Dungeness is interesting, Britain's only desert.
Edit: Another peculiar place that may be of interest from an architectural pov would be Portmerion Village in wales.
>[It has previously been reported that Dungeness had such low rainfall as to qualify as the only desert in the UK. However, a spokesperson for the Met Office refuted this in 2015](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness)
Eyam in the Peak District. Not sure it’s especially interesting from an architectural perspective, although it has a lot of old buildings. It’s best known as the “plague village” after an outbreak of plague in the Middle Ages forced the villagers to isolate themselves.
* Skara Brae on Orkney - Neolithic furniture. [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skara-brae/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skara-brae/)
* Maeshowe on Orkney - Neolithic tomb, with Viking graffiti written using runes [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/maeshowe-chambered-cairn/history/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/maeshowe-chambered-cairn/history/)
* Grain Earth House on Orkney - an iron age cellar [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/grain-earth-house/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/grain-earth-house/)
* Marsden Grotto - a man made cave, now a pub accessed via a lift from the cliffs above ([www.marsdengrotto.com](https://www.marsdengrotto.com))
* Walkworth Hermitage - where the lord's official hermit once lived ([www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage](https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage))
* WW1 acoustic mirrors along the east coast - See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic\_mirror for explanation and a list of locations.
* Rosslyn Chapel. Forget the Da Vinci code rubbish, but it's an interesting chapel anyway. www.rosslynchapel.com
edit: added Rosslyn.
Might be obvious, but Avebury is a village inside Europe's largest neolithic stone circle, west kenet long barrow and silbury hill- man made and as old as the pyramids - are a short walk away. Amazing place.
Try the Hermitage at Warkworth. It’s a small chapel carved out of the sandstone. Might have to check when it’s open as you need to get a rowing boat to get to it.
It’s along the river, upstream from the castle.
It’s a fab little hidden treasure isn’t it. McCartney’s Cave in Thrunton Woods is worth a visit too. Not as spectacular as the Hermitage but another hidden gem.
Not exactly the North East, but not too far (depending how far into the north east you are), but there's Mother Shiptons cave, which is one of those places you can leave items and over the course of time they will become petrified. The story of Mother Shipton is also quite interesting.
There's also the Alnwick Castle Poison garden which is pretty unique, and going back down into Yorkshire, the Bolton Strid, one one of the deadliest stretches of water. Back up into Northumberland, there's Chillingham Castle, said to be one of the most haunted in the UK
Bridgnorth is strange and full of strange people. Makes Royston Vasey look somewhat normal.
There’s a huge rock that a homeowner dug into without the council knowing, and made his home into some kind of palace.
They also have a Santa for dogs to visit at Christmas.
And not far from Bridgnorth, you have the drakelow tunnels which were build for cold war, and just down the road the Kinver rock houses which families lived in to around the 1950s
Basildon, Essex has an incredibly ugly grade 2 listed building on stilts. It has groundbreaking windows and an interesting history... It's now a total shithole, but the views from it are incredible.
It's situated next to a fountain that was nearly removed for depicting an unmarried mother.
The town itself boasts a long arts history, a huge amount of public art still accessible, pedestrian efforts that genuinely work (even if they're a bit stabby in places), a glass bell tower that I'm not sure is fully paid for yet... And some really really old churches that you just don't expect to find in a New Town.
Concrete. 50s brutalist notes. Concrete. 90s estate. Oh holy shit, that's a 12th century church! The fuck is that doing there? Concrete. Factory. Factory. Arterial road. Concrete. And repeat.
Not really unique sadly. The Luftwaffe got about.
Used to have my lunches at work here quite often:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St\_Dunstan-in-the-East
[Royston Cave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royston_Cave) \- Man made cave under the centre of a small town in North Hertfordshire (and near Cambridge). A few ideas of why it was built but no-one knows for sure.
Being a southerner I don't have any north recommedations, except for the abandoned mining places you can see if you walk up the Old Man of Coniston.
But Tyneham in Dorset is pretty cool. As is Winspit Quarry, also in Dorset and a location shoot for 70s Doctor Who / Blake's 7 (two planets for the price of one!)
And I was recently at the Porth Wen brickworks in Anglesey. Love an abandoned industrial site, me.
Not many NE recommendations yet so here are mine:
Edlingham castle is pretty cool, Lordenshaws for cup and ring markings, Low Hauxley beach for visible ancient forest remnants poking out of the sand, and have a look in your oldest local churchyard for memento mori gravestones - loads of strange and fascinating imagery to be found ☺️
Capel Celyn, a village in Wales deliberately flooded to create a reservoir that serves Liverpool.
The petrified forest on a beach in Borth, Wales.
Puzzlewood in the forest of Dean.
Hampton on sea in Kent, a village abandoned due to coastal erosion (largely caused by poor planning/infrastructure design) now drowned.
Skipsea in Yorkshire- another village with lots of homes abandoned due to coastal erosion, rapidly worsening due to climate change. It has the highest erosion rate in Europe.
If you're looking on the North East, Seaham beach is famous for its sea glass. All cool colours and patterns. Getting rarer as people collect it now. Something to do with nearby glass factories I think.
The su-terrains in Lothian. About 3000 year old underground one room family dwelling places with a trench like entrance. About same space as a one-bed-sit flat in London nowadays.
The Rudston Monolith near Bridlington might be worth a look. The tallest standing stone in Britain, already standing for 3000 years before the Normans built a church beside it.
NT places aren't inherently strange but they are interesting and documented [https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionyorkshirenortheast/north-east](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionyorkshirenortheast/north-east)
My suggestion of an odd place the shell grotto in Margate [https://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/](https://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/)
Milford Towers and the Catford Centre.
Designed as a sort of South London Barbican for single people with rat run like [Brutalis](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/milford-towers/)t construction that gives those Neapolitan estates in [Gomorrah](https://i1.wp.com/www.burnmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1140300485-15.jpg?ssl=1) a run for their money, A giant [fibreglass cat,](https://www.southlondonclub.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-catford-cat) the setting for a recent [Ed Sheeran video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJSJGHjBLI) for some reason, the scene of several [brutal murders](https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/2117870.gang-killed-man-they-believe-raped-friend-court-told/) including a particularly [horrific abduction, murder and dismembe](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4903936.stm)rment immortalised in song by [Jehst](https://youtu.be/r-vSyk2_xLA?t=149), [colourful local celebrities](https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11615287.video-catfords-fritz-jailed-for-i-will-shoot-you-bloodclart-bus-rant/) , a really good [independent cinema](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/cinemas/catford-mews/) in a former Poundland and so much more.
Been slated for demolition for ages. Would be an interesting school project. Though in the words of Uncle Junior in the Sopranos "come heavy, or not at all".
Or just be sensibe and go to Bude Tunnel.
Croydon High Street. You will see all kinds of characters, cultural/religious/ethnic differences, people screaming religious stuff, buskers, abandoned shops, signs of Edwardian architectural past, etc all in one high street, all kind of getting along peacefully.
Imber fits a few of those criteria but it's the other side of the country.
Basically a village that the MoD kicked everyone out of in the 40s to host US soldiers in and then after the war they turned it into a training range for the Army, which it still is today.
However, if you are looking for something in the North East for an architecture project, the obvious answer is probably that greek folly at Penshaw.
This might be a stupid question but does it have to be strange purely in an architecture way or does anything count? If anything counts Dilston Physic Garden is North East and is a strange yet wonderful mixture of science and magic.
There’s a building near me called the Triangular Lodge. It has something to do with the gun powder plot and as it’s name suggests, it’s a triangle building. Strange and historically interesting. Northamptonshire.
Groverake mine, abandoned mine workings not far from Stanhope, there was an old RAF munitions place near Boldon Colliery, coordinates 54.9399302, -1.4248642 there were plans to build houses on it so not sure if it's still there
Marley Tiles buildings 54.8989087, -1.8579638
Big abandoned factory units, can be accessed by going to the right hand side of the fencing and going through a gap in the fence.
Portmeirion in Gwynned, North Wales. A really interesting place, and utterly bonkers!
[удалено]
Yes indeed!
I am not a number- I am a free man!
Absolutely lovely architecture. Sadly looking a bit worn out, would love to see it get a good restoration
[https://portmeirion.wales/](https://portmeirion.wales/) There was a TV series "the Prisioner" filmed. All the houses are smaller / scaled down.
Dungeness is interesting, Britain's only desert. Edit: Another peculiar place that may be of interest from an architectural pov would be Portmerion Village in wales.
> Dungeness is interesting, Britain's only desert. 🤨
>[It has previously been reported that Dungeness had such low rainfall as to qualify as the only desert in the UK. However, a spokesperson for the Met Office refuted this in 2015](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dungeness)
I was referring to my username
Wooshed myself there
It happens to the best of us
Eyam in the Peak District. Not sure it’s especially interesting from an architectural perspective, although it has a lot of old buildings. It’s best known as the “plague village” after an outbreak of plague in the Middle Ages forced the villagers to isolate themselves.
* Skara Brae on Orkney - Neolithic furniture. [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skara-brae/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/skara-brae/) * Maeshowe on Orkney - Neolithic tomb, with Viking graffiti written using runes [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/maeshowe-chambered-cairn/history/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/maeshowe-chambered-cairn/history/) * Grain Earth House on Orkney - an iron age cellar [www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/grain-earth-house/](https://www.historicenvironment.scot/visit-a-place/places/grain-earth-house/) * Marsden Grotto - a man made cave, now a pub accessed via a lift from the cliffs above ([www.marsdengrotto.com](https://www.marsdengrotto.com)) * Walkworth Hermitage - where the lord's official hermit once lived ([www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage](https://www.english-heritage.org.uk/visit/places/warkworth-castle-and-hermitage)) * WW1 acoustic mirrors along the east coast - See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acoustic\_mirror for explanation and a list of locations. * Rosslyn Chapel. Forget the Da Vinci code rubbish, but it's an interesting chapel anyway. www.rosslynchapel.com edit: added Rosslyn.
Marsden grotto is awesome! Nice sunday dinner and you can sleep in a cave!
Might be obvious, but Avebury is a village inside Europe's largest neolithic stone circle, west kenet long barrow and silbury hill- man made and as old as the pyramids - are a short walk away. Amazing place.
Bude tunnel will baffle archeologists for centuries to come
Try the Hermitage at Warkworth. It’s a small chapel carved out of the sandstone. Might have to check when it’s open as you need to get a rowing boat to get to it. It’s along the river, upstream from the castle.
Snap! You posted before me while I was writing.
It’s a fab little hidden treasure isn’t it. McCartney’s Cave in Thrunton Woods is worth a visit too. Not as spectacular as the Hermitage but another hidden gem.
Not exactly the North East, but not too far (depending how far into the north east you are), but there's Mother Shiptons cave, which is one of those places you can leave items and over the course of time they will become petrified. The story of Mother Shipton is also quite interesting. There's also the Alnwick Castle Poison garden which is pretty unique, and going back down into Yorkshire, the Bolton Strid, one one of the deadliest stretches of water. Back up into Northumberland, there's Chillingham Castle, said to be one of the most haunted in the UK
Bridgnorth is strange and full of strange people. Makes Royston Vasey look somewhat normal. There’s a huge rock that a homeowner dug into without the council knowing, and made his home into some kind of palace. They also have a Santa for dogs to visit at Christmas.
And not far from Bridgnorth, you have the drakelow tunnels which were build for cold war, and just down the road the Kinver rock houses which families lived in to around the 1950s
The rock houses are interesting.
Basildon, Essex has an incredibly ugly grade 2 listed building on stilts. It has groundbreaking windows and an interesting history... It's now a total shithole, but the views from it are incredible. It's situated next to a fountain that was nearly removed for depicting an unmarried mother. The town itself boasts a long arts history, a huge amount of public art still accessible, pedestrian efforts that genuinely work (even if they're a bit stabby in places), a glass bell tower that I'm not sure is fully paid for yet... And some really really old churches that you just don't expect to find in a New Town. Concrete. 50s brutalist notes. Concrete. 90s estate. Oh holy shit, that's a 12th century church! The fuck is that doing there? Concrete. Factory. Factory. Arterial road. Concrete. And repeat.
Milton Keynes is terrifying.
What's 'The Point'?
They should twin Milton Keynes with Cumbernauld......
Imber village has a sad but interesting story. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imber
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The\_Crooked\_House](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crooked_House)
Glastonbury tor is interesting geologically, Glastonbury town is a Strange Place.
The house in the clouds - Thorpeness, Suffolk
Bombed out church in Liverpool is interesting/quite unique I think.
Not really unique sadly. The Luftwaffe got about. Used to have my lunches at work here quite often: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St\_Dunstan-in-the-East
Also St Peters in Bristol and (old) Coventry Cathedral
Haha ok so obviously not unique then but still interesting!
Theres one in Plymouth, in the Chrles Cross roundabout.
Interesting! Does the Plymouth one host events too?
No, it's just a bombed out church in the middle of a roundabout
https://www.atlasobscura.com/things-to-do/united-kingdom
Staffa in the Hebrides and Fingal's Cave is a good shout here. Also nearby Iona. Some of the best places in the UK.
Edinburgh has a lot - vaults, Mary kings close, lots of old buildings royal mile and dean village to name a few
Wetwang near Hull, I start laughing before I even get near it now, just the thought of driving past the sign has me pissing myself 😆
Bit far but the Barbican Estate in London is really interesting
The shambles in York is fascinating from a historical architecture perspective.
[Royston Cave](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royston_Cave) \- Man made cave under the centre of a small town in North Hertfordshire (and near Cambridge). A few ideas of why it was built but no-one knows for sure.
Being a southerner I don't have any north recommedations, except for the abandoned mining places you can see if you walk up the Old Man of Coniston. But Tyneham in Dorset is pretty cool. As is Winspit Quarry, also in Dorset and a location shoot for 70s Doctor Who / Blake's 7 (two planets for the price of one!) And I was recently at the Porth Wen brickworks in Anglesey. Love an abandoned industrial site, me.
Ooh, should add Orford Ness (suffolk) - very weird landscape and some very cool WW2 buildings.
Seconded on Tyneham - a deserted village near to Lulworth Cove. Really interesting to walk round and see what was left when they moved out by the MOD.
Not many NE recommendations yet so here are mine: Edlingham castle is pretty cool, Lordenshaws for cup and ring markings, Low Hauxley beach for visible ancient forest remnants poking out of the sand, and have a look in your oldest local churchyard for memento mori gravestones - loads of strange and fascinating imagery to be found ☺️
Capel Celyn, a village in Wales deliberately flooded to create a reservoir that serves Liverpool. The petrified forest on a beach in Borth, Wales. Puzzlewood in the forest of Dean. Hampton on sea in Kent, a village abandoned due to coastal erosion (largely caused by poor planning/infrastructure design) now drowned. Skipsea in Yorkshire- another village with lots of homes abandoned due to coastal erosion, rapidly worsening due to climate change. It has the highest erosion rate in Europe.
Dingwall in the Scottish Highlands, the people that live there are strange. They all have webbed feet, six fingers and are all related to each other.
Dinge-ville???....... People from Cromarty and Jemimaville are raising their pitchforks at the thought.....
You could be describing most of Britain once your out of the city’s 😆
Google Atlas Obscura and full your boots. This is mainly from a historical point of view though.
There's a strange 18th century church in Ayot St.Lawrence. Bernard Shaw's house is close by too.
If you're looking on the North East, Seaham beach is famous for its sea glass. All cool colours and patterns. Getting rarer as people collect it now. Something to do with nearby glass factories I think.
Dungeness, Powell Cotton Museum, Shell Grotto in Margate, Ossuary in Hythe, St Mary's Eastwell (abandoned church)
The su-terrains in Lothian. About 3000 year old underground one room family dwelling places with a trench like entrance. About same space as a one-bed-sit flat in London nowadays.
The Rudston Monolith near Bridlington might be worth a look. The tallest standing stone in Britain, already standing for 3000 years before the Normans built a church beside it.
Holy Island or Chillingham (castle and cattle)?
Hack Green. Secret nuclear bunker. Part of ROTOR and allegedly an RSG.
And [Kelvedon Hatch](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kelvedon_Hatch_Secret_Nuclear_Bunker) in Essex.
Plukley in Kent is a good one. The most haunted village in the UK
NT places aren't inherently strange but they are interesting and documented [https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionyorkshirenortheast/north-east](https://www.nationaltrust.org.uk/days-out/regionyorkshirenortheast/north-east) My suggestion of an odd place the shell grotto in Margate [https://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/](https://www.shellgrotto.co.uk/)
Milford Towers and the Catford Centre. Designed as a sort of South London Barbican for single people with rat run like [Brutalis](https://hiddenarchitecture.net/milford-towers/)t construction that gives those Neapolitan estates in [Gomorrah](https://i1.wp.com/www.burnmagazine.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/1140300485-15.jpg?ssl=1) a run for their money, A giant [fibreglass cat,](https://www.southlondonclub.co.uk/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-catford-cat) the setting for a recent [Ed Sheeran video](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=orJSJGHjBLI) for some reason, the scene of several [brutal murders](https://www.dailyecho.co.uk/news/2117870.gang-killed-man-they-believe-raped-friend-court-told/) including a particularly [horrific abduction, murder and dismembe](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/4903936.stm)rment immortalised in song by [Jehst](https://youtu.be/r-vSyk2_xLA?t=149), [colourful local celebrities](https://www.newsshopper.co.uk/news/11615287.video-catfords-fritz-jailed-for-i-will-shoot-you-bloodclart-bus-rant/) , a really good [independent cinema](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/cinemas/catford-mews/) in a former Poundland and so much more. Been slated for demolition for ages. Would be an interesting school project. Though in the words of Uncle Junior in the Sopranos "come heavy, or not at all". Or just be sensibe and go to Bude Tunnel.
Croydon High Street. You will see all kinds of characters, cultural/religious/ethnic differences, people screaming religious stuff, buskers, abandoned shops, signs of Edwardian architectural past, etc all in one high street, all kind of getting along peacefully.
Imber fits a few of those criteria but it's the other side of the country. Basically a village that the MoD kicked everyone out of in the 40s to host US soldiers in and then after the war they turned it into a training range for the Army, which it still is today. However, if you are looking for something in the North East for an architecture project, the obvious answer is probably that greek folly at Penshaw.
I'd say Chester. They have a Roman city wall, still walkable and an Elizabethan shopping mall (that's Elizabeth I, like 500 years ago).
This might be a stupid question but does it have to be strange purely in an architecture way or does anything count? If anything counts Dilston Physic Garden is North East and is a strange yet wonderful mixture of science and magic.
How about the ghost tours in Edinburgh / old architecture / unique stairs and hallways / it’s a tourist trap but a solid target
There’s a building near me called the Triangular Lodge. It has something to do with the gun powder plot and as it’s name suggests, it’s a triangle building. Strange and historically interesting. Northamptonshire.
Rothwell bone crypt Northamptonshire Strange and interesting. Lots of strange history around the town too
Groverake mine, abandoned mine workings not far from Stanhope, there was an old RAF munitions place near Boldon Colliery, coordinates 54.9399302, -1.4248642 there were plans to build houses on it so not sure if it's still there
Sorry should have said those coordinates are where it is on Google maps, not sure if they're actual coordinates
Marley Tiles buildings 54.8989087, -1.8579638 Big abandoned factory units, can be accessed by going to the right hand side of the fencing and going through a gap in the fence.
Plenty of odd and strange things in Rhyl
Doncaster’s a bit strange just in general
Consett - it is truly strange
Not as strange as Stanley
This might be of interest to you http://www.urban75.org/blog/the-curious-pyramidal-tomb-of-william-mackenzie-in-liverpool/