12/365: The old Karolew train station

12/365: The old Karolew train station, originally uploaded by Magic Madzik.

January 12th

There are lots of abandoned buildings in Lodz. This house in the middle of the railroad tracks is the old Karolew train station. It was built in 1902. It had two platforms, both now gone as most of the tracks around it are disused. There were people living in it not too long ago (in fact I found a photograph I took in 2007 that shows it), but now it's abandoned. It can't be demolished because it is on the list of monuments to be preserved- unfortunately no one is coming up with the actual money to preserve it. So it just stands there, decaying, like many other places in Łódź. I wish I had the kind of money it would take to rent and refurbish this house, it would be a swell place to live.

Here's a photo of the station in 2007:

The windows aren't broken and there's a bike in the yard. I think what happened was the railroad wanted to demolish it, so they got rid of the tenants, and then they found out they couldn't get permission to destroy the house. Laaame.

As my flatmate said when I told him this little story: