Intro
So I was doing a bit of research about some local hospitals and following leads on supposedly abandoned buildings and didn't manage to find a thing, but somehow I found this, not the best explore as vandals seem to have been there and nature has definitely reclaimed it a lot. But is worth a visit if you've got a spare 5 minutes and you can't get to the Pontin's resort in Hemsby
History
There is very little on this place anywhere, a few pictures and a few snippets of information which I'll include links to after.
After looking at the building in person, I'd be having a guess but I reckon it was built in-between the late 1950's to late 1960's, it served as a marina for passing boats. back in the 1970's an overnight moor for a boat would cost 35p, just before it closed, the price had risen to around £10.
The marina was one of two in Great Yarmouth when it was established, http://www.thenorfolkbroads.org/Yarmouth.html
Here, If you scroll down a little way, you'll see a little bit of information and an early and late picture of the place. http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/images/mainpages/comp_marinakeys_75.jpg
The site was very popular in 1970's and the site expanded adding a restaurant, toilets and another building.
Closure
After the 1970's, the traditional British sea side town/village had lost popularity and gone out of fashion, less people visited Great Yarmouth and even less visited from the moors. The marina eventually closed around late 2008 to early 2009.
About 2 minutes from this marina, a newish looking one seemed to have been built, so this could've contributed to the closure of marina keys.
The site
The site includes an office and main desk area where the treasury and organisation would take place, this was situated below a viewing platform which abled the workers to see right out over the moors and down the east and west part of the river yare.
Next to the main building was a storage area and next to that was a fuelling station where boats could refuel at a small cost.
Later a diner was added to the east of the site and included very basic dining facilities and a small seating area, it was more like a coffee shop than a restaurant of any kind in my opinion, it was very small and didn't seem to have a designated kitchen area.
Behind the diner opposite the path sits a public convenience block, now disused and behind that was another building. this I'm unsure of, it seemed to have a steeple of sorts and was, at the time of visit, being renovated or demolished (I say this as I was unsure, I couldn't seem to find if it was listed or not online but the only machinery on site was a digger and the building seemed to be in the middle of re building as materials were already delivered and the roof seemed to have had newer slates and battens etc.). This building was most likely a later administration building, it could well have been a hall of some kind and I did read somewhere that parties had been held there.
At it's current state (the whole site) I assume all but the building at the very back would be demolished if redevelopers had the chance. The state of them was awful, roofs had massive holes in, completely trashed, un-organised graffiti (pretty funny though anyway!) and just fully of rubbish and old ash from fires. The buildings were doomed from the start I believe, they were built out of breeze blocks and interiors seemed cheaply made. surprisingly the site hadn't suffered any major arson attacks at all. This seems odd to me as most derelict structures are often set alight by local arsonists and don't seem to be standing long there after.
The roofs are all now leaking and rotting, don't even try to get on the top as you'll fall through very easily!
Future
I did see on my way out that the site had been bought by a local redevelopment company plus I had already seen the renovation/demolition work on one of the buildings (as mentioned). But work didn't seem to have begun on the other marina buildings (diner, viewing platform, office, re-fuelling station etc.). I assume this was sold separately or is being kept aside for some reason. I don't think it'll be redeveloped as it is right in between the river yare and a local public footpath. There didn't seem to be any room for any new buildings.
It is definitely an eye-sore. It has been described by locals as a reminder of the past, but derelict and ugly. So I assume demolition is on the cards.
The explore
The explore was very relaxed, other than confused dog walkers wondering past as I was taking external pictures and a cyclist crashing on the other side of a metal plate and scaring the hell out of me, it was all fine and relaxed.
Access was surprisingly easy and pretty obvious. But couldn't access the toilet block and didn't really want to go in the Building at the back, seemed to be stripped and inaccessible.
Metal boards have been installed in the past but have now been wrecked, I assume the council has just given up and let the vandals run wild. Which was good, because it got me access!
An all round easy but not that exciting explore.
Pictures
Well unfortunately my phone was stolen at BOA 2014 so I had to borrow a phone for taking the pics, and this phone had a camera with the whole of 5 megapixels... Anyway on with the pics:
The site external.
Main marina building and re-fuelling station
Main viewing room from the outside.
Re-fuelling station, big empty room basically.
Electric meter of some kind in the re-fuelling part.
Storage room, completely wrecked, rotting roof, rubbish piles (sorry for the blurred picture, but couldn't find any others of storage that weren't blurred).
Doorway in-between re-fuelling and office/front desk.
viewing platform from inside.
Stairs leading to viewing.
view of front desk, booking area? Back room was really disgusting (it included a toilet with an un-describable heap of brown mess in the bowl) so I wont include that at all. There was also a large safe behind the desk.
Administration building or venue
The building at the back, possible later administration, venue of some sorts etc.
Diner (Johnny's diner)
External from the front.
A picture of the river Yare from the front of the diner with some kind of mooring anchor (I have no idea what i'm on about) in the foreground.
The inside, not exciting, but the peeling paint from the leaking roof looked pretty awesome.
Toilet block
An external picture some barrier/post in the foreground.
Picture showing the male entrance.
An external from behind the toilet block showing the bovine graffiti.
And finally the one eyed deer, or as I like to call it, the cycloptic cervidae.
Hope you enjoyed! Sorry for the amount of pics and info, I try to give as much as I can from a report as possible! Pretty long winded and to be honest probably not worth it, but I enjoy the explore and documentation. I suppose if anything it's worth posting for future reference! Please remove it if it's not too good.
So I was doing a bit of research about some local hospitals and following leads on supposedly abandoned buildings and didn't manage to find a thing, but somehow I found this, not the best explore as vandals seem to have been there and nature has definitely reclaimed it a lot. But is worth a visit if you've got a spare 5 minutes and you can't get to the Pontin's resort in Hemsby
History
There is very little on this place anywhere, a few pictures and a few snippets of information which I'll include links to after.
After looking at the building in person, I'd be having a guess but I reckon it was built in-between the late 1950's to late 1960's, it served as a marina for passing boats. back in the 1970's an overnight moor for a boat would cost 35p, just before it closed, the price had risen to around £10.
The marina was one of two in Great Yarmouth when it was established, http://www.thenorfolkbroads.org/Yarmouth.html
Here, If you scroll down a little way, you'll see a little bit of information and an early and late picture of the place. http://www.broadlandmemories.co.uk/images/mainpages/comp_marinakeys_75.jpg
The site was very popular in 1970's and the site expanded adding a restaurant, toilets and another building.
Closure
After the 1970's, the traditional British sea side town/village had lost popularity and gone out of fashion, less people visited Great Yarmouth and even less visited from the moors. The marina eventually closed around late 2008 to early 2009.
About 2 minutes from this marina, a newish looking one seemed to have been built, so this could've contributed to the closure of marina keys.
The site
The site includes an office and main desk area where the treasury and organisation would take place, this was situated below a viewing platform which abled the workers to see right out over the moors and down the east and west part of the river yare.
Next to the main building was a storage area and next to that was a fuelling station where boats could refuel at a small cost.
Later a diner was added to the east of the site and included very basic dining facilities and a small seating area, it was more like a coffee shop than a restaurant of any kind in my opinion, it was very small and didn't seem to have a designated kitchen area.
Behind the diner opposite the path sits a public convenience block, now disused and behind that was another building. this I'm unsure of, it seemed to have a steeple of sorts and was, at the time of visit, being renovated or demolished (I say this as I was unsure, I couldn't seem to find if it was listed or not online but the only machinery on site was a digger and the building seemed to be in the middle of re building as materials were already delivered and the roof seemed to have had newer slates and battens etc.). This building was most likely a later administration building, it could well have been a hall of some kind and I did read somewhere that parties had been held there.
At it's current state (the whole site) I assume all but the building at the very back would be demolished if redevelopers had the chance. The state of them was awful, roofs had massive holes in, completely trashed, un-organised graffiti (pretty funny though anyway!) and just fully of rubbish and old ash from fires. The buildings were doomed from the start I believe, they were built out of breeze blocks and interiors seemed cheaply made. surprisingly the site hadn't suffered any major arson attacks at all. This seems odd to me as most derelict structures are often set alight by local arsonists and don't seem to be standing long there after.
The roofs are all now leaking and rotting, don't even try to get on the top as you'll fall through very easily!
Future
I did see on my way out that the site had been bought by a local redevelopment company plus I had already seen the renovation/demolition work on one of the buildings (as mentioned). But work didn't seem to have begun on the other marina buildings (diner, viewing platform, office, re-fuelling station etc.). I assume this was sold separately or is being kept aside for some reason. I don't think it'll be redeveloped as it is right in between the river yare and a local public footpath. There didn't seem to be any room for any new buildings.
It is definitely an eye-sore. It has been described by locals as a reminder of the past, but derelict and ugly. So I assume demolition is on the cards.
The explore
The explore was very relaxed, other than confused dog walkers wondering past as I was taking external pictures and a cyclist crashing on the other side of a metal plate and scaring the hell out of me, it was all fine and relaxed.
Access was surprisingly easy and pretty obvious. But couldn't access the toilet block and didn't really want to go in the Building at the back, seemed to be stripped and inaccessible.
Metal boards have been installed in the past but have now been wrecked, I assume the council has just given up and let the vandals run wild. Which was good, because it got me access!
An all round easy but not that exciting explore.
Pictures
Well unfortunately my phone was stolen at BOA 2014 so I had to borrow a phone for taking the pics, and this phone had a camera with the whole of 5 megapixels... Anyway on with the pics:
The site external.
Main marina building and re-fuelling station
Main viewing room from the outside.
Re-fuelling station, big empty room basically.
Electric meter of some kind in the re-fuelling part.
Storage room, completely wrecked, rotting roof, rubbish piles (sorry for the blurred picture, but couldn't find any others of storage that weren't blurred).
Doorway in-between re-fuelling and office/front desk.
viewing platform from inside.
Stairs leading to viewing.
view of front desk, booking area? Back room was really disgusting (it included a toilet with an un-describable heap of brown mess in the bowl) so I wont include that at all. There was also a large safe behind the desk.
Administration building or venue
The building at the back, possible later administration, venue of some sorts etc.
Diner (Johnny's diner)
External from the front.
A picture of the river Yare from the front of the diner with some kind of mooring anchor (I have no idea what i'm on about) in the foreground.
The inside, not exciting, but the peeling paint from the leaking roof looked pretty awesome.
Toilet block
An external picture some barrier/post in the foreground.
Picture showing the male entrance.
An external from behind the toilet block showing the bovine graffiti.
And finally the one eyed deer, or as I like to call it, the cycloptic cervidae.
Hope you enjoyed! Sorry for the amount of pics and info, I try to give as much as I can from a report as possible! Pretty long winded and to be honest probably not worth it, but I enjoy the explore and documentation. I suppose if anything it's worth posting for future reference! Please remove it if it's not too good.
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