McLaren House.

Mclaren House is part of Park & Paterson ltd. And houses the main offices and labrotory for the site.

Park & Paterson ltd. Recycled metal for over 130 years until the company merged with Bernhard Metals in 2003 to become one of the U.Ks biggest Ingot manufacturers, sadly 12 months later the company went into administration.

The foundry was built late 19th century and later added storage buildings in the 1960s and an office block with labrotory in 1972, the site occupies 1.9 hectares and also includes two detatched houses at the entrance to the site as well as a weigh bridge.

The first thing that strikes you with this part of the site is the rather imposing and impressive double front doors that greet you as you enter.

Inside is like almost stepping back in time as the entire building is so retro all the original decor from the 60s / 70s era is still visible every where you look, everything from the funky carpets to the corked walls and original chandalier in the main entrance hall.

Where ever you gaze you see the past, even the equipment still in situ is from the same era as the decor right down to the old Roberts radios we found in the kitchen.

As far as sites go they do not get much better or more complete than Mclaren House, every room you enter from the ground floor to the first floor has equipment and furniture in.

The Labs even have experimental metal ingots still in situ along with the paper work, the offices hold just as much right down to paper work and computers.

Even the reception area has the original phones still in place and security systems, one thing that we did notice was the original vistors book sitting on the desk which of course we all naturally signed and dated.

Originally it was Cyclone and myself that stumbled across this place but since then we have returned twice to see what condition the place was in.

The first return trip was to show Romanian 1 and Lawrence around, the last visit we made was to give Dodgerat the guided tour.

The site has been up for sale now for some time and proposals have been made to build 99 residential house on the site but this has been delayed due to the fact that the land is contaminated and millions need to be spent in order to decontaminate it.