“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 #3 – The Met Line Three.
December 2010
A certain unease always sets in when down on London’s underground train lines. Attemping to access the very same set of tracks a week previously had seen us facing a train coming towards us, well after service. Although we we have always been aware of the risks associated with this sort of activity, the unpredictable London Underground network of tubes and cut and cover never lose that ability to unnerve.
Cut and Cover Tunnel
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Abbey Mills Pumping Station
2010, Sometime
Cathedral City
I made my way down to Abbey Mills one night with the children, following an excellent meal at some restaurant on Stratford High St, where we drank as much of the finest wine a fistfull of crumpled fivers could buy (one bottle between four). “Korsham Kidz, swigging Vodka on Westwells Road”, was the headline on the rumour-mongering 28DL months later; but we’ve been playing this game since before we’ve been walking. Read the rest of this entry »
Eagle House
August 2010
“Eagle’s fly high, but weasels don’t get caught in Jet engines”
…As I was once so succinctly told, a quote relayed from her father by a philosphical girlfriend. Not quite sure what it’s supposed to suggest? If you aim high, somebody will shaft you somewhere along the line? If you try and don’t succeed, cheat? Either way, this site was simple as pie. Back to basics, the hardest part was the 29 flights of stairs.
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.
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Captain Birdseye’s Flo Selecta
November 2010
A social event took me to Lincolnshire, a detour took me to a frozen over carpark, where young men in souped up hatchbacks skidded around on the ice, perilously close to my own motor car. Beneath the car park flowed a drain, and as I wandered across to the waterside, I got a few funny looks, which quickly subsided when the reckless teens collided with a bang.
‘Drainor’ Read the rest of this entry »
Crypt – November 2010
Given our lack of ability to find this on the basis that we knew what end of town it was in and that you could hear it roar as you walked over the lid, this was eventually remarkably easy. The Manchester contingent of Nckt, Concrete Jungle and Eotech had arrived earlier in the evening and we started the evening with another pleasant but photoless roam around the middle reaches of the Tyburn.
ArchesHoly Brook – November 2010
‘Gimme Shelter‘
It’s that other thing in Reading we just hadn’t done. Holy Brook has largely been ignored on the assumption that it probably wasn’t much good, it definitely wasn’t very big, it wasn’t a drain, it wasn’t a sewer, it was just a bit of a trickle that got in the way and so was covered at some point. Nevertheless, these things do need looking into.
Just One Pic – November 2010
I went into the Westbourne with Neb. We walked up to the point The Westbourne (aka the Ranelagh Sewer) intersects the Middle Level No 1 Sewer, and then returned and walked through to where it meets the Tyburn. The Egg is the Storm relief for The Westbourne, and as such, the configuration is slightly irregular in order to ensure the water goes where it’s meant to.
Confusion
A relatively sweaty, sticky, misty hike, we stopped just once for a photograph, an opportunity to see the point The Egg and the Westbourne meet briefly so that The Westbourne can overflow into The Egg to store excess storm water. On the left is the point whereby the Westbourne can flow down into The Egg during heavy flow. As that tunnel running perpendicular to the shot continues, it becomes part of the Storm Relief, eventually flowing into the Low Level sewer at the outfall. On the right of the image is the natural course of The Westbourne, leading south to the Tyburn.. Behind the camera is the rest of The Egg. This section of crossover has always confused, me, but I think I’ve got it now.. (If you know better, please correct me!)
KRT – October 2010
The latest in a string of tall buildings in London to play on, this follows Southwark Tower, London Bridge House and Temple Court as my ‘High London’ experiences. What made this different was the ease of which it could be explored and ascended.
