Silent Hill Dartford

Ten years ago supermarket giant (and consumerist bully) Tesco was given consent to build a new store in Dartford. Part of the deal was that Tesco had to build X-amount of housing to create an actual need for the new supermarket (at that point four already existed in the town centre alone). Shortly after, they bought up a huge chunk of Lowfield Street to build these homes on, forcing out businesses and (ironically) pre-existing home owners alike. Ten years on, due to a combination of the recession and Tesco's apathy towards Dartford once they won the battle to build there, Lowfield Street remains untouched and abandoned - a ghost street, a sad reminder of better times and an embarrassing first image to anyone new to Dartford.

Here are my photos of Ripleys Market. It was once a small market full of independent shops...now it wouldn't look out of place in a run-down area of Silent Hill. I find it both eerily beautiful and melancholic. Part of me hopes it never changes now, it touches me so much. I was too young to appreciate Ripleys when it was still open but I never imagined its fate would be this. When it finally does get demolished for 'Little Boxes' housing at least there will be a memory of Silent Hill Dartford to show the price we paid for them.

To cement the Silent Hill feel there's even a map of the town on the Life Foods wall!

What are the secrets hiding in this abandoned town? Are you brave enough to find out?