Hiya guys, I only joined this site a couple of months back as I only recently got into the whole urbex thing.
I live in Bournemouth and used this site to look for interesting places to photograph.
I recently found the fire engine graveyard that I've seen posted here a couple of times (it's shrunk in size now by the way. There's only 4 engines in there now) and I was desperate to find my own derelict place.
It was only a few weeks back, on a road I drive down regularly, that I noticed an entire row of houses (or so that's what I thought they were) was fenced off and boarded up. So I swore I would return to it one day, camera in hand.
So yesterday I arrived and straight away saw a sign for a leisure centre. Brilliant!! Maybe there's an old, empty swimming pool in there.
Sure enough, there was, and after walking around the site for a bit, I soon discovered that what I thought was a row of houses was actually an entire hotel.
"The De Vere Dormy Hotel is located 15 minutes away from Bournemouth, set in 12 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens on the edge of the splendid New Forest. All guest rooms at the De Vere Dormy Hotel are large in size, on average and all are individually designed to a very high standard, some in a traditional style, others in a modern style. The bathrooms are medium in size and in excellent condition. The on-site Leisure Club includes an indoor swimming pool, squash tennis court and gymnasium." Taken from here
After a quick Google I discovered that The Dormy Hotel was one of the largest country-style conference hotels on the south coast. Set in 12 acres of landscaped grounds, it had 114 bedrooms and 25 suites, spread across 2 main blocks and several smaller buildings, all linked by glass corridors. It also had conference and banqueting suites, along with a sizeable leisure centre. The original part of hotel was built circa 1900 and during the First and Second world was believed to have been used as a hospital for returning soldiers. The hotel was closed on 15th December 2004, as a result of weak business results compared with other hotels in the De Vere Hotel chain.
The only other information I could really find on this place was from the local paper, The Bournemouth Echo. As far as I'm aware, any future plans for the plot keep failing and so the building is literally crumbling into itself.
Practically everything has been removed over the years since closing and it's full of mattresses and rubbish. It has been subjected to several arson attacks and has been a hangout for BMXers and drug users.
Needless to say, I got very snappy happy and took tonnes of pics, but I have to limit myself on here so I picked out the main rooms for you.
My photos really don't do this place justice though. This place used to be a 4 star hotel, and now . . .
The pool itself (in all it's nasty, green, smelly glory)
The main reception entrance
One of the suites. Even the floor boards have been taken over the years
Banquet hall?
The bar in the main building. There was a separate building for the restaurant and main bar but it was sealed up tight
That's it, I'm new here and don't want to spam you with pictures. But yeah, hope you found this at least partially interesting. Thanks for reading and please let me know if this post was ok and what can be improved as I would love to do this again some time. But for now, I must sleep.
I live in Bournemouth and used this site to look for interesting places to photograph.
I recently found the fire engine graveyard that I've seen posted here a couple of times (it's shrunk in size now by the way. There's only 4 engines in there now) and I was desperate to find my own derelict place.
It was only a few weeks back, on a road I drive down regularly, that I noticed an entire row of houses (or so that's what I thought they were) was fenced off and boarded up. So I swore I would return to it one day, camera in hand.
So yesterday I arrived and straight away saw a sign for a leisure centre. Brilliant!! Maybe there's an old, empty swimming pool in there.
Sure enough, there was, and after walking around the site for a bit, I soon discovered that what I thought was a row of houses was actually an entire hotel.
"The De Vere Dormy Hotel is located 15 minutes away from Bournemouth, set in 12 acres of beautifully landscaped gardens on the edge of the splendid New Forest. All guest rooms at the De Vere Dormy Hotel are large in size, on average and all are individually designed to a very high standard, some in a traditional style, others in a modern style. The bathrooms are medium in size and in excellent condition. The on-site Leisure Club includes an indoor swimming pool, squash tennis court and gymnasium." Taken from here
After a quick Google I discovered that The Dormy Hotel was one of the largest country-style conference hotels on the south coast. Set in 12 acres of landscaped grounds, it had 114 bedrooms and 25 suites, spread across 2 main blocks and several smaller buildings, all linked by glass corridors. It also had conference and banqueting suites, along with a sizeable leisure centre. The original part of hotel was built circa 1900 and during the First and Second world was believed to have been used as a hospital for returning soldiers. The hotel was closed on 15th December 2004, as a result of weak business results compared with other hotels in the De Vere Hotel chain.
The only other information I could really find on this place was from the local paper, The Bournemouth Echo. As far as I'm aware, any future plans for the plot keep failing and so the building is literally crumbling into itself.
Practically everything has been removed over the years since closing and it's full of mattresses and rubbish. It has been subjected to several arson attacks and has been a hangout for BMXers and drug users.
Needless to say, I got very snappy happy and took tonnes of pics, but I have to limit myself on here so I picked out the main rooms for you.
My photos really don't do this place justice though. This place used to be a 4 star hotel, and now . . .
The pool itself (in all it's nasty, green, smelly glory)
The main reception entrance
One of the suites. Even the floor boards have been taken over the years
Banquet hall?
The bar in the main building. There was a separate building for the restaurant and main bar but it was sealed up tight
That's it, I'm new here and don't want to spam you with pictures. But yeah, hope you found this at least partially interesting. Thanks for reading and please let me know if this post was ok and what can be improved as I would love to do this again some time. But for now, I must sleep.
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