The Abandoned Hippodrome

The Hippodrome de Boitsfort

This is the Hippodrome de Boitsfort in Brussels. It's abandoned and eerie. In England it would have been sealed off, sold to a developer and turned into ghastly two-bedroom flats for soulless DINKys. Luckily it's in Belgium, so it's been left desolate since the last race in 1987.

This is a panorama of the abandoned Hippodrome that's been stitched together in Photoshop from 20 full frame images

Abandoned commentary tower

The only thing running on the circuit these days is the occasional labrador dog

These are the entrances to the grandstand

The stadium in profile

Ever since I first saw it I knew I wanted to photograph it. It has snowed very heavily and I thought that would add to its air of desolation. All I needed was some sunlight... more specifically one hour of early morning dawn light just after the sun has risen. It finally came today. Slipping and sliding on the ice, I rushed to the Hippodrome just in time for magic hour.

After I'd spent some time snapping the exterior I found a way into the stadium. It has clearly been used by glue sniffers and I found lots of empty pots of industrial glue. There were also a few mattresses were people had been dossing - it didn't look very cosy today though; it was minus five below freezing.

A way in

I had to be careful kneeling for photos because of all the broken glass

Inside the stadium

A very deliberately painted red corner and a lonely red chair

The corner of one of the rooms had been painted bright red in a very deliberate way. A red chair was positioned in the centre of the red square. It might have been done for an arty fashion shoot but I was on my own and it was all starting to feel a bit Blair Witch.

Mind your step, a lot of the wooden floorboards are rotting away

I was a bit nervous exploring the stadium because I wasn't sure who was home. The last thing I wanted to do was trip over some crashed-out druggie in the dark. Also, quite a few of the floorboards had rotted through. Deeper inside it became apparent the stadium had been used by "lovers" (judging by some of the other paraphernalia I discovered).

Would you fancy a night's kip on this?

One of the stadium's less charming rooms

Some art I discovered, (top to bottom) Omlet by unknown artist, spray paint on brick; Weird Skeleton Cactus Plants by Jas Zyke, spray paint on breeze block; Little Red Devil Monster by unknown artist, oil on steel

On my way home through the snowy woods I came across Pauwel's Circus. It looked quite medieval in the snow. Notice the steaming pile of manure in the foreground.


If you'd like to see the entire set on Flickr, then please click HERE















And finally... here it is on Google Maps as seen from the road



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