Tales of the Urban Explorer: Josephine Butler Care Home
I wasn't sure whether to use the front or back image for the 'Josephine Butler Care Home'. In the end, I went with the back, as it's more of a spectacle and 'haunted' looking…. WOOOOOOO!!!
It was my second attempt at this annoying care home, the first being thwarted by security that at the time was being paid to keep the likes of me away. Since then, I guess they have stopped receiving their salaries as there was a distinct dearth of uniformed officers guarding this old building.
When I say 'uniformed officers', I meant to say bored low-paid workers that can be bribed at times and don't give us explorers much of a hard time when they catch us. On occasions, we have a chat and I feel they are thankful for a little company.
The last reported date of when ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’ was still in use was back in 2016 when it received a "requires improvement" rating from independent watchdog the Care Quality Commission. At the time, there were just 12 people living in the home.
Source
@anidiotexplores had already done this one, quite some time ago and I felt I may be a little late; that was an understatement. Much can dissolve into the woodwork in 6 years or walk out of the doors or windows to be sold on eBay.
Unlike my last visit, access was simple and you can probably guess the way in by looking at the cover image of the back. We did walk around to the front, or should I say tip-toe before discovering security had abandoned the place.
Arriving in the cellar we started upward on a ‘not a journey of a lifetime’.
Climbing upward was one option, but why opt for the hard challenge when stairs are freely available?
It was looking quite bare as I arrived on the ground floor. There was little need to scramble through windows like this when all the doors were accessible.
Likewise, I figured there might be a more simple way down there, besides climbing onto the red wall and jumping in the hope the floor would not collapse.
A rare piece of magazinery in the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’. The rear of the property offered pensioners plenty of room for gardening.
It looks like the door to a Sauna but you would be mistaken. Just about every window I saw was smashed.
I found no evidence of child molestation, OAP abuse, mass murderers, or one of the many other things that close Care Homes. This one appeared to have fallen on hard times and didn't make the authorities' grade.
Many doors had been sealed and nailed down only to be ripped open by those savage pretend-type Urban Explorers who we real ones greatly benefit from.
If this was someone's bedroom once, it would have been majestic. Rip those window boards off and the light would come streaming through revealing all the dodgy ankle-breaking holes in the floor.
You can see the potential it had... once. I have seen older images of this room before everything was stolen.
Lots of decorative arches, and one of the most scenic areas left in the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’.
Finding even a little something was quite the thrill. It was one of those extremely bare places.
Now, this would have been quite the challenge if there was any reason to go 'over there'. I was told the far window was an access point once. That's something to get your adrenaline going from the first minute.
The original reception area could well be mistaken for a bar, except for the fact the pumps were missing.
Broken glass was sadly in abundance at the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’. How I would have loved to see this a few years beforehand.
If they are artists' signatures then they don't do very much. I saw little in the way of decent graffiti.
Mahogany fittings were commonplace throughout. Most of them bore some damage and it would take more than polish to bring them back to life.
That's not a ghostly apparition through there, just @anidiotexplores arsing about.
A room with a little wallpaper and garnished with Liverpool's finest artists; quite embarrassing.
The fire escape was potentially another way out. There was little need to smash the glass and open it, you could either crawl under it or climb over. The bottom of the exit however was blocked and inaccessible. Some escape route.
A portable bath? I didn’t go any further into this room; you don’t know what’s lurking in the depths of that shitter.
By and large, the ‘Josephine Butler Care Home’ has escaped arson. There was a small section but most of it is still intact.
It’s one of those cheap bedrooms, the none en-suite type where you need to piss in the sink during those needy times in the middle of the night.
In fact, there were several of this bedroom type. It could well be more difficult for the ladies or the lesser-endowed gentlemen.
If you really need the proper bathroom there are comforting words on the wall, to help you through those last years of life.
We came across the odd very sealed door, but I felt little need to rip it open with my bare hands.
For the more daring types, the roof excursion is optional and there's little warning that the slates are a little loose. Being susceptible to vertigo and valuing my mortality, I passed.
The banister had been ripped loose and mysteriously vanished.
There was a little water damage beyond 'the great stairs' but it has mostly survived that ailment so far.
Getting out of the 'Josephine Butler Care Home' in the basement was a royal pain in the arse. Some makeshift ladders had been thoughtfully provided but collapsed every time I tried to stand on them painfully trapping my feet on more than one occasion.
This was all much to the amusement of @anidiotexplores who scampered up the vertical wall and out like a bloody vampire. I was lucky not to pull my shoulder heaving myself out of that dank basement room.
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Lol, such terrible graffiti! I hope your Nan dies indeed. What are they like.
The yellow painted rooms reminded me of a kitchen I once had in a rented flat, yuk.
Are you sure??? :OD
Liverpool, the city of lousy artists. Sheffield puts it to shame.
The finest decor beckons!
He told me on his first visit he got lost in there, I can't quite see how. It's big.. but not that big!
You should send the mayor a memo, more effort needed from the graffiti artistes! :OD
Well fuck it has an odd amount of staircases 😂 more than I thought it would have... It's certainly a lot bigger inside than it looks from outside..
Broh have you ever run into people while exploring these abandoned residents?
Seems adventurefull
It's a blast, one of the reasons I do this.., I see you are an adrenaline junkie.., give it a go if you live in a country that's not gun infested.
Occasionally, usually teenagers, @anidiotexplores has the gift of the gab and generally offers them a joint to show them we mean no harm heh...
Laughs. In my country one does need to carry a gun. Pretty lawless out here 😂😂.
However I did think about doing something of the sorts we have quite a few abandoned buildings and more than often they are creepy as fuck.. Most have some sort of ghost story tied to them😅 might get interisting to say the least..
Weed is almost like a universal language or sign eyy🤣🤣🍻👌👌
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You are right about the arson thing, only one floor of the building looks partially burned causing the whole building to be labeled as not fit for residence.
I can see openly running electric wires on various wall and ceiling surfaces, which means the caretakers were lousy and did not care about proper maintenance of the building. May be the owners had to claim insurance by doing so! who knows?
There's a lot of things I don't notice which my readers do! I am thankful for that. There was security in 2021, but this year.. they are gone.
I wonder how and why the part of the ground was collapsed, perhaps due to damp or caused by those who teared down the door as well.
It's always dripping water than cause the upper floors to collapse. England is a very damp place, it rains a lot.
I don't like damp.
I wonder what happened in 2016 when it was the last year that few people used the Josephine Butler Home Care. So counting the years since it was last used is six years now, and most things were collapsed and broken. Good thing because there was no evidence of child molestation, murders, and other types of abuse.
As I was scrolling down, I found some parts horrible. I am imagining of ghosts, hehe. I had enjoyed this content. !LUV !PIZZA
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I think word got around that it wasn't such a great place to send your old ageing Uncle Jim too. No customers means closure.
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I can imagine how it must have looked. All the details and beautiful ornaments. Wow. What a place.
Good you could enter this time.
Thanks for sharing @slobberchops 👋🏻😊
It was really nice inside once.., I got there too late.
That’s a shame 🤓
That bedroom though. It looks more like a ballroom. It's massive.
What year was this place built? It looks like a mashup of architectural arts and crafts and mock edwardian?
2016? Someone stopped paying the bribes to the inspectors lol.
What a waste of a huge building. Someone must own it...right?
Oh they do, but have decided to stop paying security. Many got in when they were active meaning they were C-Class Secca only.., the type that sleep in their portacabin all day and never come out.
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fucking hell it has been trashed beyond recognition !
I wish I knew, it was rather bare when I arrived. Gives you an indication of the difference I suppose.
yeah, tour bussed to fuck! at least you didn't have to play krypton factor with the barbed wire barricades on the stairs
What a grand old home, what a shame that it looks so far gone. Could a full gut save it or is destined to be bulldozed? The room you called a bedroom with the spectacular ceiling made me pause there. What a fantastic room! (even without the light streaming in).
Yes, you can see what it was once. It was probably a ballroom or something!
You've got the best places to explore man! I've looked all over the place here and there's nothing available, or generally accessible, I can use. It's bloody annoying, where's all the dilapidated buildings when you need them! #wtbf
There's a few places I know would so really cool, but they are so far away, like 500-800km away that getting there isn't that easy. Old rail buildings, homesteads and the like. Cool, but so far away. (South Australia is a big State.)
I agree with @meesterboom also, that graffiti is hideous. Lol.
Have you checked the UX OZ sites, there will be things somewhere? It's a very underground movement here.. but yes, we are kind of spoiled and added to that there's no guns (you don't get fired upon) and it's technically legal (the cops won't arrest you).
https://www.uega.net/
https://www.facebook.com/uega.net/
https://www.loveexploring.com/gallerylist/91142/australias-most-eerie-abandoned-buildings
The problem here is the distance I guess. Perth, Western Australia is 2,695km by road from where I live. So...Penzance UK to Inverness UK and back to Penzance and then back up to Birmingham. Getting to these places requires time, Australia is big.
I've been to a few of those places in that last link though.
Paronella Park -QLD, Port Arthur -TAS, Helensburgh Glow Worm Tunnel - NSW, Glenside - SA and Burra Homestead - SA. Interestingly, two of my relatives were sent to Port Arthur Penal Colony in the early 1800's as convicts. It is a chilling place to go, rather unsettling considering the history of the place and the more recent massacre of 34 men, women and children in the early 1990's.
Yes, being gun free, madman free (to a degree) helps a lot. Only Scotland is better, @meesterboom has it good up there. If only it wasn't the icy wastes.
Lol, icy wastes.
It's bad enough in Sunderland.. I worked there for 6 years, Boomy lives even further north than that!
He's the King in the North! Lol.
The farthest north I've been in Oxford but want to get a lot father, maybe even bend the knee before the King up there.
Your external shots of buildings always look very vibrant
Have you ever done any urbanex in grain elevators / silos? There's one in my old home town that I've always wanted to explore
I don't think I have ever seen one, it's not a common industry here, or at least in my part of the country.
Yeah okay, fair enough.
This sort of thing is what I mean:
Image Source
They're interesting to me as I've never been inside one, but it was always this tall imposing presence just outside the little country town I grew up in. There's windows along that middle top section running from foreground to background and as a kid I remember seeing lights on up there every once in a while. Maybe an office or control room or something. The view out those windows would be unreal!
Hell dangerous to explore though as it's so tall, around 30-40 meters. No lighting. Ladders and catwalks everywhere to get around, being an industrial plant. And the one I have in mind is at least 50 years old and has been sitting unused for half that. Plus, I'm pretty sure they extend underground about half their above-ground height.
So very, very intriguing! Just thinking about it has got my curiosity buzzing again.
Probably best to do it with harnesses and a few other people. But it wouldn't be hard to get in and it's in the middle of nowhere.
Maybe one day...
🤔
Couldn't really called it urban exploration though, if I do it. Rural exploration.
Ruralex 😄
I have a bit of a vertigo issue so bad for me!
Ah yes, that would be an issue!
It's amazing how much damage can happen in just 6 years. What a shame. Some nice features in that place.
This had to be a beautiful building in its day.
No care for this home. But with some maintainance it would be great. Even to make some bnb place, cozy fireplace, etc.
I don't know why you always seem to get me laughing just less than half way of your review on your urban exploration, but... I'm going to hold it in today so I don't laugh for no reason.
Being an urban explorer sounds fun but it's obvious you guys go through so much risks just to bring the best to us here and else where if any and I must appreciate you specially Mr Chops.
The Josephine butler care home looks really big and it's obviously because of the purpose it serves. The interiors look okay for a care home and I do think the bathrooms are a little weird but I think it might just be me, hehe.
I see other urban explorers are making your work easier by being there first, hehehe, but I wonder what you would have done if you were the first to explore a building? How are you going to get in?
I was finding it a little hard to see your partner in that image until I looked closely, lolz, he do look like a ghost at first sight but then i think not everyone would even recognize him, I'm sure I wouldn't if you didn't mention it.
I had fun reading this and I want to appreciate you for the tip-toeing you have to do just to give us the best view of things, thank you Mr Chops.
It's weekend already, wow!!! Well, do have a beautiful weekend and I hope to visit you soon 😊.
It's part of the challenge, to get in without breaking anything.
Well that's good, I don't want you all bored to tears, I have liven it up somehow!
Yeah it is, but which do you think is better, you getting there first or some other urban explorers?
Yes and I just love the idea, it really makes the read worthwhile 👌.
All that beautiful plaster work and wooden panelling - and all that smashed up punk destruction. Decay is fascinating, but I can't help associate it with some sort of cultural decline... Lady Britannia as a junkie in a piss stinking corner of Glasgow Central... Hmm. Probably too much Brexit coverage over here in the rest of Europe.
None the less, I like to see these posts. Weird and hard core
Sometimes there's little left besides bare walls, they are all quite different in their own way.
You really have the talent to discover some really unique and scarry at the same time, houses. As much as I enjoy seeing the pictures, I'm not sure how brave I'd be to visit them by myself too, lol.
I find one or two, most of them are supplied by my partner @anidiotexplores. He's well connected.
My visiting best photography content.
First and foremost the Josephine butler care doesn't look much abandoned though it looks so but far better than the other abandoned homes you posted as i read and watched the pictures, I could find some valuables which y'all might not be seeing.
LoL, this context got me all amused for real you kinda a comedian @slobberchops when you write.
It's the truth, he's very agile.., and I'm far from that. I used to be like him... once.
Makes a lot of sense now.
Many historical resources can be found inside old buildings. It was a very explanatory post with pictures.
All is not lost with this one. It would actually be a good value buy I reckon.
I love such posts. Always great to discover lost places. Super cool post. Rehived
House on the hill good morning read, wood alone worthy to retrieve. Graffiti a definite fail obviously the druggies never got in there...., only one point of sale.
Last retreat would have them gardening so they could eat, make the masters life easier before falling into a heap, perhaps no good gardeners, rent went up oldies got abandoned.
!BEER
Could be, care is a big deal here now. Lots of jobs, but nobody wants to work them.
Know a few locals who returned here, worked over there looking after old and frail, very good earnings within the manors or large stately homes.
Only the rich live in comfort with care, many here/there are put into homes and forgotten most times.