Do buildings feel lonely?

Dictionary Project - Day 6 - Derelict

adjective
1. Deserted or abandoned, as by an owner or occupant
2. falling into ruins
3. property deserted by an owner or occupant
4. neglectful of duty, remiss
5. social outcast or vagrant


(Here for others.... - in the 'improving HDR' and 'Mono' sets - and yes- that is lazy linking but there's a hot bath waiting for me)

This is the YMCA building which is about a minute's walk from our house. It has been boarded up and abandoned for nearly 2 years now. It's an extensive building, with numerous dwelling places within it - sadly, no longer dwellings, except for the birds.

James and I often cycle around here at the weekends, there's no cars, there's nothing except us and the birds.

The reason I chose this photo, was because this building has always spooked me a little. But tonight, whilst I was mooching around the site for about half an hour, I felt a whole range of sensations...and forgive me now for sounding weird...

I felt like I was being watched...but by the building, not a person. And then I got to wondering about something that I have thought about before - do buildings REALLY pick up the energy of the people who have inhabited them? In some ways, I believe that they do...how many times have you been somewhere and you have a sense, even without people telling you anything, that the place is 'a happy home' or a 'house that's full of love'. And when you go to somewhere that has people living in it who aren't happy...you can sense that energy...I have experience of that too.

I don't think that energy goes, even after the people do.

So even though the YMCA is now derelict, abandoned and falling rapidly into disrepair, I really believe that it hangs on to the energy....and I think the reason I felt spooked, and uncomfortable (edgy, nervous, constantly looking over my shoulder) was because hand on heart, the former residents of this particular YMCA were largely what the majority of society would refer to as 'undesirable' in some way - drug abusers, long term unemployed etc etc - largely people with negative energy...and that remains. In fact, thinking about it, the word Derelict applies both to the building,and in some respects maybe some of the former inhabitants. But I think my over-riding feeling tonight was sadness...at the waste, and the loss that this building represents.

Yes, I believe in ghosts too!