A real long shot! (edited)

[paulweller84]

Hi all,

 

Just signed up to this forum as I have a burning question that I can't find an answer to anywhere else and I think this is my best chance. It's a very random question too!

 

A while ago I was looking for something in Google Maps (I believe I was somewhere around London) and stumbled across an unusual place by a canal. The area was relatively open, maybe a park/recreation area. There was a really unusual, very angular structure alongside the canal, made entirely of brick, and I seem to remember there being steps in the structure. I looked at it for a while as I couldn't understand what it was exactly. It didn't look like any building I've seen before and didn't appear to have much of a purpose. It reminded me in some ways of the styling of the Barbican Centre in London without the concrete. 

 

I really want to find this place again but have nothing to go on, and my hope is due to the proximity to a canal one of the members here might know what I'm talking about!

 

Like I said, a real long shot

 

Hope someone can help

 

Paul

 

EDIT: Most suggestions are aiming too close to the middle of London. When I say 'around London' I mean around the edges somewhere. It was in a quite open area. Just to give you an example, I've been looking around the Enfield area around the reservoirs, that sort of place. Not necessarily there, but that sort of place. Thanks for the suggestions so far

Edited May 24, 2020 by paulweller84

[mark99]

Was it near Uxbridge?

 

Or Paddington Basin?

[Tacet]

This could take a while - but let's try the Pirate Castle at Camden

 

 

[mark99]

 

 

We could prob do it by elimination

 

That building that looks like a cruise liner in Uxbridge?

 

 

[paulweller84]

1 minute ago, Tacet said:

This could take a while - but let's try the Pirate Castle at Camden

 

 

Too built up. Think open space. 

 

Thanks for your reply

3 minutes ago, mark99 said:

Was it near Uxbridge?

 

Or Paddington Basin?

Nowhere around Uxbridge as I know that bit quite well.

 

And Paddington too built up.

 

It was quite an open space. Like fields all around

 

Thanks

[zenataomm]

I was going to suggest Battlebridge Basin, until you said fields.

Or Brownings Pool at Little Venice, as I don't know all the buildings.

Somewhere around Victoria Park?

[nbfiresprite]

It could be this play park on the City Mill River on the Olympic Park.

 

 

[paulweller84]

1 hour ago, nbfiresprite said:

It could be this play park on the City Mill River on the Olympic Park.

 

 

It’s good but it’s not right.

 

Much more remote than this. Outside of London, towards the M25 or even beyond.

 

And a taller structure. At least one storey high. 

[restlessnomad]

2 hours ago, paulweller84 said:

Hi all,

 

Just signed up to this forum as I have a burning question that I can't find an answer to anywhere else and I think this is my best chance. It's a very random question too!

 

A while ago I was looking for something in Google Maps (I believe I was somewhere around London) and stumbled across an unusual place by a canal. The area was relatively open, maybe a park/recreation area. There was a really unusual, very angular structure alongside the canal, made entirely of brick, and I seem to remember there being steps in the structure. I looked at it for a while as I couldn't understand what it was exactly. It didn't look like any building I've seen before and didn't appear to have much of a purpose. It reminded me in some ways of the styling of the Barbican Centre in London without the concrete. 

 

I really want to find this place again but have nothing to go on, and my hope is due to the proximity to a canal one of the members here might know what I'm talking about!

 

Like I said, a real long shot

 

Hope someone can help

 

Paul

 

EDIT: Most suggestions are aiming too close to the middle of London. When I say 'around London' I mean around the edges somewhere. It was in a quite open area. Just to give you an example, I've been looking around the Enfield area around the reservoirs, that sort of place. Not necessarily there, but that sort of place. Thanks for the suggestions so far

why dont you draw whatever you remember, and upload here.

[mark99]

10 hours ago, paulweller84 said:

 

A while ago I was looking for something in Google Maps (I believe I was somewhere around London) and stumbled across an unusual place by a canal. The area was relatively open, maybe a park/recreation area. There was a really unusual, very angular structure alongside the canal, made entirely of brick, and I seem to remember there being steps in the structure. I looked at it for a while as I couldn't understand what it was exactly. It didn't look like any building I've seen before and didn't appear to have much of a purpose. It reminded me in some ways of the styling of the Barbican Centre in London without the concrete.

 

 

Was in inhabited like an office?

 

Or an industrial structure?

 

Derelict?

Edited May 25, 2020 by mark99

[mark99]

Is this too large? or too small (River Stort).

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.7820307,0.0920117,3a,75y,204.15h,96.06t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1svLhjpWhfVqy6JGj9A0ZyqQ!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo1.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DvLhjpWhfVqy6JGj9A0ZyqQ%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D348.79547%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656

 

 

Nash Mills?

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.7289746,-0.4532999,3a,75y,130.37h,90.36t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipMK5z4pIM5ar89HrboNoNF-LXf_Stivgw8Y5rFF!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipMK5z4pIM5ar89HrboNoNF-LXf_Stivgw8Y5rFF%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-1.8073872-ya141.07826-ro-0.94529486-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

 

Sometimes the older site would have been redeveloped so it depends how far ago you first saw the building.

 

 

Ovaltine?

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.7115828,-0.4429745,3a,75y,126.3h,92.06t/data=!3m8!1e1!3m6!1sAF1QipPGZ9ZMt38NgEmorLIodz-b-26HxgQ_2xv0xrbh!2e10!3e11!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipPGZ9ZMt38NgEmorLIodz-b-26HxgQ_2xv0xrbh%3Dw203-h100-k-no-pi-1.4355345-ya109.98015-ro1.9050775-fo100!7i5376!8i2688

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by mark99

[paulweller84]

1 hour ago, mark99 said:

Was in inhabited like an office?

 

Or an industrial structure?

From what I could tell it was neither really. That’s what made it so intriguing. No windows, no doors. Just a random mix of walls and angles, possibly some steps and walkways. It didn’t really seem to have much of a purpose.

[OldGoat]

One of the wartime pumping stations?

(We don't cruise the GU anymore - too full of moored boats, Thus I can't go and take a photo...

 

Please sir, please sir, I know -

 

A 'pill box' - a WW2 gun enplacement.

A bout a  storey high, now windows (just a slit for a machine gun. These are several on the Oxford, sitting sadly in a field or sometimes almost falling into the canal.

Edited May 25, 2020 by OldGoat

[mark99]

Too many windows I guess

 

https://www.google.com/maps/@51.8079913,-0.660926,3a,75y,42.6h,115.68t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1sPYMh4KjYrMG8InvQnb2Kcw!2e0!7i13312!8i6656

 

Bendover Mill.

[OldGoat]

 

Here we go -

 

Gun enplacement aka Pill Box. Quite a clever construcion for its time as they had to be made very quickly and assembled by unskilled workers. The idea was to slow down invading forces whose progress would have been slwed by the waterway anyway - thus would make an easier target.

[WotEver]

24 minutes ago, OldGoat said:

A 'pill box' - a WW2 gun enplacement.

That's what I was thinking, from the OP's descriptions.

[mrsmelly]

23 minutes ago, WotEver said:

That's what I was thinking, from the OP's descriptions.

They were evrywhere when we were kids innitt. Used to play in them.

[Mac of Cygnet]

But the OP said it was brick-built, with stairs and walkways.   Pillboxes are none of these.

[Dr Bob]

Fascinating thread!

I think RestlessN had the right idea. Can  the OP draw what he rembembers? We can all then scour googlemaps to see what we can find.

[OldGoat]

45 minutes ago, Mac of Cygnet said:

But the OP said it was brick-built, with stairs and walkways.   Pillboxes are none of these.

Good point, dammit....

 

I've just spent ages trying to find a picture of the building that I thought might suit - but found nothing. The neaest I could find were in the Gunpowder Mills above , but they're not copyable. The one I recall was at or near Marsworth; a 'typical' victorian public services building where large 'engines' lived - long stroke pumps with separate boiler houses.

 

Edited May 25, 2020 by OldGoat

[mark99]

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Royal+Gunpowder+Mills/@51.6921871,-0.0110152,3a,101.6y,90t/data=!3m8!1e2!3m6!1sAF1QipNo-l71rqRH7xFdTM0knnvAebwsd_gbF4AGCKD_!2e10!3e12!6shttps:%2F%2Flh5.googleusercontent.com%2Fp%2FAF1QipNo-l71rqRH7xFdTM0knnvAebwsd_gbF4AGCKD_%3Dw114-h86-k-no!7i653!8i490!4m5!3m4!1s0x48762004bbcee1bb:0xfcb01a1c20b95e3b!8m2!3d51.6921672!4d-0.0110064

[Alan de Enfield]

[paulweller84]

Thanks for all the replies so far. As yet no success. Just to clarify:

 

All brick structure (reddish colour bricks)

Fairly modern structure (1990s onwards, at a guess) - rules out historic buildings

As far as I remember, not a building a such. No doors or windows

About one storey high

Open location, fields around

For an example of the style of the structure (brick type/colour etc), see this car park design here: https://goo.gl/maps/pDgKRzdxZVemP5Cs9

[OldGoat]

Bums! - got me stuck, could it / they be a Regional Seat of Government

 

Or - a windup.

 

 

[magnetman]

Has someone gone and laid bricks on a canal boat somewhere around kings Langley.