Kuro Exploring

Inside Upper Downing Hall: The Abandoned Welsh Mansion with a Dark Past Step inside Upper Downing Hall, one of Wales’ most intriguing aband...

Woolton Picture House

(Permission Visit, before refurbishment)

Opened on Boxing Day, 1927, the cinema was designed by architect L.A.G. Prichard on a steeply sloping site on Mason Street. It famously stayed open through the Blitz of WWII to show vital Pathé newsreels to the public, survived a severe screen fire in 1958 that closed it for three months, and transitioned over the decades from its original 800+ capacity on wooden benches down to a lavish 256-seat luxury Pullman layout in the 1980s.

The building is notable for its distinct dark brick and white glazed terracotta facade, a splayed steel-and-glass canopy, and an original projection box that extends out over the rear stalls supported by heavy pillars. Its timeless look also caught the eye of Hollywood, serving as a key filming location for the 2009 John Lennon biopic Nowhere Boy.

After closing its doors during the 2020 pandemic due to severe financial hardships, In October 2025, the CIC launched an intensive public fundraising campaign with a target of £450,000 to purchase the building outright. To build momentum and let people experience its historic interior again, they opened the doors for temporary pop-up events in its raw, pre-renovation state including a highly successful "12 Days of Christmas" screening series in December 2025 and Valentine's events in February 2026.

The campaign struck a massive chord with the public. While they received significant boosts from larger donors including £100,000 from local firm Crampton Bros (decided with a filp of a 10p, tails £5,000, heads £100,000) and £25,000 from the Ken Dodd Charitable Foundation the vast majority of the money came from thousands of ordinary residents putting change into popcorn buckets and buying tickets. By the final deadline on May 8, 2026, the community had surged past its target, raising an incredible £532,884.

Just as the fundraising clock was about to run out in early May 2026, a mystery benefactor stepped into the frame. The anonymous investor bought the physical building outright and immediately handed it over to the Woolton Cinema CIC on a 101-year lease. In a poetic gesture, the lease was set at a "peppercorn rent" of exactly £19.27 per year—a direct tribute to the cinema's original opening year of 1927.

Video coming soon on the YouTube channel

This place has now been demolished

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/iconic-former-tommys-house-fires-34036082

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Church of St. Peter and St. Paul

this site has been a cornerstone of Bolton’s heritage for over two centuries. The original chapel built here in 1798 was the town's very first Catholic church. As Bolton exploded into a global manufacturing powerhouse during the Industrial Revolution, that original building was demolished to make way for the grand, rugged red-brick church standing today, completed in 1897 to serve the area's massive population of cotton mill workers.
​Designed by architects Sinnott, Sinnott & Powell, the building was constructed with a heavy, austere exterior built to withstand the harsh Victorian industrial smog. It featured a prominent 126-foot tower, though its sharp pyramid spire was removed in 1980 due to structural safety concerns. Inside, the church's true masterpiece is the Grade II listed Lady Chapel. Remodeled in the 1920s as a moving World War I memorial, its walls are completely covered in stunning, shimmering blue-and-gold mosaics crafted by the famous Ludwig Oppenheimer firm of Manchester.
​Following decades of post-war housing clearances and a dwindling local parish, the church held its final service and closed its doors for good in 2010. Today, it stands frozen in time a beautiful, decaying monument to Bolton’s deep industrial and spiritual past.

The uncut explore of this location is coming soon over on YouTube


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Upper Downing Hall

a historic Flintshire manor that has transitioned from a prestigious gentry estate to a controversial institution, eventually falling into its current state of abandonment.
​Origins and the Pennant Legacy
​Originally part of the sprawling Downing Estate in Whitford, the hall was a secondary residence for the Pennant family, most notably the 18th-century naturalist Thomas Pennant. While the primary estate house (Downing Hall) was destroyed by fire in 1922 and later demolished, Upper Downing survived to become the sole standing representative of the family’s local residential history.

​The Institutional Era (1970s–1990s)
​By the mid-20th century, the building was converted into a local authority children’s home. This period is the most somber chapter of its history; the home became a focal point of the North Wales child abuse scandal, with the 2000 Waterhouse Report detailing systemic failures and mistreatment of residents during the 1970s and 80s. The facility was closed as a children's home in the early 1990s.

​Nursing Home and Final Closure (2000s–2013)
​The hall was later privatized and reopened as Altbridge Nursing Home. This era ended in tragedy and legal scrutiny:

​2012: An elderly resident died following a severe radiator-related burn.

​2013: The operating company was prosecuted for health and safety breaches, leading to the home's permanent closure.

​Current Status
​Since 2013, Upper Downing Hall has sat derelict. It has become a well-known site for urban explorers, characterized by peeling wallpaper and decaying grand staircases. Although the property was sold in late 2024 for approximately £480,000, it remains a vacant shell, with its future hanging between potential redevelopment and continued decay.

The Gaumont Palace

opened in 1931 as Chester’s first true “super cinema,” a lavish, 2,000‑seat picture palace wrapped in a mock‑Tudor façade. Inside, its Italian‑inspired entrance hall, sweeping fan‑shaped auditorium, and glowing central dome created one of the city’s most opulent entertainment spaces. Equipped with a Compton organ and its own Tudor‑style restaurant, the Gaumont blended cinema with live performance, hosting stars from the golden age of film through to early pop acts. After closing in 1961, the building shifted into new lives as a bowling alley and later a long‑running bingo hall, leaving behind a shell that still hints at the grandeur of Chester’s lost cinema era.

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