A Primer on Urban Exploration (UK and Overseas)
My love of Urban Exploration started last year in Malta. I picked up a book while in Valletta and read something about an abandoned night club.
After struggling to find Mystique, I jumped over a large wall and stuck my head in the entrance before my will broke and I legged it.
When I enter somewhere I technically shouldn’t be, there is a feeling of trepidation and excitement.
Maybe that is what the attraction is; sometimes you can get an adrenaline rush when you realise you are entering a lawless place or it appears that way.
Fast forward 8 months and I have done over 30 explores but am seeing few others post about this topic. I find this disappointing as the photography opportunities are boundless.
This is an attempt by me to encourage others to have a go at this fascinating hobby that will put you on the edge of the law without actually stepping over it.
The information below is based on the laws of England, it is different even in Scotland and surely is outside the United Kingdom.
Accessing a derelict or empty property constitutes civil trespass; it is not a criminal offence to be ‘caught’ within these places.
If the police are called by the owner, they will NOT arrest you unless you refuse to leave so make sure you do just that.
Some places do have security but it is rare that they are permanently on-site (Camelot below) is an example of this).
If you trigger an alarm, don't panic. The security guard will be woken up from his comfortable chair and likely complain to himself about the disturbance to his nap. Security will arrive and turf you off, but it may take 30 minutes. You will be done by then and gone.
If there are security signs, it doesn't mean that the security team is active. The owner may have stopped paying for their services. How do you find out? You can't.
The following rules likely apply to all places regardless of country.
- Some places are in remote locations. Neighbours and locals can be nosey bastards and generally don’t want you poking around.
It’s best to invest in a Harry Potter invisibility cloak, or if you can’t afford one try not to invoke suspicion by wearing a dodgy looking balaclava.
Don’t expect to gain access to a property even if the last report you read was, ‘Easy Access’. Some owners visit their properties and place concrete slabs over the access points that used to be doorways and windows.
If you visit by car, don't park it right next to the location. You are effectively saying, ‘I'm inside' to the outside world.
When planning a trip, target 3-4 explores. That way you have a good chance of success even if you only manage to access one of them.
Some trips I do are scouting missions. I don’t expect to gain access but I can do them solo. Mills are a place I generally don’t access alone as they can be deadly. One bad move and you can fall through the floor doing yourself injury or die horribly.
This is a scouting trip I visited recently with a very unwilling @bingbabe in tow. The last report was 2 years ago which tells me there may be no access now.
I found 2 points of access but even so, the place looks like it’s boarded up well. I will re-visit soon likely with @mender1 for a crack at getting in.
See those security cameras? They appeared to be the only ones. Easy to avoid once inside and are they actually working? They look a bit worn out to me.
Drones
While they may be expensive I may be tempted at some point at buying one for the aerial photography I can gain. @for91days recommended the Spark but they are £500 or so. If @dronegraphica does attend SteemCamp2 it will be a talking point for me.
How to find an Urbex when I live? (UK only)
Visit www.28dayslater.co.uk AND www.derelictbuildings.co.ukand create accounts on both of them.
Make a note of where you live. If you don’t know where you live then visit the local hospital and ask for the Amnesia ward.
Use the Search facilities on both sites entering the closest town to where you are. You will likely find something in your area.
Percy Brothers in Manchester has a recent report and may be worth a look. (above example).
Be a Detective
You may have the name of the place, but where is it? Urban Explorers are tetchy on revealing where places are so you will need to look.
Google Maps may tell you directly, just enter the name and check.
If not, search the internet for references. You may find an address or a postcode. It’s really not that difficult if you give it a few minutes of your time.
Use the overhead maps feature and street-level maps to pinpoint your find. Old places sometimes have bad roofs and this can often be viewed on these maps.
When Visiting
Wear some sturdy shoes. Nails in planks are common, and you don’t want them in your feet. Glass is generally all over the floor so don’t wear slippers or go barefoot.
Wear a used jacket. It may get torn and ripped when climbing through windows, accessing areas with narrow passages or squeezing through fences.
Walk around the entire location. If there’s a way in WITHOUT damaging anything then you can go inside. This is called an access point.
Don’t break in as that is technically criminal damage. If you can’t gain access without breaking stuff, then walk away. If someone else has already broken a door/window then they did it and not you.
If someone challenges you about access, take it on a case by case basis. If they are not the owner it’s often better to be polite (and then still go inside regardless of what they say).
If the challenger is a 7-foot muscle man who is built like a brick shit-house and looks like Lou Ferrigno but with no sense of humour then disregard my last bit of advice.
Explaining who you are and why you are there sometimes can work in your favour when encountering busybodies.
I hope after posting this, I see some posts that use the #urbex tag. If you can write articles about your explores like the ones I produce then I will give you big votes, that’s a given.
For those who post to sites such as www.28dayslater.co.uk or www.derelictbuildings.co.uk, why not post to the STEEM blockchain and earn some crypto-currency for your work?
If you earn a just a few cents then it’s a few cents more than you are currently earning.
![](https://steemitimages.com/DQmSSjgs1swFwv64uXRVpB9DAtzSnDv2Eeqr3CnPAup4WVV/Banner.png)
If you found this article so invigorating that you are now a positively googly-eyed, drooling lunatic with dripping saliva or even if you liked it just a bit, then please upvote, comment, resteem, engage me or all of these things.
This sounds like a lot of fun. I haven’t tried getting into any abandoned buildings before but you’ve put the idea into my head. somehow I’m not sure that american law will be so friendly about it
As I said to @bozz, in the US it would be a lot more hairy. Guns are rarely seen in the UK, and you need to know the laws. Still, if you find any where there's no crazy bastards inside, then have a go, but not alone.
Yeaaaa it's a shame but all those guns really does add a lot of risk
I really love the drone idea! It would be very cool and also dual purpose because you can get a bunch of other awesome photography with it of course.
I wish I could get more into it over here. However between the difference in the trespass laws and the real possibility of being shot, the fun is sadly just not worth the risk. Yet I am so fascinated by the scenes of decay.
Well, you will just have to read mine then.. or emigrate the the UK!
hi hi long time my friend @slobberchops, and nice to see your adventure. wish you luck with the second attempt to the place. wish you all the best as always
Ill try it soon, hope to get in.
nice to know, and nice to keep in touch with you again. wish you get success about that
You put the bug back in my head, so I went and did some checking. There is not a single UrBex location listed in Yuma, and not even in Yuma County. Which is puckus, I've been to a couple out in the country.
We do have some ghost towns in Arizona, and I've been to several of those. The nearest is Swansea about 100 miles north. We do have an abandoned suspension bridge that I ought to chronicle. It's not so much that the bridge was abandoned, but that the river was diverted and it doesn't cross anything :)
So. I'll look around some. Promise.
Thanks for the review. I really do appreciate it.
I hope your not looking on those UK websites in hopes of Yuma explores? ;)
It does sound a little bare over there. There are plenty here especially in the rundown cities. I'll watch out for yours, try not to get shot and killed when doing your photography :)
Great advice for noobs! I wouldn't mind seeing what sort of hardware kit you take with you as well!
Very little, just that huge light I mentioned before. You need some solid shoes and a disposable jacket.
I would have thought that you would have at least a pocket knife or a first aid kit... Just in case!
Got to live life in the fast lane sometimes. Too much clobber makes for more weight and carrying. It's just the light for me.. for now.
I still think that a full on Batman utility belt would be a totally great look!
I think I'll stick to scrambling and leave the urbex to you and @mender1. Those places give me the creeps! On the subject of locating them though - have you tried using Google Earth? It's great for looking at places from different angles and in 3D, and it offers some great tools.
I have tried it but cant really see any advantages over Google maps. You can zoom into places off road if the angle is correct. Its the out of the way places I would like to see street maps but they are mostly missing.
Yeah it probaly depends what you're using it for. I used it recently to sneak a closer look at a fantastic house I spotted in a local street that was actually designed by a well-known architect in the 1930s. You can twiddle the image round and get a look at it from all angles, which you can't really do on Google Maps. Great if you're a nosy parker. Also there's a ruler tool, so you can measure exact distances which helped me get my pacing right over 100m. Probably not much use to you.
I'm wondering how @bingbabe got on in the London Marathon. I'll look back over your recent posts. I'm just back from a week on the Isle of Rum with no internet.
There's a post about her run, you will find it easily enough, though its more a moan from me about being her pack mule!
Haha! I just read it. It's great. What an achievement for both of you!
Nice review! I still think you are likely to get shot if you tried half that stuff in the states :P It's not the authorities I worry about as much as the civilians! I am still debating getting my drone license so I can use the big ones that the school has here. I think for the most part they sit in a case and are never used. Pretty sad...
I agree, I wouldn't do it over there. People are simply too gun happy. The dude last week with the air rifle was bad enough.
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You have a very unusual hobby from my perspective. I had no idea people were into this. I thought, how interesting can this be so I read and found out you are a funny guy and made this interesting, but I don't think I will be climbing fences to see old buildings although it does seem exciting but I am to old now and would probably get hurt. I'll follow your adventures instead.
It is not exactly popular, and young people are more into it which makes me an oddity. I generally go in with a partner (who is also not 18 yrs old), for safety.
There is an element of scrambling about but not too much, but you can catch yourself easily and run into people occasionally. It keeps me young and gives me an excuse to post about something non-mainstream.
What do you mean "catch yourself"?
Its an English term I guess. It's where you hook on to a piece of glass / metal ripping your clothes or skin while walking past it. Unpleasant!
Interesting. I can see that meaning, but when I read it I thought it meant you could recover your balance if you stumbled. (Which is lots easier when you are 18 yo ... than it gets after a while. This is the voice of experience.)
"catch yourself" would probably describe it here too, I wasn't sure. Thanks.
Probably not apt to kill you or full of debris like most of yours, but it would still be fun to prowl around and explore it, I think.
Woah, I'm getting all excited here. Is that close to you?
No. It's somewhere in Belgium. (One of your European colleagues posts them occasionally.) I come across these and others while prowling through Flickr looking for photos for my site. The haunting sadness of them really speaks to me. I have a folder on my computer called "In Transition" where I keep the best of them. Some of yours are there. I'm sure that's one reason this series appeals to me so much. These places really call to my imagination.
I have a church Urbex coming up next week, this one was a big special. We got in last week, @goblinknackers and me.