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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
Katie Dollard & Julia Banim

Inside eerie and decaying 'house of books' - filled with long-abandoned belongings

An urban explorer has shared footage of his visit to a decaying property in Cambridgeshire, with the house's front concealing a wealth of collectables and long-abandoned possessions.

Dubbed the 'House of Books', the overgrown home can be found hidden from view on a Cambridgeshire farm, the previous owner’s possessions still filling the place to the brim.

Daniel Sims, 32, from Huddersfield, decided to head out to the property after hearing about it from another urban explorer.

Once there, he and his friend Mick came across thousands of collectable items amid the cobwebs, including encyclopaedias, board games, as well as hundreds of books, some of which they noted were "very old".

The eerie house is hidden from view (Jam Press/BeardedReality)
Daniel believes the house was abandoned after the previous owner died (Jam Press/BeardedReality)

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Daniel, who regularly shares footage of his urban explorations on his YouTube channel, BeardedReality, noted that the property had been left to decay, and believes it was abandoned after the death of the former occupant.

He said: "The atmosphere was electrifying, as soon as you enter the property you can tell that it has just been left with very little touched or moved by anyone.

"As you walk around the place you get the eerie sense of the person's life and how they lived which also gives you a slight insight into the previous occupant".

The cobweb-covered kitchen still contained kitchen appliances and old chocolate tins, while old magazine samples and long-forgotten beauty products were discovered in the bathroom next door.

The house is filled with books (Jam Press Vid/BeardedReality)

Another room contained PlayStation games, family photographs, a sewing machine, and a huge cross, giving further insight into the home it had once been.

Cabinets filled with hundreds of books were found in the hallway, along with a suitcase, while the dusty living room still contained furniture and a piano, plus as a note left for the previous resident.

Daniel continued: "In the property, also dubbed by a few others that have explored it the ‘house of books’, the place contains easily over 1,000 books in various locations, scattered in the upstairs hallways and shelves filled with them slowly collecting dust. Some of these books are very old and I noticed, in particular, a few very old encyclopaedias which were collectors' editions so this could fetch quite a high price".

Daniel regularly shares footage of his urban exploration adventures (Jam Press Vid/BeardedReality)

Venturing upstairs, the adventurous pair noticed jars of miscellaneous items that had been left on the stairs before coming across an added extension, believed to be a children's room, with curtains and various mouldering toys.

On the landing, they found a typewriter, board games, and yet more books before heading into an en suite bedroom with mattresses and crumbling furniture, left behind medicines scattered all around.

An upstairs study was so filled with books that Daniel remarked they could've "started their own book shop", while clothes still hung in a long-unused wardrobe.

When taking a look at the area outside the property, the pair came across a closed-off garage, as well as an old white car, overgrown with shrubbery, which had presumably been left behind by the former owners.

Daniel added: "We were there for about an hour looking at the various things here trying to paint a picture of the person's life and seeing all that was left behind.

"You feel a sense of sadness that all this is left especially personal photos and items but also a true thrill of seeing how someone once lived their life and what they left behind.".

Do you have an urban exploration story to share? We pay for stories. Email us at julia.banim@reachplc.com

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