Welcome to an overgrown backyard. Faithful followers have been here before, way back in 2020, when I first found this place. The history of the building has been featured there in more detail, now I’m just content with telling you, that this is the former headquarters of a workers’ co-operative. Originally there was a store downstairs, a very fine restaurant on the middle floor and apartments on the top floor.
Eventually the stores and restaurants closed. In the final stage the two lower floors were occupied by a huge, but not very classy bar, there were apartments upstairs. A dressmaker was stuffed in one corner of the downstairs. When fine dining was around, I wasn’t even born. When cheap beer was around, I didn’t visit the area. I’ve only seen the building in its current state, and I’m pretty intrigued by it.
Absolutely nothing had happened here since my previous visit apart from the vegetation growing taller and thicker.
The facade. Despite its ruined state, I think, that this is a really beautiful old building, which would deserve something better.
Even the car parked in front of it was abandoned. This is the former main street of the village, but now the town center has moved to the other side of the railroad.
Details of the facade.
The entrance to the dressmaker’s. The windows have received a photo of former president Urho Kekkonen.
The main entrance was well sealed. I put my hopes on the back side.
And guess what. This photo has been taken through the window to the stairs to the basement.
It was neither big, nor easily accessible, but with the help of the chair and some circus tricks I managed to push myself inside.
I climbed up the stairs to a small lobby with doors to the two business spaces. The dressmaker’s is to the left, the bar is to the right.
As all the windows were broken and my footsteps could very well be heard by pedestrians walking past the building, I decided to make an exception to my exploration routines and start from higher up.
Reaching the middle floor. It is evident from the roof, that there’s been a fire here.
This is what was originally the fine restaurant and later a not so fine restaurant serving only liquid lunches and dinners.
The place was in an awful condition.
As I was visible to the street and nearby houses from the bar area, and there was also access from there to the downstairs bar, I decided to explore in an even more senseless order and start with the apartments on the middle floor.
They were light and the old doors were beautiful. If this place would be in a good condition (and somewhere else) I could imagine living here.
The owners had sadly not put in much effort in renovating the place. The kitchen was from the 1970’s.
As you can see, neighboring houses really were close. I had to avoid going close to windows, which limited my photography a lot.
I decided to start all the way from the top.