Haven't seen this posted on here in years so I thought I'd do an update on it. Kenley Aerodrome isn't abandoned and the airfield is still in use for those flying Gliders. They also have a flight sim and the Air Cadets 450 squadron is based here. The Officers Mess building is however now lying derelict.
Visited with @Chloe Explores
HISTORY
It was used in the first world war and second world war, then some time after that it was sold to OFCOM. In 2005 OFCOM stopped using the site, and it was sold to developers. There was a fire a few years ago, and another one a few months back, but it's a conspiracy that the fire was caused by developers as the original plans for the building (in 2015) were to convert it into flats, but that would've been too expensive so it's thought that the developers set fire to the building so that they would save money and just get rid of the site all together and build on top of that, which would be cheaper than converting the building. That's what is believed by those at the working Kenley Aerodrome about the first fire, but I'm not sure about the more recent one, as it's definitely had its fair share of vandalism. The building has definitely gone beyond being able to be saved.
THE EXPLORE
I hadn't seen any news on this place for quite some time and I originally just believed that probably meant it had been demolished, but I had a tip off from someone that the building is still there with some extra information about it, so I decided to go up that way after work and hoped for the best. We got onto the site and soon realised the building was actually a lot bigger than what we had both expected. Some rooms downstairs and the whole of the upstairs has been burnt out and a large chunk of the ceiling doesn't actually exist anymore, but the explore was still pretty good. A part of the roof was accessible which was a highlight, but there was another part of this site that wasn't accessible and was tightly sealed. The pillars on the front of the building were definitely my favourite part.
PHOTOS
The lone tripod
The walls almost look as if they've been edited to look turquoise but this was the actual colour of the walls
Lift
Visited with @Chloe Explores
HISTORY
It was used in the first world war and second world war, then some time after that it was sold to OFCOM. In 2005 OFCOM stopped using the site, and it was sold to developers. There was a fire a few years ago, and another one a few months back, but it's a conspiracy that the fire was caused by developers as the original plans for the building (in 2015) were to convert it into flats, but that would've been too expensive so it's thought that the developers set fire to the building so that they would save money and just get rid of the site all together and build on top of that, which would be cheaper than converting the building. That's what is believed by those at the working Kenley Aerodrome about the first fire, but I'm not sure about the more recent one, as it's definitely had its fair share of vandalism. The building has definitely gone beyond being able to be saved.
THE EXPLORE
I hadn't seen any news on this place for quite some time and I originally just believed that probably meant it had been demolished, but I had a tip off from someone that the building is still there with some extra information about it, so I decided to go up that way after work and hoped for the best. We got onto the site and soon realised the building was actually a lot bigger than what we had both expected. Some rooms downstairs and the whole of the upstairs has been burnt out and a large chunk of the ceiling doesn't actually exist anymore, but the explore was still pretty good. A part of the roof was accessible which was a highlight, but there was another part of this site that wasn't accessible and was tightly sealed. The pillars on the front of the building were definitely my favourite part.
PHOTOS
The lone tripod
The walls almost look as if they've been edited to look turquoise but this was the actual colour of the walls
Lift
