Original subtitles

Tom ward (narrates): Abandoned, but not forgotten.

Neglected, yet known the world over.

Sites made famous by global icons.

It was here where someone truly became known

as the greatest.

Where the repressed took a stand for justice...

It's not just a place of infamy

but a place of regeneration, of reconciliation.

..Where leaders inspired generations to follow...

When you know who spoke here,

you feel a certain weight of history.

..Where revered heroes revealed their darker sides.

It was whispered that men practiced

all manner of black magic and satanic rights in these caves.

Whether championed or condemned, they've left a lasting legacy,

these are the top 5 abandoned haunts of heroes and villains.

Decaying relics.

Ruins of lost worlds.

Sites haunted by the past,

their secrets waiting to be revealed.

(Eerie music)

At number 5

in the Democratic republic of the Congo

are the remains of an outlandish legacy.

At the entrance of this complex

is this really peculiar looking Chinese pagoda.

Whoever originally created this

obviously did so at great expense.

There's also a more stately building

and you wonder

whether it was commissioned and built to house

very important visitors.

Nearby in the country's capital Kinshasa

stands a rundown stadium

that once grabbed the world's attention.

This site in the heart of tropical Africa,

one of the greatest sports heroes of the 20th century

took centre stage.

What World-Wide spectacle connects the heroic gladiators

who fought here

to one of Africa's most despotic leaders?

Kazuza bin kandolo has worked here since the 1970s.

(Speaking in foreign language)

This grand edifice was built by a man

who seized power in 1965

just five years after the Congo broke

from colonial rule.

His name was Joseph Desiree mobutu.

Coming out of the chaos

of the post-colonial era,

arose this new country with a new name Zaire

and a new leader mobutu who at first seemed like

a very inspiring man of the people.

Mobutu was determined to bring

his newly independent country of Zaire to global attention.

To his people mobutu was a saviour of sorts,

he was supposed to help them and guide them on this new path

but it wouldn't be long

before their opinions of him would change.

Mobutu was a man who would stop at nothing for power.

And the first signs of his increasing megalomania

are scattered around this site.

He wanted a conference centre, housing blocks,

foreign dignitaries were going to come from all over,

he even had a four Lane highway built to it from the airport.

(Speaking foreign language)

This is nesela palace, mobutu's presidential domain.

Covering almost 2,000 acres

the compound is overlooked by the magnificent pagoda,

allegedly paid for by the Chinese.

He has a certain type of politics

in that alignment where he really is just looking

to attract resources to Zaire

and he's not really caring where it's coming from.

Mobutu lured vips from all over the world

with the luxuries on offer at this bizarre retreat.

But he also presented himself as a man of the people.

(Speaking foreign language)

What was meant to be a show of power and wealth

and tremendous natural resources and beauty actually disguised

things that were far more terrifying.

Behind the scenes,

mobutu was said to be committing atrocities

such as rape and torture.

But he still wanted to attract international attention.

In 1974 mobutu hatched a plan

to use a fallen sports hero to do just that

and his now abandoned presidential domain

would provide the perfect facade to hue his ambition.

He came up with a perfect idea for an event

that could do just that,

that would really draw the eyes of the world on to Zaire.

Mobutu found what he wanted in an unexpected arena,

the world of heavyweight boxing.

When it was announced

that Muhammad Ali and George foreman were going to fight,

mobutu stepped forward

volunteering the country of Zaire.

The people's president stopped at nothing

to get what he wanted.

Despite the fact

that people throughout Zaire were starving,

each of the fighters was going to get paid $5 million.

Mobutu cared far more about how Zaire was perceived

by the west

then he did about the sufferings of his own people.

It's going to be a big, big, big surprise this fight,

big surprise, big shock,

I'll be declared as the greatest of all times, listen.

The name that came up with for the fight

was the rumble in the jungle.

Mobutu ensured his compound would be fit for a king.

And he invited both Ali and foreman to dine with him in this palace.

The boxers lived and trained in buildings

at the edge of the compound

where the press were invited

to watch them prepare for the fight.

They worked hard,

every day to be ready for this Titanic contest.

The people of Zaire adored Muhammad Ali for his love of Africa.

I fight in Africa because I'm fighting in my homeland,

america's not my original homeland, my original homeland is Africa.

But back in the us Ali had fallen from grace.

Many people had loved Muhammad Ali

because of his skill in the boxing ring and his bravado.

But he was also villainised

by some for his outspoken ways

for his resistance to the Vietnam draft

and for his association with the nation of islam.

This fight is really important for Ali

because it's a chance for redemption quite literally.

But at seven years younger,

George foreman was a formidable opponent.

And the favourite to win.

Muhammad Ali was having none of it.

Only last week I murdered a rock in to a stone,

hospitalised a brick, I'm so mean I make medicine sick.

I'm bad, fast.

Then, things took a dramatic turn.

During training George foreman gets a horrible cut above his eye.

The bout cannot happen until that cut heals.

Mobutu refused to let foreman

leave the country for treatment,

he was worried that once he left he'd never return.

The compound was teaming with the world's press

and mobutu ensured he controlled what they saw.

And with the fight fast approaching,

his efforts extended beyond its walls.

The contest would take place in the capital's largest stadium.

Mobutu was determined to show

his country as a crime free paradise,

he sent a gruesome warning to its criminals

to ensure no foreigners were attacked

while the world's press was watching.

He rounds up 1,000 criminals,

they're housed in the...

In the bowels of the stadium

and then 100 of them are selected and executed, randomly.

The boxers and the press were unaware of mobutu's brutality,

below the very stadium

where the fight would soon take place.

On the night of October 30, 1974,

the two men met in the ring at 4.30am.

Mobutu himself actually didn't attend the fight

because he was afraid

that he might be assassinated in public.

Ex-boxer kadima Ibrahim was there.

Along with most of the 60,000 strong crowd,

he was rooting for Ali.

(Speaking in foreign language)

A global TV audience of almost a billion

watched as the bell rang out and the two titans collided.

Ali called that strategy rope a dope,

he didn't look like he was really fighting,

he was just allowing himself to get pummelled.

For seven punishing rounds,

Ali absorbed foreman's murderous barrages.

Having been on the ropes for most of the match

he looked set to lose.

But by round 8 foreman was tiring.

Ali seized his chance.

Victory here changed everything for Muhammad Ali.

After this fight Ali was seen

as an American champion,

he had been despised and loathed though much of the '60s

but suddenly he was a Victor for the American people

and he was even invited to the white house.

Back in the Congo in 1997,

mobutu was finally overthrown

and his palace ransacked in the ensuing chaos.

He fled the country taking millions of dollars with him.

Today, the shattered presidential domain

and shabby stadium are fitting monuments

to Joseph mobutu's corrupt rule.

But these buildings will always be associated

with Muhammad Ali's sporting greatness.

This is a site

that epitomises the contrast of history.

On one side you have a terrible villain,

a person guilty of tremendous crimes

and on the other side you have a hero,

a man who stood up for his principles

and who fought one way or another, every day of his life.

At number 4, a depraved subterranean world

that attracted a man known as the first American.

There's this incredible gothic entrance.

But you end up in these sinister looking caves.

Dark chambers with heavy metal gates,

almost like cells are hidden away.

Here just 60 miles from London an elite group

gathered to indulge in dark arts

and to perform scandalous pagan rituals.

It's a place of legend,

world famous for the debauched gatherings

that took place here.

There was one very famous American

who was prepared to travel a rather long way to join the party.

What stories make these caves so infamous

and how would one of america's founding fathers

become embroiled in the controversy?

The origins of these subterranean passageways

date back to the mid-1700s.

Jack orr is a historian at the site.

These caves go a quarter of a mile underground

and it's completely 100% man made.

This underground Warren is known as the hellfire caves,

home to one of the most secretive societies

in British history.

The hellfire club

was made up of some of the most famous

and respected men of the age,

it was whispered that men practiced

all manner of black magic and satanic rights in these caves.

It wasn't just dark satanic worship

they also knew how to party.

Women were brought in from London

to join the frolics dressed as nuns

and comely local nymphs were hired

and allegedly laid out on alters

so men could lick holy wine from their navels.

(Dramatic music)

In the hellfire club's days

there would have been curtains across

and beds inside this chamber.

If you look at the back wall,

we still have the original tally marks

from where the men were keeping score

when they took their...

Their prostitutes inside here.

The exclusive club even attracted

one of the most eminent men from across the Atlantic.

Benjamin Franklin,

one of the founding fathers of the United States

would frequently visit the UK and when he did he would attend

these scandalous parties deep underground.

Franklin loved the fun prankish nature of the club

that he found here,

he often wrote home to his friends in Philadelphia

about the club.

Word of the nefarious activities of these powerful men

soon leaked out in to the wider world.

The public outrage took its toll

so in 1776 the club was closed down.

(Eerie music)

With all his talk of virtue,

Franklin's association with these caves

was hidden from view

but the hellfire club left an indelible Mark.

Because of the dark, debaucherous history

of the hellfire club they have left

this lingering legacy behind

and now we are meant to be

one of the most haunted sites in all of england.

(Eerie music)

At number 3, in Johannesburg South Africa,

is an eerie facility

that once caged a world changing hero.

If these high thick walls could talk,

they would talk of injustice.

You get a really foreboding sense

as you enter in to it

to really wonder what went on in this site.

Divided into three sinister compounds,

each of these areas has a distinct character.

It's bleak and threatening and designed to be soul destroying.

This is an imposing edifice,

a visible symbol of oppression.

There are watch towers, there's heavy barbed wire

and there's bolted doors.

But those who were once trapped here

would go on to symbolise freedom itself.

It's not just a...

A place of infamy

but a place of regeneration and reconciliation.

So, what happened inside these ominous walls

and how did it take one man from villain

to the world's most revered hero?

This is constitution hill, a complex of notorious prisons.

Sibongile mkhabela was once incarcerated here.

It's really difficult today

to tell you what happened in these courtyards.

And the cruelty.

As I think to a large extent the brain kind of shuts it off

otherwise we wouldn't survive.

Constitution hill enforced

a system of strict racial segregation.

It's strange that I come back now,

I still feel the anger, the unfairness.

This is a place where so many women were held here.

They would become criminals

purely because they were the wrong colour

and they were criminalised for who they are.

There must have been over 60-70 women

all on top of each other in one small place

that was not even properly ventilated.

I could hear their noise, I could hear their pain,

I could feel them.

The first prison was built here in 1893

but sibongile and many of her fellow inmates

were victims of racist laws bought in many years later.

It was known as apartheid.

(Eerie music)

It's defined a system of segregation

in this country

that extended itself to education and hospitals and even beaches.

The system of apartheid

that was created was thorough, it was total, it was complete,

it was absolutely complete.

The black South African woke up to find himself

a stranger in the land of his birth.

And so we're going to see

a massive influx of these people in these prisons.

Today, dawn robertson runs this 100 acre site

which the apartheid system

turned in to a place of terror and humiliation.

So, this prison complex

is really a microcosm

of South Africa in terms of our history.

The prisons were segregated along apartheid lines.

The buildings of the old fort held white male prisoners.

Prison number 4 black male prisoners.

While women segregated inside the building

were held in the specially built women's block.

The infamous South African police

trawled the city's impoverished townships

hunting down those breaking the country's racist laws.

The people from the townships

would have driven through this tunnel,

this door would have been opened up

and they would have been bought into this space.

They wouldn't know where they were,

it was in absolute pitch blackness

and the only light they would actually see

would be the lights that came out of these little turrets.

And on the other side of these turrets

would be wardens with guns.

Ahead of them lay an uncertain fate.

So, now we are in number four prison

which is probably the most notorious prison,

er, in South Africa.

This is the black male prison.

In the 1960s with apartheid brutally in force,

this place was packed.

Number four was designed to hold

997 prisoners

when it held over 2,000

and so you can get a sense of how overcrowded it was.

Conditions in number 4 were appalling

but the most horrific punishments

were carried out in the prisons hospital.

The law stated that you could not lash anybody

without the district surgeon being present

and the district surgeon would have had his officers up here

so the lashing room was up here.

It was this, this place where,

you know, you would be lashed and tortured.

This is a space that is cruel, it's...

It's terrifying and it's traumatising.

Many were flung in prison number 4

for contravening an apartheid policy called the past laws.

The past laws severely limited

the movement of black South Africans.

This is a legacy of the slavery period,

anyone caught without their pass book

could be immediately imprisoned.

And where better place to imprison them

than behind the thick high walls of constitution hill.

By far the most famous person to be held here was Nelson Mandela.

Nelson Mandela is a key activist,

he becomes very prominent in the 1940s.

He advocated peaceful resistance

against the national party's racist laws.

Mandela's policy of non-violence shifted

following the barbarous sharpeville massacre.

On march 21, 1960,

in front of the sharpeville police station

you had around 7,000 black South Africans

who were meeting and amassing.

Police forces responded to a demonstration

with a hail of submachine gun fire.

You can just see dozens of bodies on the ground.

And these people were shot in the back as they were running,

they were fleeing and these were peaceful protestors.

In response to this mandela publicly burned his pass.

Thousands followed,

marching to police stations, burning their passes.

1962, Nelson Mandela was arrested

and bought through the forbidding gates

of constitution hill.

Mandela was not taken down

to the number four prison

where other black male prisoners were held,

he was rather held up here

in our fort which is a white male prison.

They didn't want him to serve as a model

or an inspiration to other prisoners.

So, this is the courtyard

of mandela's cell where he was held,

on the right here is an old hospital ward

and this was the place where mandela was held.

He talks about the fact

that the guard actually gave him a hospital bed.

In 1964, mandela was sentenced to life in prison.

He would not see freedom again for 26 years.

Nelson Mandela was finally released in 1990

by which time South Africa was a very different place.

And 4 years later he was elected president

in the country's first multi-racial election.

Mandela's the father of our nation.

The fact that he was incarcerated here

is significant,

not many people realise

that this was a very, very significant space

for him.

While president,

mandela oversaw plans to turn this site,

once known for its notorious injustices,

in to the new constitutional court of South Africa.

It symbolised everything

that we'd been through as a nation.

Because that's the place of the worst indignity

that this country has suffered

but it's going to be the place of hope.

At number 2, in Brazil,

deep in the Amazon rainforest

is a utopian dream frozen in time.

An American style water tower dominates the landscape.

And the buildings here wouldn't look out of place in a mid-western town.

But why build this remote outpost at all?

The roots of this town can be traced back

to the technological revolution

at the dawn of the 20th century

and a giant of American industry, Henry Ford.

Ford's expansion of the motor industry

was hampered by a global monopoly

on the rubber he needed for his tyres.

His answer the problem was this, fordlandia.

The purpose of building the town there

would be to create a rubber tree plantation

in which a large concentration of rubber trees

could be cultivated and farmed

as a cheap source of rubber for tyres.

In 1928 Ford began his ambitious plan

to create the largest rubber plantation

in the world.

The facilities at fordlandia were unprecedented

but Henry Ford's insistence

on a puritanical mid-western lifestyle

didn't go down well.

They weren't allowed to drink alcohol,

they were expected garden,

attend regular square dances, eat specific food.

Completely alien to the people that were living in fordlandia.

Ford's dream quickly became a repressive nightmare

for the towns' residents

and in 1930 it reached boiling point.

The workers rebelled and the Brazilian army

had to be bought in to restore the peace.

The people of fordlandia

just refused to live in such a fashion

that was so strict and draconian.

Ford's bid to industrialise the biological world,

faired little better.

Packed unnaturally close together in plantations,

disease spread rapidly through the rubber trees.

But Ford's high hopes for fordlandia

finally came crashing down

when synthetic rubber flooded the market.

In 1945, fordlandia was sold back to the Brazilian government,

its saw mill, hospital, houses and streets were abandoned.

For all of Henry Ford's $20 million dollar investment,

virtually no rubber was produced.

At number 1, in Oakland, California

a forgotten gem that holds traces of a conflicted American hero.

In the midst of Oakland's urban sprawl

is this massive white building.

It's this huge hulking structure,

almost like a giant concrete aircraft hangar.

At first you might mistake it

for a warehouse but it's too ornate for that.

This is maybe a stadium of some sort

but it seems pretty highbrow for a stadium,

there's definitely elements of Neo classical architecture here.

Once grand niches and statues

are now surrounded by fencing, graffiti

and boarded up entrances.

As ornate as the outside is,

the inside is in total disrepair,

it looks like it's been abandoned for years,

possibly even decades.

You can see seats that are still intact

but you can see also trash in other places,

you can see signs of a very recent fire,

that it's been vandalised and broken into.

And given the scale of this place

you have to think that there were some pretty,

er, iconic figures

who must have spoken to an audience this large.

The atmosphere in the whole arena

was alive at all times, it was like electricity here.

Heroes to some, villains to others

in a fight that started as a stand

against police brutality

a group of revolutionaries took centre stage here

and shook American society to its core.

Historian Billy Jennings first came here in the 1960s

to see the godfather of soul.

Nobody had a ticket and so we decided

we were going to jump the turnstile,

we were dodging security and we found empty seats.

Billy would return to this arena many times

but he was no longer dodging security.

He was the security for an organisation

that would take Oakland by storm.

And it's roots were sewed here in this arena.

It opened in 1915 as the Oakland auditorium,

but it wasn't long before this gathering place

brought the cities racial divisions into sharp focus.

In the 1920s it actually hosted

a massive ku klux klan rally.

At this rally klan's members came together

for ceremonial cross burning.

During the second world war,

Oakland's burgeoning shipyards drew an influx of African Americans

from the south

and in the racially charged years of the 1960s

tensions between Oakland's predominantly white police force

and its black population were sky high.

So, when one of america's greatest orators took to this stage,

his words fell on fertile ground.

In late 1962,

Martin Luther King gave a speech there

commemorating the 100th anniversary of the emancipation proclamation.

Part of his speech was addressing the need to boycott local companies

that refused to hire people of colour.

King's focus that day was wonder bread,

one of america's most famous food brands.

King was an incredible public speaker,

he really knew how to engage his audience

but he also knew how to turn a phrase

and he had a good sense of humour and what he said was,

"we're going to make

"wonder bread wonder where the money went."

The speech had a dramatic impact

on one young man sitting in the audience that day.

His name was Bobby seale.

But seale would take a less mainstream view than king

and he used this stage to deliver a revolutionary message.

And this passionate fire brand would soon earn

the unwelcome attention of the FBI.

Seale was very moved by king's words

but he took that message in a different direction

and a few years later he would found

the revolutionary group the black panthers

which was headquartered in Oakland.

That moment, that speech, that space,

he himself, seale himself acknowledge

was absolutely foundational and instrumental

in his own emergence as an activist.

In 1966, Bobby seale

founded the black panthers with college friend huey Newton

to tackle the issue of police brutality.

Following the killing of an unarmed young black man

in the bay area,

they decided to take matters into their own hands.

At its core the black panther party

advocated freedom by any means necessary.

So, they're carrying guns in public,

they're wearing leather, they're wearing berets,

they're wearing black, they're wearing military boots.

Was their vision radical?

Absolutely.

Were the black panther party members rightly accused of violent crimes?

Yes, they were.

But and we have to remember that this is a time

when beatings and extra judicial murder

of black people in america were...

Were an everyday experience.

The auditorium and this area of Oakland

would became the focal point for a new black power movement

with the panthers at its heart.

But soon huey Newton was arrested

for the shooting of a police officer,

an allegation that was overturned two years later.

In the meantime, in 1968,

Bobby seale and the panthers descended on the auditorium

to campaign for his release.

This room was more or less a dressing room,

a green room for Bobby being back here

in preparation of his speech.

Seal took to this now dilapidated stage

and reiterated the black panthers manifesto.

(Applause)

Bobby seale, bring him on.

Bobby seale: Brothers and sisters I want to tonight have the chance

to tell you in large mass

something about the organising of a black peoples party

that dealt with black people's problems.

We want an immediate end to police brutality

and murder of black people.

(Applause)

That alignment on that stage right there,

kind of put this Oakland auditorium on the map.

That bought together an alignment of black leaders

that america had never seen before,

after that conference and during huey's trial,

black panther party enjoyed a tremendous growth

like we went from one to two officers

to 40 officers throughout america.

But with that growth came unwanted attention.

We had to be aware of provocateurs,

we had to be aware of people starting trouble and we had, er,

be aware of undercover police

coming in to start trouble, you know.

So, we had to be on our toes when we were down here.

J Edgar hoover, head of the FBI

wasted no time making the panthers public enemy number one.

And his counter intelligence programme,

or 'cointelpro',

made the panthers their number one target.

Cointelpro infiltrated

a range of civil rights organisations

including mainstream ones like

the southern Christian leadership conference

that king led.

But they really went after the panthers with a vengeance.

Seale was soon in court himself

for the famous trial of the Chicago 7

on trumped up charges of inciting a riot.

And while in court,

two fellow panthers were assassinated

by hoover's henchmen.

After seale was released from the trial

the FBI had him charged with murder,

again the charges were dropped

and Billy remembers seale's triumphant

return to this stage in 1971.

He came back to Oakland as a hero

and when he announced that he was going to run

for mayor of Oakland and took off his hat

and threw it in to the arena as a symbol

of I'm entering this race that was chilling.

People was electrified, you know, 'cause one of theirs,

somebody they knew was going to change the city

and the whole arena went crazy.

The party was starting to turn

towards an embrace of electoral politics

and doing voter registration drives.

Seale used the auditorium

to focus on his work for the community.

On this stage,

Bobby seale, he asked everybody to get in a single file line

and we had panthers lined up,

maybe about ten panthers handing out bags of groceries

to people

but at the same time back here in this area we had, er,

tables set up to register people to vote.

They tested for sickle cell anaemia,

they held workshops for young people known as panther cubs.

Seale narrowly lost his mayoral campaign

but his efforts bought about lasting change.

Next election you had asians running,

you had Mexican Americans running

and you had women running, Bobby opened the door.

A young girl who worked out of my office during the campaign,

she's a house of representatives right now.

However splits in the party fostered by the FBI

soon followed and public support for the panthers gradually declined.

Just over a decade later the party dissolved

and the Oakland auditorium later renamed

the kaiser convention centre experienced a similar decline.

Today, the future of the Oakland auditorium

maybe uncertain

but the black panther's message has never been more relevant.

The difference between the black panther party

and black lives matter is that we had a programme,

we're not just focused on the police department,

we were dealing with hunger, healthcare, education

but we command people in the black lives matter

for standing up and doing the right thing.

All power to the people.

(Instrumental music)

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