Abandoned UK Holiday Camp
By Rebecca Drew
BRITS are more accustomed to package holidays in Spain these days but imagine if this was your annual getaway.
Chilling images have revealed the rotting remains of a once popular holiday destination that had many happy campers through its doors.
Old store rooms at the camp. Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.comThe eerie photos of the Isle of Wight camp show a crumbling kitchen, graffitied walls and peeling ceilings. Other shots show the shell of a once thriving sales office, a high security safe room and a bar where it’s been a while since the last pint was pulled.
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com
In one image, the camp’s outdoor swimming pool looks stagnant and bleak. The star attraction ballroom has now been reinvented by locals as a make-shift skate park.
The camp’s swimming pool. Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com The ballroom has been reinvented as a skate park. Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.comThe haunting pictures were taken by postman, Damian Haworth (45) from the Isle of Wight. Damian took his pictures using a Nikon D7100 camera.
Photographer, Damian Haworth. Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com
“I wanted to show the tumbledown wreck that this once beautiful place of happy memories has become,” said Damian.
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com“The outdoor unheated pool that sits on a cliff edge above the sea shows how people in the sixties would have spent their holiday.
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com“My favourite picture in the series is the ballroom, I’m told that during its heyday it was the largest dance floor on the island.
“After years of neglect and vandalism, it is now quite possibly the largest skateboard park on the island.
“I loved the different textures in this room from the partially fallen ceiling to the caved-in floor.”
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.comThe Atherfield Holiday Camp first opened in the 1960s and was a popular holiday destination for over forty years, closing in 2007.
Although being empty for almost a decade, it looks like the park may soon be returned to its former glory as new plans to revamp the camp have been approved.
The camp’s bar. Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com“I suppose my photos will soon become a record of what used to be there,” added Damian.
“It’s important to keep in mind that these buildings are in a grave state of repair and might be structurally unsound.
“It would have been quite easy to fall through the floor in places, potentially breaking bones, which is a bad idea in a place as deserted as this.
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.com“It was such a spooky place to look around, it was silent apart from the rattle of the wind and few birds that I startled as I wandered through who, in turn startled me as they took to the safety of the skies.”
Damian Haworth / mediadrumworld.comClick here to license images.
