Urban Exploration

[Pendaric]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urban_exploration

Anybody here in to looking round abandoned buildings for the hell of it?

I didn't realise it was as popular at it is, but I bumped in to this forum today for British explorers:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/index.php

I do actually do quite a bit of looking around derelict sites for work anyway when I'm pricing asbestos jobs - some of the sites they have as explores on the 28 days later forum I've been around myself in a work capacity. I always enjoy it, and I can see why these guys do it.

It's not about vandalism or theft. The motto of 'take only pictures, leave only footprints' is strongly adhered to. Although the legality of it is somewhat dubious based around trespass laws, I don't really see what harm is being done.

I've never thought of doing it for a hobby, but I'm tempted to scope out some of the buildings around my way now.

[curses]

Aww, saw the thread title and was coming in here to post the 28 Days Later site. It's got some absolutely amazing stuff on it!

There are a few buildings around the area that I'd like to explore, but I wouldn't feel comfortable doing it on my own. One of them for the fear of bumping into gang activity.

Have a poke around this LJ site (http://community.livejournal.com/abandonedplaces/). Some nice stuff gets posted there from time to time.

[livius drusus]

I'm definitely fascinated by urban exploration -- especially urban spelunking -- but so far I've been too chicken to try any.

When you do an asbestos job estimate do you check out these buildings by yourself, baldbantam?

[Watser?]

I didn't know there was a name for it. I have done that on some occasions over the last 20 years or so with a friend of mine. He does it on his own too.

[viscousmemories]

I've always been fascinated by abandoned buildings, but haven't explored any since I was a kid.

[Pendaric]

I'm definitely fascinated by urban exploration -- especially urban spelunking -- but so far I've been too chicken to try any.

When you do an asbestos job estimate do you check out these buildings by yourself, baldbantam?

Just depends on the site. Sometimes they give you the keys and you just go and wander with a survey report, other times you're accompanied.

Old cinemas and theatres are the spookiest places to be in by yourself. Normally the power is off and you're exploring by torchlight.

This is one of the explores for the Odeon cinema in Bradford, my hometown.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8100

That's one of the ones I've been around by myself pricing up. I don't know how they got the auditoriums so well lit for the pictures, because there isn't any power on and they were pitch black when I looked around.

I also did the asbestos strip on the Guest and Chrimes site near Rotherham, which is another explore they have:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10656

That's pretty much exactly as it was when we were there a year or so ago - matter of fact the powder coating plant they show I have a price in to dismantle in the fullness of time!

[Ymir's blood]

I would love to do stuff like that, but the private property angle things gets me as well. Also, it isn't something I'd do alone given the abandoned and possibly unsafe nature of the structures. Or course hereabouts, abandoned buildings are likely to be small businesses, farmhouses or barns.

Some of the abandoned farmhouses I've seen are definitely interesting from creepy angle. Overgrown with vines and whatnot, they look like something from a horror movie.

[Pendaric]

I also do quite a lot of crawling around underneath buildings, both industrial and houses, in the sub floor bits where the services are, because that's where asbestos on pipes tend to be. That can be really interesting, as well as a bit claustrophobic.

[livius drusus]

Old cinemas and theatres are the spookiest places to be in by yourself. Normally the power is off and you're exploring by torchlight.
I bet. Lon Chaney in The Phantom of the Opera (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0016220/) scared the hell out of me when I was a kid. It's one of those fear-and-desire things 'cause I love old theaters with a passion.

They're also packed with asbestos given how fireprone they were. Hell, one theater in my former neck of the woods still used their 100 year-old asbestos curtain.

This is one of the explores for the Odeon cinema in Bradford, my hometown.

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=8100

That's one of the ones I've been around by myself pricing up. I don't know how they got the auditoriums so well lit for the pictures, because there isn't any power on and they were pitch black when I looked around.

That is so, so cool. The pictures look amazing. There must have been some non-torch light source because they look like they were taken in a totally normal building.

I also did the asbestos strip on the Guest and Chrimes site near Rotherham, which is another explore they have:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=10656

That's pretty much exactly as it was when we were there a year or so ago - matter of fact the powder coating plant they show I have a price in to dismantle in the fullness of time!

:w00t: Do you ever take pics or keep logs or anything of your own visits to these places? Just because you actually have permission to be there doesn't mean you're not exploring the urbs. :giggles:

[Pendaric]

I might start taking some more pics of general views. Normally I'm following a survey which already has pictures in it of the relevant bits, but they just tend to be close ups of the asbestos, although I suppose some of those might be of interest to people who do this.

[Pendaric]

I'm finding that site fascinating.

This place is literally 5 minutes from me. I think I'll go take a look tomorrow:

http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/showthread.php?t=11221

[livius drusus]

There's a cool article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/nyregion/thecity/29shad.html?ref=thecity) in the NYT about urban explorers in NYC. The audio slide show (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20070729_SHADOW_FEATURE/blocker.html) is definitely worth checking out, as are Miru Kim's amazing nude self-portraits (http://mirukim.com/) of her exploring urbs all over the world.

Here she is in the Paris catacombs (yup, there's a mini-castle in there; go figure):

http://www.mirukim.com/nakedcityspleen/catas/castle/3.jpg

[godfry n. glad]

As a kid, I had a great opportunity that few other kids did...doing this from the other end of the building process.

My father was a construction inspector for a major architectual firm and I got multiple tours of various job sites while I was growing up. They usually involved climbing rail ladders and walking catwalks, but they always included standing in the open on the highest completed floor without walls. They were some of the tallest buildings in town at the time....always a thrill for a kid (along with all the big equipiment - cranes, shovels, piledrivers, bulldozers and monster dump trucks).

[Watser?]

There's a cool article (http://www.nytimes.com/2007/07/29/nyregion/thecity/29shad.html?ref=thecity) in the NYT about urban explorers in NYC. The audio slide show (http://www.nytimes.com/packages/html/nyregion/20070729_SHADOW_FEATURE/blocker.html) is definitely worth checking out, as are Miru Kim's amazing nude self-portraits (http://mirukim.com/) of her exploring urbs all over the world.

Here she is in the Paris catacombs (yup, there's a mini-castle in there; go figure):

http://www.mirukim.com/nakedcityspleen/catas/castle/3.jpg

A catacomb would be about the last place I would want to be naked in...

[Ymir's blood]

A catacomb would be about the last place I would want to be naked in...
What about a meat grinding factory?

[livius drusus]

Compared to some of the other blighted places she's been, I'd say the catacombs were downright fun to be naked in. For one thing, no puddles of indeterminate spooge lying around.

[Watser?]

A catacomb would be about the last place I would want to be naked in...
What about a meat grinding factory?
:shudder:

Compared to some of the other blighted places she's been, I'd say the catacombs were downright fun to be naked in. For one thing, no puddles of indeterminate spooge lying around.
:shudder:

[Shelli]

ewwwwww... :verysick: