These closed & abandoned social clubs recall the pre-internet age when people seeking the company of others did so in person, not via keyboards and webcams.

Scotch Scratched

Even after years of abandonment, the County Social Club in Glasgow, Scotland still looks sharp. Closed in 2006, the combination cinema (until 1981), bingo parlor and social club was built in the late 1930s on the site of the former Lyceum Theater, after the latter burned down in 1937. Flickr members Tom Parnell (itmpa) and 1001things captured the expansive ex-club in 2013 and 2010, respectively.

Thanks for the Memberies

OK, we get that social clubs were (and still are, where available) popular with retired folks but couldn’t this abandoned social club do better than “Retired Social Club”? Seems that uninspired choice was a self-fulfilling prophecy as, according to Flickr member Robby Virus, the “Members Only” club in Saginaw, MI itself retired sometime before July of 2017.

Clubbed to the Curb

Never mind the bollard, it’s an abandoned social club in East London! Whew, no wonder local social butterflies crawled back into their basement cocoons, this place may be the most antisocial social club around. Or should we say “former” social club, as the ramshackle whitewashed hole-in-the-wall looks to have been put on lockdown long before Flickr member Nicolai Grut chanced by in February of 2010.

A Fuller’s Earth House

Sorry Lori Loughlin, there’s no school behind the above blackboard. Though Flickr member Paul (holzey) doesn’t specify this abandoned social club’s geographic location, the “Fullers Earth Union Sports and Social Club” legend above the worn felt-green board leads one to believe it may be the old Tucking Mill works in Somerset, UK, that closed in the mid-1940s. “What’s On”? Not much, not much at all.

Smokin’ Not

A members only social club that doesn’t allow smoking? Yeah, good luck with… oh wait, it’s already closed, to the shock and surprise of nobody. So much for Babylon – the nation-state AND the Chicago social club. Flickr member bluefishtuesday stopped by for a snap in September of 2007, stating “I wonder what goes on here…” Certainly not smoking, or anything else for that matter.

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Members Lonely 10 Closed Abandoned Social Clubs

Telltale signs of snowflake-ization are all around if one knows where to look but these 10 “Beware Of” signs prove we really are living in a world of hurt.

This bit of fore-shadowing comes courtesy of Pixabay member aitoff and Charleston, SC golf bag retailer The Elliott Company. The seriously circumspect sign at the Royal North Devon Golf Club in Bideford, UK could relay several different meanings – just ask any “golf widow”. Note that the golf bag, artfully propped beneath the weathered sign, features a miniature replica of said sign. Impressive, even if you’re not Xzibit.

MAXI Driving Excitement

When driving in the UAE, one must expect the unexpected… if you don’t believe us, just read the sign. Flickr member Jerry “Woody” (woody1778a) snapped the er, surprisingly ambiguous sign while on a 2006 road trip through the Emirates.

Subtracters Say…

I was told there would be no math… oh, you mean snakes. That’s umm, NOT better, right Indy? In April of 2009, Flickr member WordRidden was moved to photograph the above warning sign in Goonhilly Downs, which just happens to be located on the UK’s most southerly point of land… The Lizard. Aha, now it’s all adding up.

Fronds in High Places

Don’t stand, don’t stand, don’t stand so close to tree. Just imagine: if Isaac Newton had lived in Hawaii instead of England there would be no gravity today, and therefore, no need for this warning sign. Seriously though, getting conked on your coconut BY a coconut is no laughing matter. Physics can’t be reckoned with, no matter how many palms you grease. Flickr member anokarina snapped this ominously armed & fabulous tree early in 2013.

Panic at the Disc, Oh!

Alien abduction just ahead, hold onto your butts! Flickr member Michel Curi chanced upon this odd – some might say “otherworldly” – warning sign from Largo, Florida in the spring of 2017. Now he spends his days constructing miniature replicas of Devil’s Tower out of mashed potatoes while muttering “This means something. This is important.”

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Beware Y Afraid 10 Weird Unexpected Warning Signs

Festivals rank high among humankind’s most cherished traditions but if you think these annual gatherings are all fun and games, you’d be VERY wrong.

The poster child for “dangerous festivals” has to be the legendary Festival of San Fermin in Pamplona, Spain. The annual nine-day-long celebration originated centuries ago and encompasses a wide variety of events, the most (in)famous of which being the Running of the Bulls – an exceptionally dangerous free-for-all that dates back to the 14th century.

Flickr members VaqueroFrancis and Nicholas Cole (ncole458) captured both the excitement and the danger of the San Fermin festival first-hand in July of 2017 and July of 2009, respectively. And that’s no bull.

Onbashira Festival, Japan

The Onbashira (“Honored Pillars”) Festival is held every 7 years in Japan’s Nagano Prefecture. The festival’s highlight features the felling of sixteen specially selected fir trees that are then hauled down a steep mountain slope.

The trimmed posts are then erected at the corners of four local shrines being renovated for the occasion but that’s not the dangerous part… participants “ride” the logs as they’re being transported down the mountainside and some (participants, not logs) don’t arrive in one piece. Flickr member Shibainu captured the goings-on at the previous festival in April of 2010.

Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake, UK

Follow that cheese wheel! The Cooper’s Hill Cheese-Rolling and Wake has been held annually over the past 200 years in Brockworth, Gloucestershire, UK. The fact they included “Wake” in the title should give you a clue right off the bat that this is no ordinary festive occasion.

One former participant described the main event as “20 young men chasing a cheese off a cliff and tumbling 200 yards to the bottom, where they are scraped up by paramedics and packed off to hospital,” and he wasn’t exaggerating: in 1997, for example, 33 injuries were reported. Flickr member Will de Freistas (ninjawil) snapped some of the limb-snapping festivities in May of 2009.

Taiwan Lantern Festival

The culmination of the annual Taiwan Lantern Festival is the Tainan Yanshui Fireworks Display, also known as the “Beehive of Rockets”. Approximately 3 million bottle rockets are fired into crowds of revelers… what could possibly go wrong?

“Only the brave dare move so close to the rack of tens of thousands of bottle rockets at Yanshui Beehive Rockets Festival in Taiwan,” according to Flickr member Michael Dwyer. Hey, let’s not count out the drunk and the stupid!

Takanakuy, Peru

A Peruvian Fighting Festival, you say? Shut up and take our money! The festival of Tananakuy is held every Christmas Day in a number of villages and towns in southern Peru’s Chumbivilcas province. The word “tananakuy” means “to hit each other” in the local Quechua language, and that pretty much sums up the essence of this particular festival.

And the hits just keep on coming: men, woman and children are all eligible to put up their dukes, often while wearing colorful and elaborate costumes expressing themes of traditional local culture.

Other places may tout peace on Earth and goodwill towards men on December 25th; in the Andean highlands they prefer fighting as a way to show off one’s manhood (or womanhood, or… childhood?) and/or to settle old scores and grievances. Kinda like Festivus but without the metal pole or a screaming Frank Costanza. Flickr member Tang Tran Minh Thành took some in-your-face shots in January of 2014… that’s gotta hurt.

Kadri Kambala, India

Imagine if you will, a race between two pair of water buffaloes driven by whip-wielding, half-naked farmers through a muddy rice paddy. It may sound like the Twilight Zone (or, say, the chariot race scene from Ben Hur, sans the chariots) but it’s actually Kadri Kambala in Karnataka province, southwestern India.

The pairs of buffaloes are yoked together rather loosely and the farmers wear little in the way of protection – them beasts have got wicked horns! The race courses offer hazards of their own, including wandering spectators who should know not to get in the way of charging water buffaloes. Flickr member Karunakar Rayker (wildxplorer) captured the excitement of a full-blown Kadri Kambala festival in January of 2008.

National Pyrotechnic Festival, Mexico

Ain’t no fireworks festival like a Mexican fireworks festival, amiright? The annual National Pyrotechnic Festival (“Feria Nacional de la Pirotecnia”) was formally established in 1989 but traces its history back to celebrations in honor of John of God, the patron saint of fireworks makers. In related news, Mexican fireworks makers have their own patron saint.

The festival’s highlight is the “parade of toritos”, in which roughly 250 bull-shaped frameworks festooned with lit fireworks are marched down the main street of Tultepec, center of Mexico’s fireworks-manufacturing region. Think of the Running of the Bulls, but with flaming bulls… even Hemingway would cringe. Flickr member Tan Ya (arreguin.tania) snapped the shots above in March of 2014.

Kirkpinar, Turkey

You might not have heard of Kirkpinar but this annual oil-wrestling tournament and festival has been held near Edirne, Turkey, since 1346. Guinness World Records has officially recognized Kirkpinar as being the world’s longest-running sports tournament.

In Kirkpinar, wrestlers wearing only short leather pants battle one-on-one outdoors in an open field, dousing themselves with olive oil before each bout. Geez guys, get a grip… oh. Anyway, the bouts have been time-limited since 1975 – in previous years, bouts would sometimes last up to two days, running from 9am to dusk. Flickr member Charles Roffey (CharlesFred) got up close and personal with some of the oil-wrestlers during a trip to Edirne in July of 2011.

Calgary Stampede, Canada

The Calgary Stampede in Calgary, Alberta, began in 1886 as an annual agricultural. Rodeo events were added in 1912 and the first chuckwagon races were run in 1923. The format can be extremely hazardous for man and beast: five human fatalities occurred between 1948 and 1999, and 65 horses have perished between 1986 and 2015.

These fatalities plus an uncounted number of injuries have made the Calgary Stampede’s chuckwagon races the focus of controversy, though there’s no doubt the possibility of life-threatening havoc has a certain appeal to the public. Flickr member Randy Peters captured the fear, drama and excitement of a Calgary Stampede chuckwagon race in July of 2006.

Holy Week Celebrations, the Philippines

Holy Week celebrations in the Philippines are notorious for the extreme acts of devotion practiced by those seeking to emulate the suffering – even to the point of actual crucifixion – endured by Jesus Christ. Though the modern Catholic Church discourages the more exceptional examples of penance such as self-flagellation, painfully graphic Good Friday events continue to be staged for public view. Stop hammer time… NOT.

Flickr member istolethetv attended the Good Friday celebrations in Bacalor, Central Luzon, on April 21st of 2011. In the image above, Ruben “Mang Ben Kristo” Enaje is shown undergoing his 32nd crucifixion since 1985. The Filipino carpenter, sign painter, and ex-construction worker began participating in these all-too-real reenactments after unexpectedly surviving a bad fall from an unfinished building. One wonders, who does his nails?

Online trip planning has decimated storefront travel agents and these closed & abandoned travel agencies show the loss goes beyond just tour three.

The Jet Age saw an explosion of travel fueled by rising post-war prosperity accompanied by advances in aircraft design, capacity and performance. Our lead image featuring a still-vivid ghost sign from Toronto, Canada, epitomizes the optimism of that era. The above abandoned travel agent from Chicago, snapped by Flickr member ***kevin*** in late 2007, appears to equate foreign travel with esoteric artistic pursuits.

Is it any wonder Overseas Art & Travel is located in Chicago’s Chinatown? Not really. Could a business get away with that design and font today? Not likely.

Flickr members nils gore (mistersmed) and Meridith112 captured this gaudy relic of a bygone age in July 2010 and October 2013, respectively.

Direction Dereliction

Don’t most Brits look southwards when planning their holiday vacation trips? Evidently booking tours to Ireland and Denmark wasn’t a well-thought-out business plan, without even factoring “Jesus” into the equation. Flickr member leon S-D (littleweed1950) captured this closed travel agency in Chatham, Kent, UK on January 1st of 2013.

Cliff Diving

Travel agencies often scramble to find an inspirational name that strikes a chord with their target market – travelers in search of fun, adventure and/or just plain relaxation. Those looking for the opposite – or merely to end it all – may want to consider Lemming Tours. Hey, it’s one way to escape the rat race.

We won’t leave you with any er, cliffhangers though the same cannot be said for this inappropriately-named travel agency from Augsburg, Germany. Flickr member Oxymoron couldn’t resist the allure of Lemming Tours’ sign in April of 2005. Hopefully they resisted the primal urge to join one of their popular Norwegian package tours.

Space to Rent

This subdued and apparently shuttered travel agency must have been going for the double-take… how many potential clients were lured by the promise of space travel via rocket, and how many left disappointed. We’re guessing, like, all of ’em. Flickr member Kate Tomlinson snapped the over-the-top (though not out-of-this-world) travel agency from Washington DC in August of 2007.

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Going Going Gone 12 Closed Abandoned Travel Agents

Fish & Chips are famed the world over as THE quintessential English food so why are there so many closed and abandoned “Chippies” in their home country?

American fish & chip shops have suffered a decline as well, especially fast food seafood restaurant chains like Arthur Treacher’s and H. Salt Esquire – both the chains and the affordable stocks of cod that sustained them are pale shadows of what they used to be. Family-run chippies linger on, however, though the once-charming Porto Restaurant in Edinburgh, Scotland’s seaside Portobello neighborhood is no longer them. Flickr users Dave Sinclair and Fabio Menna snapped the shop in long-abandoned and newly-abandoned states, respectively.

Dog’s Breakfast

One would hope “Helen” was able to retire from retail fish-frying with a modicum of grace when her self-titled chippie in Maidstone (a suburb of Melbourne) went belly-up. Then again, maybe Australians just aren’t that into fish & chips, what with all that “throw another shrimp on the barbie” stuff. Flickr user Warren Kirk (Westographer) captured the closed, abandoned, boarded-up and unlamented (save for a disappointed-looking dog) “Helen’s Fish ~ Chips” on a sunny December morning in 2011.

Parson’s Nose Best

As if a chippie on the High Street wasn’t Brit enough, the owners named the place “The New Parson’s Nose”… wonder what happened to the OLD one? Regardless, the sign on the window states the shop is “closed for refurbishment” and you know what that means: it’s gone like last night’s last pint of ale. Kudos to Flickr user leon S-D (littleweed1950) who snapped this pub-like former fish & chips shop in June of 2016.

Taken Away

“Over the last 40 years or so (in Australia at least) the traditional old style strip of shops in the suburbs has come under pressure from large shopping malls,” states urbex blogger David Taylor. Just wait, Dave, those large shopping malls have begun to feel a similar sort of pressure from online retailers. There’s nothing like the unique ambiance and the sit-sown dining experience of a classic Chippie, mind you. Taylor snapped the above faded Seafood Take Away in Mt Gravatt, a suburb of Brisbane.

Over, The Rainbow

Fish & Chips, Burgers, Southern Fried Chicken and so much more… how could Rainbow Spicy Kebabs, snapped in the summer of 2013 by Flickr user Robby Virus, possibly go under? Well, they COULD have prepared all of those things poorly, for one thing. It just goes to show you, a prime location in the heart of London offers no guarantee your fish & chips (& more) shop will achieve lasting success. Also, rainbows aren’t colored that way. Just sayin’.

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Battered 15 Closed And Abandoned Fish Chip Shops