Tales of the Urban Explorer: The Cursed Cottage

The Cursed Cottage had a lot to live up to. It was to be the highlight of our Liverpool trip, and who doesn’t love a good time capsule?

I have been told that since our visit the neighbours have gotten tetchy about explorer visits. Not that it's their business but many try to make it so. I hear some have been turned away, molested and threatened with the police blah blah. Whatever!

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We were lucky and saw nobody beside a tribe of people who happened to come around the corner just as @anidiotexplores started scaling the testicle piercing tall front gate.

Is it that in Liverpool everyone is a cat burglar and sights such as this are normal and commonplace? In any case, they didn’t seem to give a shit and carried on walking down the street.

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I walked around the side and after a jump down a small grassy bank met my comrade. He took the hardest possible route into the grounds of The Cursed Cottage. Such is an explorer’s life.

I don’t see how these nosey neighbours can spot explorers. It’s a ways from the next house and unless you enter like a tribe of elephants they aren’t going to notice.


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...'Enter from the back and you need to walk the jungle before you see the house'...

Once on the grounds, we gained access to the property with a little exertion. That's another pound of unwanted lard shifted from my middle, thank you for the exercise.

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We arrived in some kind of kitchen area in the basement. It was already looking good with plenty of possessions left behind.

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I wonder who she is. It's an old picture and she looks like an apache descendent. Except there are next to zero native Americans in Liverpool.

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As well as a kitchen it looked like a dumping area for old bric-a-brac and tools.

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We quickly moved on and found ourselves standing on all kinds of things. It’s generally the case when many explorers, or should I say thieves have been before us.

As usual, I picked a few things out that might look interesting.

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Whoever wrote this scrawls badly. I can make it out with difficulty. Are we dealing with an ex-doctor? It's a well-known fact that doctors' writing is close to illegible.

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No date on the newspaper, I need to take more care before I snap.

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Now, this is class. Who doesn't like a Dirty Harry movie? I watched all these several times over when I was much younger

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From 1982 and a letter to Mr. McKay. Is the 'material' these photographs? Intriguing.

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If I’m not mistaken that’s a BetaMax player, and yet the numerous tapes I see are all VHS.

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Of course… I had to look. Unfortunately, the stack of vintage porn was not to be seen.

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In 1980 your water bill was peanuts and I wager this was for a year. It's £350 every six months now, fucking outrageous.

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This is a little newer and from 2002, and who is Erik? He sounds Scandinavian with that spelling. Did Arthur have a brother or son living at The Cursed Cottage?

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Some scribbles from 1979. Not a clue what all this is about.

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Poor Diana is seen a lot and gets stood on quite often.

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I didn’t spend long in the cellar, for once everything of interest was in the proper places.

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This door could do with a lick of paint.

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Walking through showed a familiar scene. Fire damage, but not enough to obliterate everything.

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Quite the contrary; the possessions appear to be quite fireproof and looked out of place in this burnt-out second storey.

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Someone's been having a right old rummage. Binatone reminds me of another time when plastic electronics could be bought cheaply and were guaranteed to break within a month.

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The real fire had been isolated to one room but the smoke damage was everywhere. It must have happened long ago as the stench was not strong.

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It was a real struggle to climb over the stuff to see what was over there. I had to balance on a washing machine hoping it would not collapse.

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It looks like a hoarder’s house but is really a ransacked one.

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Mr. McKay likes his videos. I was coming across more and more as I looked.

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DVD’s as well as VHS tapes. That’s a crap TV to watch them on though.

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Had all this stuff been moved into the burnt room after? It didn’t make sense.

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That is an impressive stance the wardrobe is taking.... 'Come any closer you bastards and I WILL crush you!.'

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Some video copies are in the wardobe. He didn't just buy originals.

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A letter from Finland for Erik; so there is a connection. I should have read it.

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One of them is ripping off TV shows. Well, what a rogue. I never ever did that, honest.

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It must have been an inferno. I wonder if this is the reason it has been abandoned.

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So much left behind; It might stink of smoke but it likely still works.

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Getting in the bathroom was not easy. Piles of stuff were everywhere.

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It might look like someone is on the shitter, but it's some kind of weird full-length jacket.

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Breaking Bad, as well as being an awesome series is much newer than anything else I saw. Ten years ago all this happened?

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Doors with no handles have a bad habit of closing and making it hard for you to open them. It’s good that there were two of us.

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The Cursed Cottage was great and made our day. I wonder what became of Arthur McKay and his Finnish connected relative.

I can understand the name given to this property having seen the address. There is a connection, and one I can't reveal publicly else it would be up in cinders soon. There will be NO clues.

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All my 'Tales' content is easy to find on my personal website:
'Tales of the Urban Explorer'

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