Archive for the ‘Gary’ tag
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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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.
‘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
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
Prohobohemia 3.0 – [Soon, we’ll leave for Europe] – July 2010
Europe beckons again. The tick tock of a monotonous life of work, rest, and occassionally play has born fruit, and the fruit this time is two weeks off in a hirecar, with Statler, Gary and Brad.
On the last prolonged homeless tour, we all wanted to immerse ourselves further into the ‘lifestyle’ of urbex. With our basic needs met within the crumbling walls of the buildings we explored; sleeping and eating in these spaces seemed perfectly normal, as did finding spaces in courtyards to build small fires upon which we could cook. Should the apocalypse come, our survival would only depend on our ability to acquire prepacked sausages from the Carrefours and Aldi’s scattered across the continent.
6 nights was the length of the last ‘long’ trip, a couple of weekenders thrown in for good measure at the start of the year are good fun albeit brief. This time, we’ll be away for 12 nights, spread across 4 countries. We’ll hit Poland for Soviet Military bases, the Ruhr for mining, Berlin for general dereliction, Belgium for the last few bits on the official ticksheet, and Luxembourg for some heavy industry.
Prohobo 3.0 here we come!
Novotel – June 2010
Having realised that June was a very quiet month for my nocturnal expeditions, I guess the last night of the month was the best one to top up the explore count with. Originally meeting for a couple of beers and some of the finest grub mr JD Wetherspoon could muster, we discussed our recent lack of high stuff as we walked past the local Novotel, realising that maybe we could get up on the roof there.
