Marc’s 29th – November 2010
When a friend comes to London for his birthday, it’s rude not to celebrate. An excellent attendance was made by all present, a very pr0 group if ever I saw one. KRT was chosen, we all said we were busy and Marc got lonely and turned up at Danny’s, who promptly told him he had to work but could meet later. Later they met and ended up on the 29th floor (convenient), where we all waited for the man himself to party.
Marc, Danny, Brad, Chris, Zero, Siolo, Cogito, Neb, Patch, Speed, Gorbotchov, Snappel, Yaz, Bukowski, Sgt Marshall, Claire Elise, Za Gringo, Rupert Griffiths and maybe one or two others I forgot made this a night to remember.
Props to Brad, Dan and Zero for putting in the legwork to make this happen.
Mistaken Identity – October 2010
This trip was sponsored by cans of the good stuff and giant orange sweets. We headed up out of London on the Friday evening, with a couple of culverts to check out in Birmingham. Through a prickly bush and into an open section close to the canal, we entered what was a pair of concrete box culverts with a thin layer of slime on the surface of them. Slipping and sliding along our way, these soon opened out to a junction containing a CSO overflow and the main flow of the culvert.
Parallel pipes Read the rest of this entry »
Cut and Cover #2 – Lords
We hit Lords. As service ended on the Saturday night we found ourselves on the tracks just close to the abandoned station. This was unlike the other stations that I’ve visited, in that we didn’t enter into the station, we had to walk on the tracks to it. Thankfully not too far, but a new experience nonetheless. It gets the blood pumping, knowing a diesel works train could steam up behind you forcing a hasty walk into a jog or a run for sanctity.
Labyrinth – October 2010
Mr N was the only one able to participate in tonight’s activities, so the two of us headed down from Reading Town to London, and went promptly to the lid we’d identified at the weekend. After climbing into the bowels of the earth, we had a choice to either walk along the middle level sewer which was flooded with piss, pigs blood, fat from Chinese restaurants, shit, used tamps and johns and various old body parts. OR we could go deeper into the North Kensington Relief sewer, a deliciously slippery 5 foot tall barrel. We chose the latter.
Slippery Slidey Steps of Death (And fetid bloodrags) Read the rest of this entry »
Dreadnaught – October 2010
We wanted to hit Motherload. As we walked down the path where the lid is, the heavens opened and pissed cats and dogs at us an hour. Motherload is meant to be nasty at the best of times, volatile like a couple of previous relationships. Spits 3 times a day, usually unexpected and due to several co-factors. When it rains, no drains. Except from Dreadnaught. I realised when we went to Dreadnaught in June, we’d missed a few bits, bits that were actually quite interesting.
The 3 way spread (2 outfall pipes, one main channel) Read the rest of this entry »
Caserne Montlaur – Corsica – October 2010
Quite a grey set of buildings really, Caserne Montlaur. Perched on top of a rocky outcrop in a small city of 3,000 on a French island about the size of South Wales. Population of the island? About the same as Reading. No wonder the population is depleted. Theres no work on the island unless you fancy running a restaurant or hotel, and as such, more than three times of the population of Corsica has left it to seek work on mainland France. You like abandonment? We’ve got a whole island for you here.
‘Here’s us doing it’ – August 2010
‘Up the junction’
“Failing to prepare is preparing to fail”, said somebody wise once. Benjamin Franklin, to be precise. Although not explicity related to the practice of ‘going in the drains’, the theme still stands. Usual kit for these expeditions is: Waders, Torch, helmet, hi-viz jacket, drain keys, camera, tripod. Take away the waders, you get wet. Take away the torch, you can’t see. Take away the Hi-viz and helmet and you’re suspicious. Take away the drain key and you can’t get in. Take away the camera and you can’t take photos. Take away the tripod and you get wobbly ones.
‘Union Street’ – August 2010
‘Union St’ was an underground tram station constructed with the cut and cover techniques pioneered during the building of the District and Circle Lines. Union St served the now defunct Aldwych line, with a combination of electric and battery powered trains. The station was opened by King Edward in 1908 and closed just 31 years later; with the advent of the war it was decided to close the station and turn it into one of the many shelters that served during the blitz.*
The Runs – April-August 2010
The sewers of London serve the city’s bowels; the nervous system is catered for by the miles of fibre optics found beneath the city in these tunnels and more. The lifeblood that keeps the city going is the cable runs, a network of subterrannean tunnels carrying gas and electrical supplies. Take any of these away and the city shuts down, just as the body does if you take away any of the functions giving life. Just as we rarely see inside the human body, we rarely see inside the city.
Map and Ladder
The River Fleet – August 2010
The River Fleet is the best known of the ‘lost’ London rivers, being the one that was most central to the City of London. We’d dipped our feet in the waters of the Tyburn, Counters Creek and the Westbourne, but hadn’t really given much effort to The Fleet. I couldn’t say why. Danny had identified a set of lids which may have yielded, and the first we tried set us into the River. We headed downstream.
