Rootes art deco abandoned showroom and workshop urban exploration

through the 1920s into the 1930s the roots group expanded rapidly from distributors to manufacturers and became the biggest car companies in the world in 1938 open displace Len house a fantastic masterpiece of Modern Art Deco architecture and only stop being a car showroom a year ago in 2019 it's about to be sympathetically redeveloped into apartments and commercial space but before that happens I've got the chance to look around what was one of the most impressive Art Deco car showrooms in the country if not the world so this workshop was the epicenter of the roots network the company had grown massively in a very short time from 1895 when William Brut senior has started a company selling and servicing bicycles in Ghouta Hearst in Kent and they rapidly expanded into the early 1900s opening second premises in Hawkhurst also near most stunning Ken's and through that time his son Billy and Reggie were progressing in their career until in 1914 Billy opened his first car sales showroom in the High Street in Maidstone just off pudding Lane which is literally a stone's throw from here car manufacturers and other engineering companies were called upon to do as much for the war effort as they could and so roots stepped up to the plate on this site from for a long time there been a tannery using the river Len and its mill pond to drive the tannery works they've moved in there and opened up the Len engineering works so from 1917 onwards they were reconditioning aero engines for the war effort and that war work paid big money to the company and kept the company going into the post-war years when they expanded massively becoming agents for many more car firms including people like Klein over of long since gone becoming the UK agents for GM taking on Chevy and Buick dealerships and starting to buy rival dealerships from around the country in fact Robinson who had the Peugeot dealer who occupied this until 2019 we're only up the road in Rochester and they bought them in 1921 or 22 they continued to grow on the site of the milling showroom now there was a showroom but it was an older style building and not really up to the needs they had during the early 30s Howard and Shuster an architectural firm with a history of Art Deco modern and car dealerships was commissioned to create something truly impressive and this was it work started in 1937 and the place opened in April of fourth 1938 and it was the biggest car showroom in Britain that's weirdly haunting walking around this place when it's just completely deserted knowing how busy it was for so many years this is all the end of Robinson days tenure in this place when they up sticks moved everything out into business park down the road to a more modern current premises so walking through the offices so these this huge space which feels just like desolate now marooned in there was the roots workshops from 1938 to 39 when they completed this section of the building up until 2019 this was alive with cars being repaired serviced MOTD accident damage in the body shop everything mainly the car pair related you can think of happened in this room and not just in this massive Cathedral of a room upstairs as well but it's a hugely strong reinforced ceiling look how thick those concrete reinforced girders are I'll show you in more detail in a moment when I walk you up the ramp but this ramp like so much else in this building is listed so when it's pretty developed this is staying which is of what marvelous feature now bear in mind how many concessions and manufacturers routes were looking after back in the 30s and 40s though in the 26 after Austin but in 30s they owned Hillman Humber they were looking after some beam Tolbert's singer common carrier commercials so this was just alive so upstairs is a big again as this and would have been filled with vehicles and during the Second World War every comma truck that went out to Europe to fight came down this ramp at some point that's quite an incredible thought but before I walk you upstairs let's take a look at the rest of this lower storey under the ramp we've got washrooms toilets storage area it's gonna look at that in a second look at all these two punch ramps I wish I'd brought some spanners now I've got an estate car parked outside I'm sure I could get one of these in the boot these windows this is typical 1930s modern style just huge areas of glass bringing so much light into this room that's probably the 1930s equipment it just looks very dirty have to watch your footing around here because there is old equipment pits you name it oil on the floors I can't Ricci out because there's security screening but beyond this is the river Len which powered the original tannery on this site all the staircases here in this building are listed as well so much of the fabric of the building has to stay in there the plans are incredible for the redevelopment of this place have you paid or not if I can help it let's take a look at that ceiling look at these concrete bars this entire building is a steel frame with reinforced concrete structure and a curtain wall of brick and reconstituted concrete and these big glass curtains and it is just a fabulous fabulous place really interesting to think what is original to the 30s what survived through the 50s and 60s to the Second World War and what's modern what's from the you know 70s 80s 90s Peugeot 405 diesel Haynes manual he would think name dealer wouldn't need to be referring to the Haynes manual but you never know these old tools which I guess are out of date for current cars just sitting here under the bench this is the storage area underneath the stairs quality assurance quarantine area very apt at the moment or the Simca 1,100 book down there watching my step into here old filing cabinets I don't what you can see that you're the light of my phone lighting this up think of 1300 oh my word that's in the Heinz manuals that's in 610 chassis and body book my word air conditioning are three or four this is absolute time warp of information 1960 are you seeing this Hiroto 1960 trade catalog simcha 1100 service guide service guides for the Humber Hillman Sunbeam Chrysler 180 / - van , carrier workshop manual what year is this from that takes our site - look this is just remarkable , Kerry workshop manual for control models wrote service on my word this stuff I really hope can be saved Hillman hunter workshop manual for the entire range Kreisler 160 160 GT Porsche workshop manual type 3 5 6 a.m. wow that's not the thing it's best oh that looks like a health hazard to be honest oh my word a match natural Rancho workshop manual a Chrysler Sunbeam workshop money I should know - people with fries or sunbeams I might have to ask if I can borrow this wasn't my word well I'm glad I stepped into that little cubbyhole that's incredible in there right now let's go upstairs up the ramp and see what we can find it's actually surprisingly steep and looking up from here you can see this glass the zigzag roof which is a real common feature of 1930s and 40s British industrial buildings is huge windows this place is just enormous it's incredible this is a workshop borderline factory and yet it's still got these nice little details like this curved off concrete on the end here and these fantastic windows such a beautiful light building so airy ha I've just broken some rules here pedestrians must not use the ramp oopsie this is quite significant especially on older cars no vehicle just to descend the ramp on this engine running in gear brake check before descent wise words now through here this is the upper storey and it still smells like it actually this was the body shop in the paint shop even though everything is gone that kind of smell of paint and thinners is just still in the air you can taste it almost but interestingly you can't see it on this side of the wall but on the outside you can see three big window frames with lintels at the bottom from 1937-38 when this place has been built they planned it with three big windows but they never went in because it was the paint shops you don't want windows in the paint shop and said they were bricked in before the glass ever arrived but they never took the lintels out gosh it's anyone need an umbrella Persia or Citroen connectors this is quite incredible the stuff that was just left behind when the company went light bulbs stuff they got left behind I guess this is the workshop office obody jig how does box trap after body jig without your noticing it serious equipment up here part of brand-new floor mats never used I hear we have a better view of the river if I open this window or 15 no well open - stuck this here is a better view of the millpond I truncate is on the drone be much clearer big garage door entrance to the body shop will the paint shop I imagine no entry what do we think this is from I'm gonna say a mini it's very tiny it's quite flat despite the curve in it it's a front windscreen clearly and that logo looks very Rover esque in that font so I'm gonna say this is a minis front windscreen there's all kinds of things this is a quarter light from something peugeot citroen doesn't say what though some inside trim for me from the boot of a peugeot citroen tinted material again aperture I take decision all these bits of body these panels and parts are just lying around just abandoned there's a taillight from a very current model Peugeot this is just amazing I take a look up at this ceiling the redevelopment plans for this place are quite amazing and I was I've known this building for my entire life having sort of grown up in this area and I was really worried that the cost of renovating it meant it might be pulled down even though it's listed all have something horrible happen to it it's me really sympathetically put back together and I'm going to take out these lights and put a third floor above here but set right back from the rotor you can't actually see it from downstairs which is an amazing uses of the building and the developer has been incredibly lucky in that this floor this floor here we've seen the beams downstairs and the ceiling was designed to carry lorries HGVs so second floor apartments are not going to be a weight issue one little bit now have the car park now if i zoom in on this tower which is at the focal point of this whole building from the frontage on Mill Street at night the top of this building was lit up is seven hundred feet of neon lights real spectacle and once this recommissioning and redevelopment is done it's going to be replaced in LED with the word roots put back on top of this beautiful Art Deco tower we can even go up on the roof well it's an amazing view up here this is going to be apartments on top of here which is going to be quite a cool place to live on top of the roots car factory with a pretty cool view of late Stone these old tents type top factory roof skylight things are going to go and there will be rooms up here with an amazing view of the town looking over the side looking down at the river lenin it's Colvard they'll lend millpond which powered what started this entire car company in the first place now it's going to the staircase and apart from a lot of bird poo and a dead pigeon you can find an original 1930s staircase I do love these kind of twisted wood and metal staircases you find us so many 30s buildings of a really elegant and underneath this rubber flooring it's stuff called terrazzo I can't lift up the clip down which is a beautiful kind of polished concrete so they're mentally expensive to install but incredibly tough so if they can get this rubberized stuff off it it will be very beautiful indeed we're coming to a stairwell here now we have offices because this corner overlooking the Mill Pond was the office section of the building now walk through a store cupboard now looking into a roof area because so much of this was double hyped but then it was mezzanine and false rooftop over the years I imagine this is the [Music] was a window just their cupboard from the 60s it's full like windows it beautiful and here we have back out to the mill pond again more history advertising it says in the front so anything in here that's worth looking at I hope all Haines of may start another big Ford rival in the area here we have or this must be from the 70s I guess the Kentish Gazette advert this is a cuttings book of all the adverts from North Carolina who dear evangelist Avenger gl saloon has no dates or to a dates on here Wow our regal estate so someone's job April 1975 someone's job was to go through the local papers without advertised and cut and keep them for Wow god I hope someone saves this dojo 305 the best estate car in Britain doesn't Blas they're on for that someone will get hurt old photos a photo from 1959 of roots I'm not sure where this area is neon Jim Bowen it wasn't Jim Bowen it was Humber Hillman and comma or possibly carrier works and I'm gonna say the late 30s early 40s this I believe is the ribbons and a workshop in Rochester it is yes it is yes there's a caption on here broached to High Street in November 1944 wow it must be other routes areas the history of the work chest and motor company VMware roots as it was brutes used cars I wonder where that was but this is fascinating this is obviously the law late 50s early 60s we're looking at here someone might recognize the cars and indeed the train 179 pounds for a Humber bargain all routes used cars I wonder what their names are Rochester did Roots 1949 i don't know where that is back at the rush to place maybe kama truck from some time this is amazing to perhaps that the astonishing stuff so back in 99 roots was doing well right let's carry on with the tour more offices thought is a nice view of the workshops so here we go that's the store cupboard view of the the workshop on the ramp kitchen more stairs going up what does this go back into the end we started okay here we go now we'll come back here in a minute this is a link this is virtually the bridge that you see above the carpark so looking down through this plastic stuff on the glass [Applause] across the we cross another listed staircase which will be terrazzo again underneath that and here we go this is possibly the most haunting room in the building they just atmosphere in here is incredible in the late 80s this room above the showroom became a snooker hall and bar it still is all here Jimmy whirlwind white played here in his youth you can hear the buses running outside you know pigeon poop everywhere unfortunately yeah the bosses and someone having a massive round a phone outside quite creepy because you can still smell the beer in the carpet and the in the air and just breeze through air as well most of doors blow every now and then ice is like the Winchester bar amazing like everywhere else is only closed down very recently no back to the stick its look at this handrail to a chrome handrail if this rubber stuff wasn't on here this would be beautiful with the amazing terrazzo underneath it this is really really class stuff then end on the back out to the front again okay let's get three on the inside like a different staircase I can look at this beautiful twisting wood handle it's just lovely craftsmanship in 30s back down to the main stairwell in the front and there's a basement down there as well I didn't know my son which is storage old printers racking bits of paper not that exciting Auto POJO sign ready to rent parental upriver 80s I reckon back up again here we are a service reception again where we came in in one area I forgot to walk through a second to go walk into the main workshop is of course the stores look at all this racking this would've been rammed with bits of Peugeot until well just a few months ago really it's more about both may as well again you can see how solid this building is and I say if they don't put them what they're used to they're not kidding the river looks delightful today so now I am in the 1930s original showroom although you can't really tell anymore because I guess sometime in the probably the 70s or 80s a lot of the original 30s Deco was paneled over this some false ceiling and this kind of light internal wall because if you look at the original photos you can see amazing beautiful bits of architrave nice ceiling columns all the good stuff you see in 1930s buildings oh well 1930s kitchen cup of tea anyone twits oh wow here's a good bit of memorabilia the Peugeot RCZ which is a great little 2-door coupe a thing she hardly ever seen you around but that'd be a cool thing to have in the garage quite like that here are the salesman's offices the general manager's office hopefully by the time you see this there will be some ninth 1930s 40s and 50s pictures I can drop in which I'm looking for as we speak and behind the showroom we walk through into what so it's here the handover area which is where customers would have come to have a new car pass to them for the first time and here we have these rather elegant stairs look at this kind of waterfall balustrade very typical Art Deco motif and the stairs that go up I don't know where actually the two halves of the building are separated by the snooker hall in the middle so you can't walk from one to the other at the moment so let's see where these stairs go if you are kind of underneath that lovely Tower in a minute we were looking we were looking out from the other side of the building in the workshop there's a skylight I can't see what's beyond there a key code look at this lovely lovely banister this is that's a cast aluminium they take car dealerships grandly back in the 30s so from this big shutter door it wouldn't quite an exciting first drive in your new car where there was a Persia up until recently or at all but before that a Chrysler a Humber a Hillman a singer a sunbeam who knows what else would have been handed over to the new customer that have taken their keys and driven off from the new car from this very room but for 81 years although it's sad that this building will no longer be part of the motor trade after eight decades and the Robinson day the last link at the roost group has now finally gone from the place I am hugely relieved though that its future is safe and it's gonna be sympathetically restored and for the and for the first time in my lifetime we'll be able to see it in its original 1930s form that's something to look forward to

Channel: furiousdriving

Views: 90,682

Keywords: car, cars, blog, vlog, retro, classic, classic car, retro car, motoring, Rootes, Maidstone, Kent, Rootes Maidstone, 1930s, 1937, 1938, art deco, moderne, architecture, car dealer, urbex, urban exploration, explore, Rootes Group

Id: 5dWZsneasa8

Length: 31min 49sec (1909 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 25 2020