Harold Wood Hospital in northern London opened in 1909 and shut down in 2006 after its functions and patients were transferred to neighboring hospitals. The site vacated by the hospital has been earmarked for a 470-home housing development.
Headless dinosaurs, rusty roller coasters and a time-frozen Ferris wheel. This is Spreepark, an abandoned amusement park in Berlin, Germany, in operation between 1969 and 2001. Kutlurpark Plänterwald as it was originally named was built in the north of Plänterwald area of East Berlin, next to the river Spree. It was the only theme park of its kind in the whole of Berlin as well as East Germany. During the communism era it thrived attracting up to a million and half visitors per year.
Worse times came after the fall of the Berlin Wall when the park was sold off to Austrian financier Norbert Witte who renamed it 'Spreepark'. Until 1999, large debts had piled up while the number of the visitors kept dropping. In 2002, Witte decided to close down the park, move together with his family and closest colleagues to Lima, Peru and operate an amusement park there. In 2004 however he was sentenced to seven years in jail for attempting to smuggle 180 kg of cocaine from Peru to Germany in the masts of the Fliegender Teppich ("flying carpet") ride. In October 2006, a Peruvian court sentenced Wittes' son, Marcel Witte, to 20 years for drug smuggling.
Meanwhile, Spreepark remained closed since 2002 as it had amassed more than 11 million euros (14.7 million US dollars) in debt. From then, the abandoned facilities are attracting tourists and urban explorers. In 2011, scenes for the film Hannawere filmed in the park.
Photographer J Bennett Fitts travelled over 20,000 miles across the American South to take photos of abandoned swimming pools for his 'No Lifeguard on Duty' photo series. From the deserts of Arizona to the shores of Florida, J Bennett Fitts, a Missouri native, discovered abandoned motels and captured melancholic pictures of the now empty venues.
