We’ve spent countless hours tracking down and exploring abandoned places; from asylums, prisons and Victorian houses, to Cold War missile bases and derelict mansions from the Gilded Age. By and large, most of these places have been stripped bare, leaving only a decaying shell of a building which once teemed […]
Author: ljspencer
The Crow’s Nest – World War II’s Secret Bar
In downtown St. John’s, Newfoundland, there is an old warehouse overlooking the harbour, that looks as anonymous as all the other brick buildings surrounding it. At least until you look at the roof. For protruding out of the flat roof, is what appears to be a rather unusual looking aerial. […]
Time to Enroll at Oddball University!
Autumn is fast approaching, and with it the beginning of a new school term. Whilst Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and Yale all undoubtedly have their charms, there’s only one seat of higher education where you can learn all about the Room of Forgotten Souls, where to find the world’s largest Bowie […]
The Ruins of the White Lake Mansion House Hotel
Overlooking a beautiful lake in New York’s Catskills is a large crumbling ruin. Painted completely white, its peeling paint, two wrap around porches and imposing grandeur wouldn’t look out of place in a Louisiana plantation. The vast lawns that stretch down to the lakeside are over grown, and it lies […]
How Robert Peary Discovered an Arctic Island That Didn’t Exist
In the archives of the American Geographical Society is a map of the Arctic Ocean dating from over a century ago that has a peculiar secret. For just north of Greenland, at roughly 100’ longitude west of Greenwich, it shows an island called Crocker Land, annotated ‘Seen By Peary, 1906’. […]
Ernest Hemingway’s Last One Cent Coin
Today is the 120th anniversary of the birth of one of our favourite writers here at the SGE, Ernest Hemingway. To mark the occasion, we thought we’d share with you one of our favourite Hemingway stories, something we came across when visiting his house in Key West: the tale of […]
A Forgotten New York Railroad Station
One of America’s most charming railway journeys can be found in New York. The Hudson Line of the Metro North Railroad, speeds through the Hudson River Valley, passing through quaint small villages such as Cold Spring, Tarrytown and Beacon, the rail line hugging the riverbank, often just several feet outside […]
The Last Lost Places
“From the top of the ridge, across one last valley, Lawrence could finally see his destination. A lost city at the top of the world.” Welcome to the wonderful world of The Last Lost Places! Lost cities and places have long captured the imagination of explorers. From Helike in Ancient […]
The Sazerac Bar at the Roosevelt Hotel
Leave the maddening crowds of Bourbon Street behind and step into the plush confines of the Roosevelt Hotel, where you’ll find, steps from the grand lobby, the perfect place to escape the humidity of New Orleans; the elegant Sazerac Bar. A beautiful, soothing oasis panelled with dark African wood, filled […]
The Beauty of Forgotten Places
In this edition of the Fellow Explorer’s Club, we caught up with explorer, photographer, and author of the book ‘Abandoned New York – The Forgotten Beauties’, Jenn Brown. Based out of Long Island, Brown’s photography hauntingly captures the beauty of decaying houses, hospitals, factories and places of worship throughout the […]