Archive for the ‘Infrastructure/construction’ 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 »
London Gas
They’re all slightly different. Be it their location in an otherwise empty field, sat adjacent to a busy road junction, or tucked away betweeen houses, they’re all still slightly different. Some are getting torn down now. We turned up at Kings Cross to try to climb the 130 year old structures but they were gone, pillars of metal stacked up on the ground, ready for removal. Upon finding out they were going to be reinstalled once the crossrail works under the site are completed, I felt a wave of elation. Somebody else cares! Read the rest of this entry »
Bromley-by-Bow
The loops created by the river and road network winding through the industrial areas in East London separate small swatches of land almost equally shared by run down warehouses and disused land, light industrial space and new construction, eagarly cracking on for the forthcoming Olympics. Sat on a patch between some new-build apartments and the A11 is the St Andrews development. Read the rest of this entry »
Newport Transporter
2012, the year of something else? I’d decided I wanted to do some different stuff in different places, and the Newport Transporter Bridge fitted the bill. Brad, Marc, Neb and Urban Fox joined me on the trip down the M4 for this adventure, at a place from which surprisingly few photos have appeared on the internet. Lets rectify that. Read the rest of this entry »
Szechenyi Bridge
October 2011
The Szechenyi (Chain) bridge is a chain suspension bridge across the Danube in Budapest. We arrived around 1am on a Saturday night and as we were walking up to the bridge, the lights on the city went out like somebody had just flicked a switch somewhere. Myself and NC Kapita walked up to the top of the chains after waiting for a lull in traffic. Read the rest of this entry »
How to Climb a Crane
September 2011
Wandsworth Riverside Quarter had a couple of cranes set back slightly from the river. Not massive, but substantial enough to justify the moderate amount of effort needed to get to them. Set up in the dug out basement a couple of levels beneath ground, we first had to get onto the site (easy), then into the basement (quite easy). Although this was an unusual hassle, it was made considerably easier by the apparent lack of any human presence on or around the site.
Saltley Gas Towers
August 2011
These were a change affair really, one of those things that just happens. We saw them on our approach to what we believed to be the Moonwalker culvert, but whatever we did in fucking up the identification of the buried river, this sure as hell was a big pair of monster gasometers looming out of the darkness of the night. Read the rest of this entry »
IYLO – “Inspiration for life”
July 2011
Another night, another trip into the skies. It’s quieter out there, no people, just a feeling of serenity. Whether it’s 80 stories or 17, being ‘up’ is rewarding. Read the rest of this entry »
The Polski Church
July 2011
My Town
It was scaffolding again. The Polish church in Reading had received a grant for a quarter of a million quid because bits of the steeple had started to fall off, so Jerzy Januszkiewicz had got his mates round to put up a big climbing frame up. We’d been up onto this church before, but as the scaff had only gone to the roof, the view was half as good back a year ago. I’ve been watching this for a couple of weeks, as the frame grew quickly at first, then agonisingly slowly. We were bored, so Gary came round and we ended up going up it before it was finished. Weak shit eh?
Swindon Town
June 2011
Talk of climbing stuff had been getting louder over the last few weeks and a set of floodlights was made a target. Nowhere in particular, just a classic floodlight pylon, a metal frame with a ladder and a row of shining lights at the top. The advent of modern stadia has diminished this provincial staple and I feel it’s not going to be too long before these die out, a relic from the early 20th century and the boom years of football. Read the rest of this entry »