Urban Exploration - The Ones that Got Away

in #urbex6 years ago (edited)

When planning your Urban Exploration trip, you need to be prepared for many disappointments. There are few places you can look to check if a place is accessible, or how to gain access.

Even so, all you can get is a general idea. Bookings too are out of the question.

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Expect to be creeping around in dense foliage, getting crap all over your shoes, generally behaving like a sleuth and regaining your lost teenage years.

Asking for information regarding locations is frowned upon in the community, although if you have gained enough reputation you may get some advice.

It’s a good idea to earmark at least FOUR places to visit as you may only get a success rate of 50% at best.

Gathering all the information in advance is critical if you don’t want to waste all your time messing with a small phone screen looking at maps to find that elusive explore.

As well as the successes, there have been many places I have failed to access. Whether I get in or not I still photograph all places I visit.

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Today’s sealed entrance may be tomorrow’s big hole I can climb through. Nothing remains the same indefinitely.

Today I present you with a collection of places that I (we) in some cases failed to access, and why.


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Griffin Lodge, Blackburn, Lancashire

Twice I have visited the lodge and both times it has been completely sealed.

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This old red bricked mansion house has been torched several times in the last few years and save scaling a 12-foot wall is now inaccessible.

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I was reminded of my trip to Auschwitz when I saw these spiked railings. From what I can gather from a talkative local, the Lodge was previously used as a museum.


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St John the Evangelist, Crawshawbooth, Lancashire

There are many churches in England, I mean they are everywhere so photographs of this to me are nothing special.

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I read a report that someone had infiltrated this church in late 2018 so went along to find nothing but seals.

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The building is for sale at a paltry £75,000. Considering the price of housing this seems extremely cheap. Once sold it will be then off the UrBex radar.

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What a house that would make, that’s if you don’t mind living in the middle of a medieval graveyard.


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Imperial Mill, Blackburn, Lancashire

The Lancashire mills were once the stalwarts of workplaces during the Industrial revolution. Now they are either renovated into flats, partitioned off to small businesses or derelict.

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Imperial Mill is partly derelict and partly still used. During our visit we could see cars and people milling about.

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It is also fenced off and boasts working security cameras. The part that is still used doesn’t want the likes of me getting anywhere near it, and for good reason.


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Nameless House (Undisclosed Location)

I simply drove past this place one day it and noticed it was boarded up. It’s off the roadside in a semi-rural area and I earmarked it for investigation later.

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Myself and @mender1 visited several weeks ago and it is sealed up tight.

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These untouched places can be gems if you can get in, but it was not going to happen that day.


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St James Church, Church, Lancashire

I have had little success in the way of churches and this one was no different. It is completely sealed with rugged metal doors.

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I was never going to get in and have a look around. Unlike the other church, this one does not appear to be for sale.


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Stephenson Brothers Dry Salters, Bradford, West Yorkshire

This is one of my most recent fails. I accompanied @mender1 and @goblinknackers to this central derelict mill, but again it was sealed tight.

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Canvas covering was over one section informing us all that it was being converted to apartments.

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@mender1 seemed particularly keen on this one and didn’t appear to want to give up. He tried slipping through the 6-inch-wide bars but simply wasn’t skinny enough to cut the mustard.

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We spotted this large dead rat close by; you see all kinds of things and after a while it gets to be normal. Apologies if you are squeamish. The rodent kind of sums up this area.


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Wapping First School, Bradford, West Yorkshire

This place looked fantastic and had obviously been empty for years but someone had taken a lot of effort to seal it up.

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Double fencing was the problem, and it was that 6-foot-high spiky type that we found at The Latvian Consulate.

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There was one point where I could have possibly crawled under a gate and someone had removed part of the spiky fence but due to all the pies I eat these days, I’m just too damn fat to get under it.

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All photographs were taken by myself.


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Other articles in the ‘Urban Exploration’ series:

The Doll's House
Camelot Theme Park // Albion Street Day Nursery
Allsprings House // The Latvian Consolute
Rose Bank Mill // Horncliffe Mansion Part One: The Car Graveyard
Horncliffe Mansion Part Two: The Mansion // Stand Athletic Football Club
A Trilogy of Failures II // Brodock Ltd, The Old Paper Mill (Failed)
Workhouse Farm // Hellifield Abandoned Train
Extwistle Hall // Huncoat Power Station (Demolished)
A Trilogy of Failures // Holdings Country Pottery

References:
https://www.theurbanexplorer.co.uk/
https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/
https://www.whateversleft.co.uk/
https://www.britainsdecays.com/
http://www.urbanxphotography.co.uk/urbex-faqs


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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.

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Well the rat photo has delayed my lunch a little while longer!

75k does seem like a snip, although i'm guessing renovation work to make it habitable would be many times that. A potentially long walk to the shops too?

Happy exploring :)

It's less than 2 minutes walk to the local shops, but the upkeep would be hard work. Look at all those windows and churches are freezing places at the best of times.

The rat? He was around 10 inches long.. I mean very big..., I wont post any more rat snaps.. that one was enough.

oh my that rat, ugh! I'm sure you do see a bit of that. These buildings are amazing. I understand why you love exploring them. The architecture is so interesting and the fact that some use spikes to keep people out? Love the pics

I'm getting quite familiar now with the types of fencing use to keep the likes of me out. These things you never notice before. Thanks for the comment.

I was saying "Ugh" out loud even before I saw the photo of that poor rat, because that derelict mill is in a right state! But some these photos are beautiful. I love the St John the Evangelist church, and the Unnamed House looks lovely until you see the boarded up windows and the creepy wide-open "grinning mouth" doorway.
I'd love to explore that church. But I don't think £75k would be "cheap" - it would probably be a listed building and would cost a fortune to renovate or convert into anything.

Ill keep trying the church. There's always some dickhead who likes to kick in the boards. If its open then its open season so to speak.

The church is cheap but being listed is a liability and a hard sell if you ever want to move.

Wow, that huge of a church for 75k. That is crazy. It must be haunted or something. lol It is huge though. But, still not sure why anyone would buy it even it's 10k?

You have been going on adventures lately my friend. Thanks for sharing them with us here on Steemit. :)

P.S. It could of worked without the rodent picture.lol

Its been for sale for some time now, and there's several others in the north west that are the same.

You have been going on adventures lately my friend. Thanks for sharing them with us here on Steemit. :)

What is a shame is that NOBODY else does UrbEx on the STEEM blockchain. I would welcome some more.

The rat.. yes its overkill.. no more rats.. I promise.

I am not sure what Urbex? I have been gone for a while and I am sure many things happened while I was gone... I would appreciate little more info? :)

Its exploring and photographing abandoned places and buildings. Its technically not legal here and can be seen as civil trespass.

Its also very exciting as you are doing things that are on the edge of the law.

There are ethics involved though. You take photographs, and nothing else, no breaking in, no vandalism, no spray painting.

Look at the bottom of my post.. Other articles in the ‘Urban Exploration’ series'

That's all that I have written about to date.

hehe not legal = adventure and let's do it. hehe I might have to join in as I am living in a beautiful city in Italy now.

Will try to keep it down on breaking, vandalism and spray painting.. hehe

Thanks for the info, my friend.

There's the basic difference between you and I. When I am headed someplace and fail nobody knows. When you punch out a failure you still get some good photos to publish :)

I can't imagine that Church staying on the market long at that rate. I'd love it, I could have 'the motorcycle wing' in my manse!

Thanks for the fun post.

I will keep an eye on the church. Its very close to my mothers house so will learn if it sells. I visited another one last week than has reports and pictures that look like Satan's Den.

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/threads/st-pauls-church-denholme-june-2017.110065/

However when we arrived it HAD been sold and was being renovated. That was disappointing.. and I didn't even get a single snap.

Wow, that is quite the collection of fails. The ones you have succeeded at have been great reads though. Those churches would have been awesome to see the inside of. There are a couple of old churches down by Detroit that they have now turned into concert venues and night clubs. Sacrilegious I know :) I went to a show at one of them one time though and it was a pretty cool place. With all the original stained glass and stuff...

They are a hard sell here. The UK does have its share of religious types but I wouldn't say its really popular.

These churches require a lot of upkeep given the crappy weather we have. You can see in St Johns, that there's a plea letter to keep it going.

For places like St John the Evangelist that are on the market, is just posing as a prospective buyer to get a viewing considered bad form or cheating in the UrbEx community?

Well that's not a bad idea. It would be a considered a 'permission view' and is not 'cheating'.

I haven't been privy to any of these yet, and though it would gain me a result it would lack the excitement of the stealth and subterfuge involved.

I must admit I have posed as a 'buyer' on a few occasions.... purely out of curiosity 😉

And it can have the extra benefit of being able to ask questions to the estate agent.

Wow! I don't think I would be crawling through any of those holes after seeing a rat that size! Although I would love to get inside some of those places with my camera for sure!

Some are very easy to get into, you just need to be aware that these places can collapse and bury you if not careful.

Have a look around your area, but take someone along if you try one. The photography opportunities are fantastic.

75 grant for a church! maybe I should move north...
Thanks for the great story @slobberchops!

It does seem cheap for an enormous building.. the trouble is there are protected so cant be demolished. That makes them an liability to own.

I am amazed at the number of places there that are both empty yet guarded. Of course in Detroit there are blocks of houses where only a few are occupied. Most other places are either sold or razed. Very cool.

I think the UK is a good place to do this. I wouldn't dare do it over there. You as a photographer would love it though.

There's so many opportunities for crazy looking shots.

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