Archive for the ‘The Creme’ Category
Stories from The Shard of Glass.
Stories from The Shard came to the forefront of the national and international press at the start of April. Brad and Otter simultaneously posted reports on their blogs and within 48 hours, every major newspaper and broadcaster with any interest in London or the forthcoming Olympics was seeking information and interviews from anybody who explored in London, to run front page stories. Read the rest of this entry »
2011 – The Top Twenty.
2011 has been an odd year. I’ve ‘explored’ 62 new locations in 5 different countries, admittedly a much lower haul than 2010, but probably a more exciting and intense one. Marc, Gary, Neb and Patch appear to have been my main ‘partners in grime’ this season, but notable mentions need to go to Dan, Brad, Otter, Chris, John and NC Kapita for their involvement, particularly in getting abroad to Norway, Hungary, France and Austria and biting the bullet when we needed to in these places.
The advent and growth of the LCC has provided support in various ways and the open communication that appears to be evolving has made exploring in this country a joy again. Thanks of course due to all that’s been involved. We’ve slept in several bizarre locations both home and abroad and had various interactions with the police and other authorities – all part of the job.
Below is my list of personal favourites, taken solely from places which were new to me in 2011. Read the rest of this entry »
Cane Hill Hospital – Transcience, Ruin and Restoration
March 2011
“Transcience: an impermanence that suggests the inevitability of ending or dying”
“Ruin: Verb. Reduce (a building or place) to a state of decay, collapse, or disintegration: “a ruined castle”.”
“Restoration: the act of restoring something or someone to a satisfactory state”
Glitches
January 2011
A series of glitches allows the infrastructure of Paris to be accessed through various portals. Along with our ever generous host Marc, I joined Brad and L’Ottoire for some Parisien place hacking, with Dsankt, Mrs Dsankt and Olivier joining us at times across the weekend too. I use the term coined by Brad as I felt that at times we were not exploring as such; the places we were accessing had been previously ‘hacked*’ and we were enjoying the fruits of the hard work of others. On the contrary, at times we immersed ourselves in the unknown and pushed for the new, when Paris’ delights are well known to many.
*To program (a computer [a place]) for pleasure or compulsively; especially, to try to defeat the security systems and gain unauthorized access to a computer [place]. Read the rest of this entry »
“He’s an Urban Explorer”
2010 Summary
Top of London
Urban Exploring is a term that I’ve used less and less in the last couple of years, to the point it has almost become obsolete, replaced by the terms draining, climbing and trespassing. I wouldn’t tell somebody I was going out ‘Urban Exploring’, more that I was ‘going in/up ________’. We no longer creep around to take some photos, before returning to ‘real life’. This is ‘real life’, we just happen to include participating in restricted spaces within those terms. We eat, sleep and party in them, returning routinely, creating fond or distinct memories of the experiences we have in them. Read the rest of this entry »
Cut and Cover #1 – Mark Lane
April 2010
With the London Underground having been neglected by so many for so long, the ever prolific Siologen’s excellent tales of hitting up the LU began to surface around March 2010. The community began to sit up and take notice of the accessibility of these tunnels and stations, and as such, knowledge about Mark Lane station began to trickle out and around, as if it was the only one out there to see.
Creeping.
Read the rest of this entry »
Polska Sowiecka – August 2010
‘Poster’
As we sat on the ferry back from our December adventures in 2009, we jokingly said we’d go to Poland and explore the Soviet military bases there. Hit another country, new places, new people, new adventures right? I decided the best way to do this was to integrate it into our summer roadtrip, and lo and behold, after a week in Belgium and Germany, we found ourselves passing the Border into Poland, past the freshly rusting border crossing from the days before the EU.
Prohobohemia 3.2
Our third sleeping spot was set up in Stadtbad Duisberg, a sports centre on the outskirts of the city. We found a perfect room, adjacent to it was a flushing toilet with paper, that at least three of the group utilised. A flat floor gave us a reasonable night’s sleep, and we explored the buildings in the morning. Both a sports hall and a swimming pool were bathed with light from the high windows, but the rest of the site was vandalised.We found a footpump which served us well for the rest of the trip.
Standard.
Prohobohemia 3.1 – Belgium, July 2010
Prohobohemia seems to be the adopted name of this alcohol fueled, 3,400 mile trip and it initially seemed to ring true. At the point of writing, we’d slept in 4 different locations and they were all widely different. A train depot in Belgium, a steelworks in Luxembourg, a sports centre in Germany and a Soviet base deeper east.
Prohobo
Deep Level #1 – City Road
Covered in soot and tube dust I emerged elated from City Road tube station, my companion Danny following me out into the cool and quiet London night. The past two hours had been a nervy affair, our first deep level tube line and abandoned station. The site was scoped out a few days prior, the night we returned we were fully prepared and were soon in the tunnels beneath.
