Tales of the Urban Explorer: Chapeltown Training Centre

When I hear the word “Chapeltown”, I instinctively think of Leeds and a particularly seedy suburb that has more of its fair share of unrest historically.

On checking for some history of this wreck of a building, I spotted a lot of Chapeltown references, all in Leeds and none in Sheffield where this clusterfuck is, or was.

I can realistically envisage it's gone now and is a big pile of rubble. The Google images are hopelessly out of date, recorded even before my visit a year past, and don't tell me the latest information.

So history is sparse or maybe non-existent, but as ever I focus on the personal experience and adventure of exploring.

I stared at @anidiotexplores wondering when he had turned into 'Dhalsim' from Street Fighter. How did he get through that nasty, twisty gap so easily?

Someone with incredible strength had bent back those bars but getting past them was an exercise in frustration. It looked easy, should have been easy, would have been for the younger me, and yet was not.

All the while, laughing motorists were passing by and I was fortunate not to have caused an accident with the many wondering eyes watching me struggle past this pokey gap.

Like that pointy bent spike, you needed to be ‘Dhalsim’ and bend in the right direction at the right time, or get spiked in the back or chest, whichever you prefer.

‘Chapeltown Training Centre' looked partially demolished, but this a blessing as getting inside was never going to present us with a problem, all those holes offering an audience.

Once, they gave a crap about their security with many barred windows on show. It all looks a little overkill for a training centre, or maybe it was an initiation centre for criminals and this room was once a cell complete with a basic bench in preparation for jail time?

Being partially demolished I was hardly expecting a wonderful business time capsule; we need to look at things realistically.

I thought for a minute the homeless were taking refuge here. With a large demolition vehicle wielding a swinging huge ball and chain outside, it's not the best of homes, even of the temporary type.

On the upper floor I spotted this newspaper from 1967.

I always find these fascinating to read, this one proclaiming wages will be increased to 15s. As this is pre-decimal, I will explain to you this is 75p. Is that per week, and not even 1 US Dollar?

If it’s per hour, that would make it around £30 a week which is slightly less than my pittance of a wage well over a decade later.

A strange colour for a board, presumably once pinned to a wall in order to educate these apprentice prisoners on how to evade possible sodomy, though I could not find any decaying KY Jelly loitering around on the floor.

I don't give a crap about revealing the location; it's likely nonexistent now.

Front doors rarely open and this one was no exception.

Strange, why should there be a number on this door it looks quite flimsy to be a cell. One large kick and it would make for an ideal escape route.

Upstairs was looking very messy and even I was struggling to find anything to home in on.

A decent proportion of the building was intact. Had they changed their minds about the demolition? The industrial units who had half done the job were noticeably absent from the surrounding grounds.

Maybe I had gotten it wrong, and that's why the presumed ubiquitous dildos and rotten cucumbers were absent. I tried to read this literary nonsense but started falling asleep after just a few seconds.

That's mesmerizing wallpaper. Drop a little acid and many things could be found within..., if you stare long enough.

Ah, so it was a proper training centre for respectable people (or budding IT goons). The word 'Chapeltown' must have influenced my preconceptions.

Straight out of a TV murder show, it needs some dramatic music and visuals to make it complete.

That’s not used bog paper on the stairs, but wallpaper that got so damp it no longer sticks to the wall.

I wonder if they have returned to flatten the rest of this horror. At least it’s protected by that sharp metal bent thing, but kids could easily circumvent that.

Nice house, a shame you are knocking it down.

'Aggressive Security' was not aggressive enough and we got in, but to be fair, we don't commit crimes, just take photographs.

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