There are many beautiful abandoned building in the UK that can be visited. However, it is important to also remember that entering abandoned buildings can be dangerous and even illegal so it is essential that you always ensure that visiting these places is allowed.

Beautiful Abandoned Buildings in the UK

Grange Lido

Built in 1932 this 50m outdoor swimming pool closed in 1993, the seawater was originally supplied from nearby Morecambe Bay, still in the perfect Art Deco style it is now Grade II listed and the subject of a campaign to have it refurbished and ultimately reopened for public use.

Location: Grange-over-Sands, Cumbria

Clifton Rocks Railway

An underground funicular railway linking two parts of the Avon Gorge via a tunnel cut through the limestone cliffs. Taking two years to construct it opened in 1893 but after the management company went bankrupt and a serious decline in passengers it eventually closed in 1934. There is now a charitable trust aiming to preserve and restore the railway and turn the upper section into a museum.

Location: Clifton, Bristol

Grain Tower Battery

The Grain Tower Battery was built to stand like a concrete guardian stationed just off the shore of the Isle of Grain. It’s the last-built example of this particular type of gun tower, thanks to rapidly advancing technological improvements. The tower was briefly used during World War I and again during World War II. However, it was decommissioned in 1956, just over a century after it was opened. It’s been in private hands since 2005, but as of yet no one has done anything with it so it just stands within the water, unused and largely isolated from the shore.

Location: Medway, Kent

Mayfield Railway Station

Mayfield was only built as an overfill station to deflect some of the traffic from Manchester’s bustling London Road station. In the last decade, several plans to redevelop the building into everything from an entertainment center to a government center have imploded. Until a viable plan for Mayfield’s redevelopment arrives, occasional film and television crews have made themselves content to use the quiet station as the perfect dystopian backdrop for bringing their post-apocalyptic fantasies to life.

Location: Manchester

Curzon Street Station

Since it was closed, the historic space has housed a number of projects, including being used as a performance space for an experimental theatre group, and more prosaically as a Parcel Force depot. While its past may have left is little more than a sparsely used relic, the future of the building may lie, once again in public transit, thanks to a plan to build a new high speed train station nearby, which may even incorporate the old building itself. Until that grand plan comes to fruition, the lone building is surrounded by a car park, and is home to little more than some impressive graffiti and even more impressive weeds.

Location: Birmingham

Crossness Pumping Station

In order to end the “Great Stink” of 1858,  London needed a major upgrade to their sewer system. The Crossness Pumping Station was built to more efficiently deal with the waste of the populace, and they added surprisingly lovely ironwork to boot. Finished in 1865, the station used four massive steam pumps to flush non-solid waste into the river at specific times that got the effluent out to sea much quicker. The interior of the station was decorated in massive amounts of elaborate ironwork, giving the otherwise vile industrial site a delicately Victorian feel and earning it the nickname, “The Cathedral on the Marsh.” Today the site is listed as a historic site and is currently being renovated and is slated to eventually contain a museum devoted to the Great Stink.

Location: Bexley, London

Blenheim Palace Bridge

This two-storey Palladian bridge on the grounds of Churchill’s birthplace was designed as a “habitable viaduct” in 1708, before being flooded by the River Glyme 50 years later when Capability Brown did a touch of garden remodelling and created a 40-acre lake. In 2018 the lake was drained as part of a restoration project, revealing more than 30 rooms, including a ballroom and theatre, as well as graffiti dating from the 1760s.

Location: Woodstock, Oxfordshire

Point of Ayr Lighthouse

Built in 1776 to guide ships entering from the River Dee and Mersey Estuary, the Grade II-listed Talacre Beach lighthouse (Wales’ oldest of its kind) has been abandoned since the late 19th century. Head here at low tide when receding waters reveal a footpath to the 18m storm-weathered structure – though be warned: visiting psychics have encountered the ghost of Raymond, a former lighthouse keeper who gazes out to sea.

Normanton Church

This 18th-century church was almost washed away in the 70s when the council set about flooding the parish of Empingham to meet the demands of South East England’s growing population. After public protests to save the church, its lower level was filled with rubble and a floor added that would sit 60cm above the new reservoir’s surface. Today, visit when the reservoir is full and the church appears half sunk. It’s not totally abandoned; there’s a small museum inside.

Location: Rutland

Where are your favourite abandoned buildings?

Let me know in the comments.