Paid for by rail workers, the Mechanics Institute contained the UK's first lending library and performed health services that inspired the NHS. It closed in 1986 and has since been vandalised and targeted by arsonists Photograph: Adam Slater
This small, spartan railway station has been deteriorating for decades at the hands of a private owner. The building was closed after the rail cuts in the 1960s Photograph: Steven Lee
This mortuary chapel looms over a Salford cemetery, its walls creeping with ivy. Designed in a gothic style, it also shows arts and crafts influences and has art nouveau stained glass windows. It's been abandoned since the 1980s Photograph: Mike Barnes
Like an enormous staircase, this reservoir spillway was designed to allow the release of water during periods of heavy rain. It's the UK’s only listed spillway but the owner, Yorkshire Water, plans to remove its steps and replace the sandstone walls with coloured concrete Photograph: Diane Ellis
Pevsner once called this church 'ambitious but not showy'. It was abandoned over 20 years ago; its stonework is now crumbling, its wooden floor rotten, and even its weathercock has been damaged by a low-flying Chinook from the nearby base Photograph: David Robarts
Commissioned by Welsh industrialist and MP Lewis Llewelyn Dillwyn, Hendrefoilan House was built on the site of a medieval farmhouse that had the same name. It was taken over by Swansea University in the 1960s and was used for accommodation and teaching. Now water floods down the outside walls, leading to damp inside, and lead thefts have begun to occur Photograph: Debra John
Ipswich’s County Hall was once the area’s jail and law court, then the headquarters of Suffolk county council. It has been abandoned for years, stripped of copper and lead, and its panelled interiors have been vandalised. It was sold to a private owner but never restored Photograph: ARBaurial
Dickens’s Dictionary of London (1879) described Holborn Circus as 'perhaps … the finest piece of street architecture in the city'. The City of London now intends to void the Victorian plan by moving the statue to the side and blocking one of the roads, leaving a vast area of tarmac with no focus Photograph: Picasa/Alan McFaden
This red-brick sentinel is crumbling at the edge of a container park in Merseyside. It originally housed a steam-engine to operate the locks, but as shipping declined the dock was left to languish Photograph: Barry Walker
Originally a showcase for the brewers Mitchells & Butlers, the Waterloo was always meant to impress. Behind the baroque facade is a superb interior with original tiling up the walls and ceilings, though the recent lead thefts will undoubtedly have caused damage Photograph: Andrew Clayton
