The world's greatest cities have plenty of stories to tell, and many are written into the abandoned buildings tucked down their streets. From deserted subway stations to forgotten hotels, we take a virtual tour of the abandoned urban attractions around the globe. Remember, if you plan to visit any sites in real life, check for restrictions before you set off (some spots are only safe to view from the outside).
Scroll through the gallery to discover amazing abandoned places hidden in the world's most famous urban sprawls...
Floating in New York City's East River, North Brother Island is steeped in sombre tales. It's best known as the home of the Riverside Hospital, which opened in the 19th century: the infirmary treated those with contagious diseases, including infamous patient Typhoid Mary. It was then used to house soldiers after World War II, before eventually closing in the 1960s.
Today, birds are the only residents of its ramshackle buildings, which are now overcome with greenery. The island is off limits to the public, but visitors can typically take in the view with a kayak ride on the river.
Germany's capital has more than its fair share of abandoned attractions, and Spreepark is one of the most haunting. The theme park began life in the 1960s and had its heyday in the communist era. However, visitor numbers plummeted in the second half of the 20th century.
By the early 2000s, the site had shuttered and today all that remains is creaking rides with peeling paint, plus a scattering of creepy animal statues. The park is currently being reborn as a sustainable art location. Public tours are typically offered.
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This famous abandoned prison needs little introduction. The formidable Eastern State Penitentiary was opened in 1820, and soon became known for its intimidating, castle-like building, its unique sky-lit cells and its particular form of discipline, designed to make prisoners feel penance.
The musty cell blocks are open for day and night tours. Tickets can be purchased online or at the door, subject to availability.
Once a busy railway line, Paris' Petite Ceinture fell out of use and was abandoned in the 1930s. It hasn't been forgotten, though. The deserted railway tracks have since been transformed with walking paths, nature trails and gardens, home to a huge variety of plants and animals.
Visitors can typically enjoy a peaceful walk along the tracks, taking in graffitied walls rich with greenery and keeping an eye peeled for birds and butterflies. As Paris hosted the Olympics in 2024, several new sections opened up.
See stunning photos of abandoned train stations around the world
Another island with a macabre past, Lazzaretto Nuovo is situated in the Venetian Lagoon, a stone's throw from Venice itself. The islet served as one of a handful of 'plague islands' from the 14th century onwards: it was used to quarantine people from incoming ships who were suspected to be infected with the black death. Archaeologists have since come across mass grave sites here and many are convinced the island is haunted.
Guided tours typically operate at select times of year, between March and November. The visit lasts about two hours, taking in both a historical-archaeological itinerary inside the walls and a nature walk in the marshlands outside them.
Opened in 1904, beautiful City Hall is much more elaborate than today's subway stations, with its vaulted ceiling and patterned glass. But, despite its architectural beauty, the station wasn't quite fit for purpose. Its curved platform design meant that it couldn't accommodate the longer, modern trains that took to tracks in the 20th century.
It was closed in 1945. These days, the New York Transit Museum runs exclusive guided tours. Tickets sell out fast whenever they go on sale.
The strange domed towers of Teufelsberg look like something out of a sci-fi movie. They actually form part of a US listening station used during the Cold War and are perched on an artificial hill, made from debris and rubble from World War II.
Modern-day visitors can usually take history tours of the building and drink in the views from its observation platform. Fans of street art will love the graffiti-work here, with over 400 (and counting) works by international artists currently on display.
These striking Corinthian columns were first erected in the 1820s and formed part of the US Capitol Building – but, when the Capitol was topped with a mighty, and extremely heavy, new dome in the 1860s, the elegant columns no longer served their purpose. Today, they can be found tucked away in the US National Arboretum.
It's open to the public every day except Christmas Day and admission is free. To avoid the crowds, get here on a weekday morning.
Nestled in one of Paris' eastern suburbs, Le Jardin d'Agronomie Tropicale was a curious spot once home to exhibitions showcasing flora from French colonies around the world. Eventually the displays closed and the site was left abandoned, its pavilions, statues and gates giving in to Mother Nature.
The garden was bought by the City of Paris in the early 2000s, though, and reopened to visitors, who can now drink in the fascinating remnants of its former attractions.
Within kissing distance of the Big Apple, this historic hospital, technically in Jersey City, first opened its doors in the early 20th century. Its purpose was to hold and treat immigrants who had arrived in America in search of a new life: over the years, the facility treated hundreds of thousands of people.
However, stricter immigration laws meant the hospital closed in the 1930s, and the islands were abandoned in the 1950s. Guided hard-hat tours of the creepy abandoned hospital are now available.
Abandoned churches don't come much more haunting than this. St Dunstan in the East, whose roots date right back to medieval times, was ravaged in World War II by a German bomb that hit in 1941. It was deemed too hard a feat to rebuild the sacred building but, luckily, the soaring tower and some of the walls survived. Come the 1960s, the abandoned church was transformed into a bench-dotted public garden.
Today, trees form the building's congregation and ivy climbs its centuries-old walls.
Hyderabad isn't short on atmospheric ruins, but the Golconda Fort is among the most striking and impressive. Thought to date to the 13th century, the citadel was augmented by rulers over the centuries, gaining a grand gate, arcades and reliefs, and also served as an important diamond market. However, it fell to the Mughal Empire in the 17th century and was soon abandoned and left to ruin.
Visitors can still explore its haunting remnants and even enjoy the sound and light show that illuminates them on select days.
Situated in the Sydney suburb of Gladesville, much of Tarban Creek Asylum has been transformed. Eerie and abandoned evidence of its past, however, still lays hidden in the bushes. Take this structure from the 1870s, for example, found near the old boathouse at Bedlam Bay.
Beginning life in the 1830s, the asylum was tipped as the first of its kind in the region – but its many decades in operation were marred with reports of overcrowding and the barbaric treatment of patients. It was eventually closed and abandoned in the 1990s. Large portions of the grounds are now open to the public in a health and community capacity.
You might not know that this architectural feat lies beneath the streets of South London – but the head-turning subway has existed since the 1860s. It originally served as an access point for Crystal Palace, an elaborate confection that housed the Great Exhibition of 1851 and which was later destroyed by fire in the 1930s.
These days, the subway, with its columns and bold brick patterns, is sporadically open to visitors thanks to the efforts of a major restoration project. In 2025, the incredible space is celebrating its 160th anniversary.
This dinky theme park in South Korea's capital is almost more alluring in its abandoned state than it ever was when it was open. The site first welcomed visitors in the 1980s but, over the decades, profits plummeted and the opening of bigger, bolder parks nearby put the final nails in the coffin. Now the rusting carousel, stopped in time, and the deserted dodgems are the park's most striking remnants.
Visitors typically pay a small fee to enter and wander around. It's usually open from 10am to 6pm, but hours may vary so it's worth checking ahead.
Seattle is full of surprises and its best-kept secret is the network of subterranean passages that sprawl out beneath the city's Pioneer Square. They're the remains of the original city, whose many wooden buildings were devastated by fire in the late 19th century. As plans to rebuild the burnt-out city came to fruition, stone and brick materials were favoured and the streets and buildings were also built much higher up.
This left the original streets neglected, claimed by the city's underworld. Tours exploring this portion of subterranean Seattle have run since the 1960s and are still available today.
This ramshackle street might look like something from America's Southwest, but it's actually tucked away in the Scottish capital. The lane, which originally formed part of an advertising campaign for a furniture company, has existed since the 1990s, and is complete with a jail, a blacksmith's shop and a cantina.
It was eventually abandoned, though some of the lots are now filled with artists' studios and garages. Hidden down an alley in one of Edinburgh's most upmarket suburbs, this secretive spot is hard to find but worth the effort.
The remains of the original Los Angeles Zoo form a fascinating portion of Griffith Park. The once-beloved zoo – home to animals like lions, bears and monkeys – was founded in 1912 and existed right up until the 1960s, when it moved to its modern location.
Today the rocky walls, abandoned cages and grottos, built in the 1930s, are home to trails and picnic areas. Film fans might recognise it from the climactic scene of the 2004 comedy classic Anchorman. It's here where Will Ferrell's character, Ron Burgundy, jumps into a bear enclosure to save the love interest played by Christina Applegate.
The history of Madrid's metro is captured in this abandoned station dating from 1919. It was in operation up until the 1960s, when it could no longer accommodate the city's more modern, longer trains.
The historic station remained deserted for decades until the 2000s, when it was reopened to visitors who today come to spot adverts, turnstiles and benches from a time gone by.
Abandoned St Stephen's Church loves the camera. Visitors to Chicago's Hyde Park neighbourhood come to peek at the building's façade, with its decorative columns, detailed glass and striking portico. First built around 1917, the church played host to varied congregations over the years but was eventually sold off to a private buyer.
Today, with its future unknown, it stands deserted and decorated in plant life.
This hulking industrial building lords over the coast in the Perth suburb of North Coogee. It was once the site of the South Fremantle Power Station, which opened in the 1950s and operated right up until the 1980s.
However, when the power station was dubbed unprofitable, it was deserted and left to the elements. Today its walls crawl with graffiti and though it has been eyed by developers over the years, nothing has come to fruition just yet.
Toronto's Lower Bay Station was short lived indeed. Spreading out beneath the main Bay station, Lower Bay was in operation for a mere six months in the mid-1990s, as the Toronto Transit Commission tested out a new underground route. The planned route proved unwieldy, though, and so Lower Bay was rendered obsolete.
Very occasional public tours operate here. Passengers can sometimes also catch a glimpse of the abandoned station on diverted trains.
One of America's most famous and formidable prisons existed on this rocky, wave-beaten island from 1934 to 1963. Conditions were strict and stark at Alcatraz and it incarcerated big-name gangsters like Al Capone during its time in operation.
Today, tours whisk visitors across San Francisco Bay and allow them to explore the renowned abandoned prison. This eerie shot shows the ruins of the warden's house.
Londoners can still spot the former entryway to Aldwych tube station along buzzing thoroughfare The Strand. It first opened in 1907, but it never got very busy: instead, its main legacies are its roles as a shelter for London's priceless artworks throughout the World Wars, and as a popular film set.
The station finally closed in the 1990s. Operating on weekdays and weekends at select times, London Transport Museum's 'Hidden London' tours take visitors underground.
The city of Indianapolis hides a secret beneath its buzzy streets: a labyrinthine network of passages and brick archways that have existed since the 19th century. They're the subterranean remains of Tomlinson Hall, a landmark building that was destroyed in a fire in the 1950s.
Due to planned construction around Indianapolis City Market, Catacombs tours are currently unavailable. Excitingly, though, developers are working on exposing a portion of the hidden space so that people can see it from the street.
It's hard to believe that this intricate, Victorian-era building was actually a sewage works. So impressive, in fact, was the colourful ironwork at Crossness Pumping Station that it was nicknamed the 'Cathedral on the Marsh'. Built as an antidote to London's 'Great Stink' in the 1850s, the station was in operation right up until the 1950s, when it was decommissioned and eventually deserted.
Tours of the abandoned pumping station are typically on offer, with the Crossness Engines Trust putting on scheduled guided walks and special events. They also welcome pre-arranged private tours for schools, universities, community groups and other organisations.