Aldershot, army hospitals, abandoned shops and sunny suburbs

This weekend I visited Aldershot, a bleak, run down town in Hampshire and home of the British army. The high street was inhabited by a mixture of Ghurkas and overweight, tracksuit clad people of the lower classes, who seemed to like shouting random words that made no sense at each other. Most of the towns activity appeared to revolve around McDonalds, the culprit for a plethora of food wrappers that swirled down the high street like a flurry of junk food snow. I really want to back to this place and have a proper explore with my camera. There is the most amazing derelict hospital, Cambridge Military Hospital, a popular attraction for many urbexers. We drove up to it but security looked very tight. My mum also informed me that apparently my brother was born there.

I then woke up super early on Sunday morning to catch the frosty sun and started walking with no particular destination in mind. I walked past this amazing old shop called the Mons, I am fascinated with this place, it has sat untouched for many years. I have always thought it would be a great space for an art installation…

I ended up in the local recreation ground that I used play in as a child, I hadn’t been back since. It was eerily empty apart from a keen dog walker, shrouded in the stench of cannabis. His 6 dogs took a shine to me and covered my clothes in muddy paws. After the park, I followed a footpath path that led to an estate of newly built red brick houses that all looked the same, where I promptly got trapped Truman Show style, wandering round and round looking for a way out. There is something that terrifies me about the thought of settling down in one of these places, with Ikea furnishings, sofas from DFS and early morning joggers kitted out in contrasting spandex. I really appreciate the diversity of living somewhere like Brighton where no two buildings are the same and you are more likely to encounter a drunk tramp dressed as a teddy bear, swigging from a rancid can of super tenants at eight in the morning than you are a 2.4 family in their Mini Cooper.

Upon my arrival home in Brighton, I was greeted by Chorizo Cat – our neighbours beautiful Norwegian Forest Cat that loves lounging around on our sunny balcony waiting for my housemate to feed her chorizo (after experimenting with a variety of foods, that’s the only one she would eat)! I discovered that Chorizo is proper little poser so managed to get some half decent shots of her rolling around on the floor…