of those. Most of the stair cases have great appeal. Lovely & ornate.

Thanks, sadly a few of these are now piles of rubble

 

[RupertA]

I can remember driving along the Bishops Avenue numerous times in the seventies & eighties in the course of my work as a med/surg sales exec. It was a handy shortcut from Highgate to the North Circular Road. The houses were, with few exceptions, ridiculously overblown examples of what people with more money than they knew what to do with could dream up, or pay an architect to go off on one! It's hard to reconcile the fact that these multi-million pound palaces are now left empty to decay .. why weren't they sold or lived in by others? Doesn't make any sense! If these places are eventually bulldozed and a property developer is allowed to build a housing estate, those dwellings will need to be of the very highest quality and specification, otherwise current residents will be in uproar, for fear the tone of the place and the value of their houses become affected. It'll be a case of watch this space and revisit in 10 years, I guess.

 

[Bikin Glynn]

That's really cool, love the spiral

 

[Chris C]

Lovely photographs but a terrible indictment of how having too much money corrupts the soul. Who was it who said that the very rich know the price of everything but the value of nothing?

 

[Speed]

Cool, the 60s/70s staircase is amazing. Got to say i slate house exploring a lot but its good for someone to document stuff like this properly. Its a bit different to the usual righmovebex bollocks.

One thing you dont mention is Why? Why so many big houses derelict in one street?

 

[mookster]

One thing you dont mention is Why? Why so many big houses derelict in one street?

A lot of the derelict properties are owned by super rich middle eastern/Saudi Arabian people, who sit on the land and do nothing with it because it's worth more as an investment to them than actually living there.

 

[RupertA]

Lovely photographs but a terrible indictment of how having too much money corrupts the soul. Who was it who said that the very rich know the price of everything but the value of nothing?

It was Oscar Wilde who said: "A cynic is a man who knows the price of everything but the value of nothing ".

 

[Spyda3D]

Love that spiral staircase

 

[Jharg]

Spiral staircase is incredible. Driven down bishops avenue over 100 times just staring at the houses wondering what there like inside.

 

[RupertA]

Just had another look through these sad photographs. The girl's hat proclaiming 'Moyles Court School' is an interesting artefact. Google it and you'll see that the school is in the New Forest (Hampshire) .. a fair way from North London. It's co-ed day & boarding, so perhaps some poor little rich kid was sent there back in the day!