There are several theories proposing that the Meadowhall Centre, Sheffield, was designed to be adapted to a prison should it be unsuccessful as a shopping mall. The plan of the building is purported to resemble that of a prison, with its wings and central atriums, though could this be an urban myth conjured up over the years, excitedly discussed in forums as shown below:

Other conspiracy theories claim it could be turned into an Islamic HQ, and that a store of body bags is kept in the basement in case there is a terrorist attack.

Whether of not any of them are true, it does seem to be a logic in having a back-up plan for such a large structure should it not be financially viable so they don’t simply shut down and become derelict. However, one would imagine the glass dome and marble surfaces would be removed before it could vaguely resemble a prison…

Prora Nazi holiday resort

The giant complex of hotels in the Prora resort on the country’s biggest island, was designed to house 20,000 tourists as part of Adolf Hitler’s Strength Through Joy program to keep the German nation healthy and motivated. The local government is now collaborating with an investor group to initiate a 100,000-euro-makeover of the decaying complex and turn it into a modern holiday resort!

Ariel view of Prora the Nazi holiday complex

Prora, Rugen holiday resort

North Korea shopping

The shoe display North Korea department store

The mannequins - North Korea fashion store

The Mall - North Korea

As well as these beautiful images I found this lovely video showing some of the retail delights that can be found in this secretive land!

The Dubai Fountain is a record-setting choreographed fountain system set on the 30-acre manmade Burj Khalifa Lake, at the center of the Downtown Dubai development in Dubai,United Arab Emirates.  It was built at a cost of AED 800 million (USD 218 million).

I would collect together office chairs and stools, director chairs and wicker benches from all over the house. These would be arranged, four a-breast with a central aisle. Each chair would then be furnished with a paper head rest cover (made out of kitchen roll). On each seat I would place in-flight magazines and sick bags (from my collection donated by mum and dad’s friends and relatives after foreign holidays) as well as hand written menus for that evening’s flight. Almost ready for departure, my parents or any other adults in the house would check in at the top of the stairs, before boarding through my bedroom door.

For the most-part this was a one man show (I would have the occasional cameo from my younger brother as check-in agent or co-pilot), I would be playing the pilot and flight attendant, performing duties and procedures to the letter, right until touch down. The destinations would  be even more bizarre, this was an airline that specialized in routes to war zones from that evening’s news or package holiday hot spots, Kuwait, Ibiza, Iraq and Orlando.

My roles would be differentiated by my costume, for the pilot I would be sat at the front wearing the prerequisite cap , whereas the flight attendant’s uniform was somewhat more confused, school shirt teamed with a floral neck tie. It was a bizarre performance, but a ritual I would carry out at least weekly, until it became weird somewhere around my 10th birthday. Still my relatives were happy to oblige, so long as the in-flight movie (my bedroom TV positioned in the middle of the aisle, behind the cockpit) featured Coronation Street or Casualty.

These flights of fancy would project me and my passengers from the normality of our house in suburban Ellesmere Port into the glamor and excitement of international air travel. A more physical and innocent manifestation of my current obsession with researching exotic holidays to far flung, underground and sometimes dangerous destinations that I have no realistic hope of ever traveling to. Who knew you could fly from London to Basra for a mere £372?

My bedroom aeroplane pails in comparison to that of Bahadur Chand Gupta, a retired Indian Airlines flight engineer, who has parked a mouth-balled A300 in his back garden and has spent years re-storing to it’s former glory.Him and his wife, Nirmal, let poor villagers and slum dwellers board a stationary plane to experience ”flying” while never leaving the ground.

India. Delhi. Captain Gupta's plane to nowhere. A plane bought by Bahadur Chand Gupta, a retired Indian Airlines engineer allows customers to experience plane travel without leaving the ground. 2009.- Martin Parr/Magnum Photos

Despite the fact that the domestic Indian airline industry has boomed in the last few years,  the great majority of India’s population- 97%- has never flown, nor stepped on board an aircraft. Captain Gupta’s mission is to give people a chance to experience the inside of a plane and to learn a little about how aircraft operate.

Children on board Captain Gupta's Fake Plane - Martin Parr

For no cost they check in, receive a boarding pass, climb the stairs,  and are ushered to their seats by chief stewardess, Gupta’s wife, Nirmal, they  hear the safety drill, enjoy a snack and drink served by the crew and have a peek in the cockpit.

A villager himself, Gupta had never flown until he got a job as a mechanical engineer with Indian Airlines. Instantly, his fellow villagers begged him for a tour of a plane but for security reasons this was impossible.

“I felt so bad at not being able to help them but I made it my mission to share the flying experience with poor Indians,”

In between trolley service and safety demonstrations, Captain Gupta’s wife, who is also a professor of political science at Delhi University, takes advantage of her captive audience. Mid-flight her messages are of drug control and HIV/AIDs awareness.

The climax to the visit involves an emergency crash landing. There is a chance to try  sliding down the emergency chute. Snacks and drinks are then served, and then all passengers sit down and watch a few videos. At the end of every flight Captain Gupta has converted another fifty people on his mission to educate the public and to de-mystify the business of flying.

Children flying on the Plane to nowhere - India - Martin Parr 2009

A film by Tony Babinski and Jacob Potashnik, inspired by the architecture of Moshe Safdie and Montreal’s Habitat. Released 1999

Thames Town - an English Village in China

On first view Thames Town looks like the idyllic English village. Bowling greens, mock Tudor cottages, pubs, quaint shops and even the ubiquitous red telephone box – so popular with tourists.

You would be forgiven for thinking you were strolling through the moneyed suburbs of the home counties, perhaps Tunbridge Wells or somewhere like Guildford but Thames Town is not nestled in the British countryside; it’s located in Songjiang, near Shanghai.

Thames Town church modeled on one in Clifton, Bristol

Thames Town didn’t grow gradually over hundreds of years; it simply sprang up in 2006 as part of Shanghai’s “One City, Nine Town” initiative, an attempt to decentralize the city.

The city is a virtual ghost town, a failed attempt to artificially create an ‘organic’ community. Yet it’s a popular destination for wedding photos, for a great (if not a little unsettling) gallery of Chinese newlyweds posing amongst the hedgerows and with English police men (actually private security guards employed to maintain the serenity) have a look at Racked.

There’s even an outpost of Next – that British favorite on the high street, for those Chinese hungry for the most mediocre of English retail experiences.

Blogger triplefivedrew, who visited Thames Town in 2010, likened the place to the set of The Truman Show.

Deserted Thames Town - China