DERELICT OFFICE building explore. Built 1972, abandoned in 1991 (horrific toilets!)

[@fiskurtjorn]

The toilets didn't shock me. Being alive, more or less, during the 1970s, I knew what the color scheme would be. What shocked me the building was derelict for 33 years and only in use for 16

[@andreasu.3546]

Sounds like great management. Wonder what's the story behind it.

[@oliverstemp9132]

Bit of a timewarp

[@lewispommells234]

Surprised at the condition of the building prior to it being renovated. It looked pretty good. If it opened in 1975 like you said it only saw 15 years of use.

[@TechOne7671]

Quality. I do electrical maintenance in a lot of buildings of that era, the styles and colour schemes are of the same. Some still even original. I love the older buildings, so much more style and design than the current all white vast spaces of nothing. All the best to you.

[@transportromania]

At 1:10 there is a "Please, close the door" message. As this is in Romanian, it is highly possible some of the Romanian workers forgot to to close the door. That's probably why the worker was only saying "hello", his English language skill wasn't good enough to ask you who you are and what are you doing there.

[@marcd6897]

It’s beyond me how such a structure and the capital involved can lay dormant and unused for 30+ years… Yeah, maybe it can be written off but still…

[@steve5772]

"Door was left open".... yeah right lads, i bet you can open a pushbutton code lock faster than i can 😂

[@lapub.]

It's more common than you think to find an open door or at least a door that was not correctly close

[@keith800]

Brilliant video it is most interesting to see it being converted into apartments but one wonders about sound proofing and the longevity of the conversions apart from the expense of communal maintenance these developments consume.

[@lapub.]

In CE country sound proofing is a mandatory thing but since brexit they may have found that sound proofing add no benefit to the landlord so may have remove it from the mandatory list

[@GeorgeMathieson]

9:52 Of course the Gent Vigilon has the fault light on 😅

[@caroleast9636]

Looking forward to seeing the next part. Those lifts look to be in remarkable condition after being abandoned for over 30 years. It wouldn’t take a lot of work to refurb back into going order. Probably though, a lot would be stripped and, at the very least, the control system and the car would be replaced. These are classic Otis systems for the period. I’ve installed countless numbers of these, but how many engineers are left now that even understand how to maintain these systems?

[@GothGuy885]

outside of the brown toilet, I didn't find the colors that atrocious. I was a teen in the 1970's, and remember some actual horrible color combos. orange and green for one 🤢I still like earth tones, which I think this building was done in. thanks for another fascinating video, I am going to watch part 2 for sure 😀

[@MunyatiAbuAbidah]

Boys and girls, mrmattandmrchay uploaded

[@andyarchitect]

These lifts are near identical to the ones that were in my university building before they got replaced. Having used them so frequently they give me a lot of nostalgia. They were awesome lifts to use... so much quicker than modern ones.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

And probably quite a bit more abrupt that the modern ones?

[@MrAustinPowers]

Remember that building well as we visited my Grandparents in Oxfordshire we always drove through Aylesbury from Harlow. Ever since the 80’s. Surprised anyone can afford to keep it empty for so long

[@dutchwolf2675]

I don’t have much information about the intruder panels but I do have some information about the fire panels. The original panels seem to be some chloride gent conventional panels. There are 2 modern-ish panels installed. Gent xenex is a conventional panel which came out around the 90s and has LEDs telling you the location of a fire. There is a new-ish panel which must have been installed during when it was abandoned. It is on the far right and it is a gent vigilon compact addressable panel. It came around the 2000s and it has an LCD telling you exactly what has gone in fire

[@YourLocalGP]

Watching with maximum excitement at 30,000ft over the Atlantic!

[@abpsd73]

I'm currently doing a commercial reno "across the pond" of a building that was last remodeled in the early 70s. The wallpaper, carpets, and fixtures are from the ghastly late 60s/early 70s color palette. I would be surprised if this building is now complete. The plumbing and electrical, and HVAC modifications to convert an office building to apartments is extensive.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

I believe they also had drainage issues - if you can imagine where the toilets were, the pipes went directly downwards into the sewer. When you have XX apartments dotted all around the floor, must be a challenge to get all the waste into the same sewer.

[@DanielMeakin1]

Absolutely fantastic video Mr Matt I really enjoyed seeing other photos and history about one of my local 1970s buildings. Also really happy to help with sending my photo in which I took in the car park. Also Matt could you mention in the decription of under my video that thats my transport channel.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Hi Daniel, glad you enjoyed it! I still have part 2 to finish so I could include them in part 2? I think I have the photos already (Joe sent them) but the file sizes were tiny (pixelate very easily). I believe Joe downloaded them through messenger - message and whatsapp always compress the photos, which means they're very low quality if you download them from here. Would you be able to email them to me, with the images as an attachment? Or possibly wetransfer? [e-mail]

[@DanielMeakin1]

@mrmattandmrchay just emailed you.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

@@DanielMeakin1 cool, got it thanks! Will respond later as I'm at work atm! :)

[@stephencleaves]

Great video, the Group 4 alarm panels were (from memory) model CU 21 and operated on a 3 wire principle, its been decades since I worked on those !

[@The_Light_Project]

Another great, and mysterious video! I wasn't surprised with the toilets as well! In my grandparent's home at the village, we had a full green bathroom, with all (sink, bathtub, tiles, and... toilet!). It was built in the 70s as well. Nice finale with the suspense of detection! I bet that worker was also surpised/scared by the noise as well, hence this kind of response!

[@djadventure]

Oh, yeah. Its going to be a good evening.

[@jamesm90]

Im sure a building from that era would have had asbestos everywhere originally.

[@kuzcofurry2666]

Cool

[@gman83090]

It's good there keeping the building instead of demolishing it

[@lapub.]

Full colour bathroom what a thing of the era, I saw them in pink, dark green, light green, dark blue too, now you have a vast choice of white or white ! same goes to the wall , white or white

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Yeah, I remember as a kid, our house had a dark green bath and toilet, AND this was installed when the bathroom was moved (i.e. faily new). Was considered normal back then!

[@suchcone]

Quality not quantity 🙌 I'm fascinated with 1970s buildings, my old apartment was a converted 70s building and they had an incinerator which appeared to have an inlet on every floor. Only found this by climbing inside a riser via two locked toors (which I managed to find the master key to!). The lift shafts had torn labels saying "automatic elevator" !

[@lapub.]

Garbage disposal is the best thing to have if you love cockroaches, people throw food in with no bag covering the inside of a tasty layer and the bugs spread all over the place, I can tell you that's a good thing it was closed !

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Like you, I love old mechanical machinery. Engineers pushing the limits of what lifts can do, using mechanical devices to run the logic instead of computers! That incinerator sounds interesting!

[@mrmattandmrchay]

@@lapub. yuck!

[@simonsanigar3581]

Video nicely put together

[@josephsager9425]

Does the UK still use does with a circular window? That's abnormal in the states, but I remember those doors in the early 90's British TV show, Absolutely Fabulous.

[@user-kp6xf4gf7t]

Those Otises look great for being derelict for 30 years!

[@CWM030]

Damn was the dude DEAF? He kept saying HELLO? HELLO? HELLO? 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@samuellourenco1050]

Office spaces converted to apartments. What could go wrong?

[@LGCT]

Epic Video. Those Old Otis Lifts Look Very Epic to Ride if they were Working. I Really hope they don't Modernize the set of 2 Lifts.

[@kingsethofpinecone]

They problaby will midernise it sadly becase that has happned many times with places like that

[@lapub.]

@kingsethofpinecone You lose the "hard" start and stop that make me fun by slightly shaking my gut, I miss these old think as all the new one with inverter are so smooth that give you no feeling

[@zidane2k1]

19 years of operation seems like such a short time for a large office building like this. Re: Toilets, I guess brown toilets and yellow urinals would hide the poop and pee stains better...

[@CWM030]

17:53 what is that "EXTINGUISHANT"?

[@christopher-2000]

awesome Lift Video i film a Old 1960's or1970's otis lift and i have video on me channel

[@richardhaywood4123]

Will there be new lifts installed in the shafts eventually?

[@LiftManAmer]

100%. No way they would repair these awesome Otis lifts.

[@kingsethofpinecone]

You're right

[@LiftManAmer]

@kingsethofpinecone Yeah

[@tomcat2395]

A new era of high cost slum housing begins with these kind of conversions.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

yeah, bet these 'new builds' really will be high cost. I bet they'll appeal to someone though.

[@Techno-Universal]

Bathrooms like that don’t really exist anymore because of how they are often rebuilt every 15-20 years because of wear and tear on top of a desire to keep the bathrooms modern.

[@rich_in_paradise]

Flats converted from offices are generally pretty bad. I know it seems like the right thing to do - repurpose unwanted office buildings rather than demolish them or leave them derelict, but I'd strongly recommend against buying a coversion like this.

[@mrmattandmrchay]

The new corridor design looks very thin, and wonder how much sound proofing there is between two apartments separated by plasterboard!?

[@Tigrou7777]

I came for the toilets, stayed for the elevators.

[@Maxsdiscos]

Did the boiler room at the top serve the shop? Will the shop still be open after they have made it into apartments?

[@markm-ci6rj]

Anyone know what offices were there, shops too?

[@kingsethofpinecone]

Nope

[@michaelfuggle3685]

Originally it was Xerox then Target Life, before the store was QD it was a co op I think.

[@uzaiyaro]

A building not even lasting 20 years is such a huge waste. I wonder what happened.

[@StrawberrySunday212]

@5:45. Erm I hope you weren't throwing expensive builders equipment or microwaves down that shaft ,Mr Matt, whilst neurotically screaming "The lift is hungry" 🥴🤣

[@nikf3188]

Aylesbury still looks pants!

[@CWM030]

BLOODY HELL as ya'll say in the UK......Poop Brown toilets!

[@Juan_jose_estrada_bahena]

Yooooo

[@WasherkiddoYT]

Try Spain Barcelona Thay have about infinite old lifts

[@brunoais]

10:44: Abnormal but, for me, tolerable. I guess I'm mess affected than most people

[@andyroofthooft962]

Toilets are Nice😂

[@mrmattandmrchay]

yes, colours are 'urine yellow' and 'turd green'!

[@perrymckinney6146]

If its being remodeled into apartments for welfare, this building will be trashed in no time.

[@PracticalCat]

The wreckless and inconsiderate Reno vations

[@DavidG-g6u]

Horrific toilets ... 🤣😜😝 give me a break, they're easier to clean being yellow. Now if the toilets had teeth and sucked the urine from your body, that might be considered horrific.🙄

[@mrmattandmrchay]

Toilets to... match the contents! haha. At our company here, the tiles are yellow, but I don't consider them to be 'urine yellow' like in this building. I'm also trying not to image what you've described in the second sentence :D

[@caroleast9636]

Looking forward to seeing the next part. Those lifts look to be in remarkable condition after being abandoned for over 30 years. It wouldn’t take a lot of work to refurb back into going order. Probably though, a lot would be stripped and, at the very least, the control system and the car would be replaced. These are classic Otis systems for the period. I’ve installed countless numbers of these, but how many engineers are left now that even understand how to maintain these systems?

[@lapub.]

If they can get one more flat instead of a machine room they'll do. I'm always amazed by the space required for motor and all the cabinet of rely of the time compared to now with the motor at the top of the shaft and the "control room" being hidden in the frame of the highest level door.