....by which I mean the places that made the biggest impact on you, you enjoyed the most, you got your most memorable experiences out of or you simply took the best photo of?

We're a few days away from starting a new decade and, from where I stand at least, this has been the most important, memorable, life-affirming and life-shaping decade of my existence so far. So much has happened in the last ten years not just related to exploring, but where exploring is concerned it's been a real fun ride (mostly..!). I've been exploring only just over a decade now having begun in June 2009 but in the intervening ten years so many locations have come and gone, amazing places demolished and new amazing places found and I'm guessing this is a shared experience for everyone across the board wherever you are. Further to that I have met so many awesome people during the course of the last decade, many of which I class now as my closest friends as well as exploring buddies.

It's fair to say the biggest, most pivotal moment of my life this decade was my decision in late 2013 to plan a trip to America in 2014 - the trip I had dreamed of taking for years prior. It was only meant to be a one time thing but I loved the country, the explores and the people so much that I have gone back once or twice a year ever since and it's a decision that has shaped nearly every factor of my life since. Had I not taken that trip I wouldn't have met the most important person in my life, and made other amazing friends like Essexplorer.

Anyway enough personal waffle, here is a selection of photos of places that shaped my decade in one way or another - I'd love to see yours so feel free to comment and post your own shots below of the most memorable things that have happened.

NGTE Pyestock - 2010

Everyone knows the National Gas Turbine Establishment, otherwise known as Pyestock. If, for some reason you don't, read this - www.ngte.co.uk - for everything you could wish to know about what was widely regarded as the single greatest explore the UK ever had. When it was demolished during 2013 it was as if the heart of exploring in the UK had been torn out, similar to when Cane Hill Asylum was demolished in 2008/2009.

I was lucky enough to visit the place four times, successfully evading security every time. I will always regret never going back after I got my better camera equipment.







RAF Greenham Common Cruise Missile Shelters - 2011

A bucket list explore for both me and a friend of mine, watching the sun rise over the hardened nuclear missile shelters of RAF Greenham Common. One of the most memorable experiences of my life.



Mill Complex Dyehouse - 2012

Perhaps one of the finest timewarp industrial sites in the country. I have visited it numerous times since 2012 and watched it get worse and worse every visit with more tagging and broken stuff. Back in 2012 it was in beautiful condition.









Mansfield General Hospital - 2012

Arguably the greatest abandoned general hospital the UK ever had. Closed in 1992 and left full of equipment it had taken a battering from idiots over the ensuing two decades but it was an amazing place. It was finally demolished in 2013.







Maison Boon - 2013

A typical abandoned Belgian farmhouse but host to the single scariest experience I have ever had, when an enraged Belgian farmer attacked us inside the house, whilst his wife cut our car tyres outside.



Blast Furnace HF6 - 2014

Another bucket list location I had wanted to do for years and I finally crossed it off on my last trip to the continent on a horrifically sweaty, humid July morning. It was demolished in 2017.





Silk Mill - 2014

I know I've said about bucket list locations on here but this is the place that was #1 for so, so long. On my first American trip it was the one place I made sure I saw no matter what and it was every bit as amazing as I knew it was going to be, maybe even more so. It's the best industrial time capsule in the world bar none, sadly a year or so back the owner passed away and now I fear it's future is very uncertain.







Grossinger's Resort - 2014

Done to death, ruined, tagged and trashed and now demolished but Grossinger's was the location that spurred me on to actually plan my first American trip. It was utterly ruined but 'that' pool was something I desperately needed to shoot for myself.



Selma Plantation House - 2015

My favourite mansion ever. Me and my friend got incredibly lucky here as so many people got nabbed by the police, thankfully the fact it was freezing cold and snowing must have meant nobody was being nosey. It's now been renovated into a fabulous house by the new owners.





Selly Oak Hospital - 2015

Best mortuary I've ever seen, and the rest of the huge hospital wasn't bad either considering it had been modernised and the building containing the operating theatres had been torn down. Demolished in 2016.





'The Field of Dreams' - 2016

One of the top three car graveyards I have ever shot, and best of all this one was tracked down through nothing more than a rumour and a rough location. Hundreds of cars had found their way to this property over the preceding six decades, sadly now most of it has been scrapped.







Steelworks - 2016

Second only to Pyestock in my ultimate list of favourite locations I have ever explored.



Caterham F1 Headquarters - 2016

The only location I've explored that's gone 'viral', in hindsight I should have expected some kind of reaction when I first put these photos online.





Synagogue - 2017

My favourite, and probably best, accidental find. In a city full of explorers it's amazing that apparently nobody had cracked this place until a Brit came along with a guy from NJ and strolled casually inside.





Rootes Car Graveyard - 2017

The best car graveyard I have ever found in the UK, now sadly mostly cleared.







Regional Hospital - 2018

The best time capsule hospital I managed to see. Closed since 2000 with everything left inside. Absolutely insane.







There we have it...sadly the one place I wanted to post from 2019 I can't just yet due to various reasons.

It's been a great decade nonetheless, now over to you...

Westborough State Hospital - 2018

This was one that I had already wanted to do for a very long time and jumped at the opportunity while visiting some family I had never met before. The campus was razed earlier this year.

lester by pearson, on Flickr

lester2 by pearson, on Flickr

lester3 by pearson, on Flickr

lester4 by pearson, on Flickr

lester5 by pearson, on Flickr

lester6 by pearson, on Flickr

lester7 by pearson, on Flickr

Central Unit - 2017

This was the first prison to close in the state of Texas and was another location that I had my eyes on for a long time. I'm not sure why I never decided to try it but once I started to see it pop up on social media I needed to make my move before the place got completely ruined.

DSC00250 by pearson, on Flickr

DSC00279 by pearson, on Flickr

DSC00286 by pearson, on Flickr

DSC00306 by pearson, on Flickr

DSC00328 by pearson, on Flickr

DSC00330 by pearson, on Flickr

Great tea for compilations! I'll shave to go and scrying up old pictures. Though, won't be nearly as impressive as most.

No edit, but spell correct made this nonsense.

Great idea and thank you for the accompanying narratives! A good narrative always gives the photos more depth and perspective.
I had wanted to compile a ‘best of,’ for the year, but maybe I’ll add to the decade one instead.
Cheers
DA

Wow...this definitely checks all the boxes! Loving all of these for various reasons, but that last blast furnace shot, and "regional hospital"...just...😍
Thanks for sharing this awesome closure of the year, and the decade! Cheers to you, and may you, as well as all of us, have a safe and epically explorable 2020!

My UER badge here tells me I have only been exploring for 8 years. I opened an account here shortly after I started wandering into abandoned buildings.




My favorite types of places are industrial. This spot eluded me for so long. I don't think it was until the 5th attempt I finally got in. There was always something wrong happening when trying this spot. Security parked right by where I thought to get by a fence. Not able to find a way past a fence, all holes patched. Always bad timing. When I finally got in, it was 5 degrees, and absolutely miserable. But so worth it.


_DSC0047 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


_DSC0129 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



This power station was one of the freshest abandonedments I have ever seen, still with power and no graffiti, shortly after seeing it, it was converted to a natural gas power station.

_DSC0059 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


_DSC0058 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr




St. Nicholas coal breaker was about 45 minutes from where I lived, I went here more times than I can remember. It never got boring to me.

ext by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Found this by driving around randomly without having a clue what it was. So surprised and happy to discover this inside.


all-dolled-up_11065325353_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


One of the weirdest and low key places I stumbled on. An abandoned fun house.


barl-o-fun_19837780731_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Kings Park was the first longest trip I ever took to see an abandoned building. It was a bit overwhelming, and disappointing at the time. Wish I would have gone with someone who knew their way around.


image01_7310988160_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr




One of the most ornate theaters I have ever personally seen. I really loved this spot. It would get closed up, and we'd find other ways in so many times.


play-for-no-one_9655912526_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



This Philly mansion was the longest it ever took me to get into a place. An hour and a half crawling underneath in crawl spaces before getting inside. Everyone I had talked to at the time said how impossible it would be to see it.


main-entrance-hall_13937695523_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


view-from-above_14050704194_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Favorite car graveyard, full of volkswagens.


_DSC0179 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr




_1010102-2-2 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr




The best of the Poconos honeymoon resorts in my opinion. Least wrecked, and craziest gun packing caretakers.


theatrics--get-ready-for-the-show_14286050692_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


it-gets-lonely-in-here_14203797959_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



Embreeville was one of the most underrated mental hospitals. Lots of people didn't care for it. But I really loved it. Always easy to get in, and find something interesting to photograph.

play-time_10377200795_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr




The Budd factory. Any time I was in Philly, and couldn't get into what was originally planned, we ended up here.


budd-factory_24569426034_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



My favorite novelty on a building.


dixieland_28346657533_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



My first semi active mental hospital campus. Was so fun. Power in some areas, heat in tunnels, steam leaks, and peaking through some doors revealed areas currently in use.

_1010192 by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr



color-form_16750097840_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr


envoke_15816518887_o by Johhny Dawggit, on Flickr

I had a Full Member thread of my "7 Wonders of NYC" that would probably be my explores of the decade.

Other than that, many great underground spots (bunkers, transit tunnels both under construction and hidden, a megadrain), unique infrastructure no one else had been attempting, and most proudly, an abandoned nuclear site that had no exploring pics online and very limited information about it anywhere.

Posted by superphoenix I had a Full Member thread of my "7 Wonders of NYC" that would probably be my explores of the decade. Other than that, many great underground spots (bunkers, transit tunnels both under construction and hidden, a megadrain), unique infrastructure no one else had been attempting, and most proudly, an abandoned nuclear site that had no exploring pics online and very limited information about it anywhere.

Boom.

Pretty sure, you, and uliveanduburn are the best explorers here. Wow.

Link to 7 wonders of NYC?

Posted by randomesquephoto Boom. Pretty sure, you, and uliveanduburn are the best explorers here. Wow. Link to 7 wonders of NYC?

Found it!


http://www.uer.ca/...urrpage=1&pp#post0

I'll play! Especially since I started really taking this serious near the beginning of the last decade.

Starting out with the obvious - Overbrook. My first visit was in the final months of 2011. As crazy as it sounds, this place became a part of me and shaped my life moving forward:



Greystone. This marks my biggest regret in exploring. My first visit was 2012. I attempted the explore the incredible property countless times. By myself, before I knew anyone who knew anything about it. Needless to say I got kicked out every time. I'm still incredibly thankful for the amount of exteriors I got:



Pennhurst. This was one of two places I always looked at on the computer as a kid when I was first getting interested in this. My first few visits were before any private entity purchased the property. It was an absolute playground and something I will forever remember:



State Hospital. Not saying the name sounds silly, but it's technically still around. But barely. This place has basically been destroyed by vandalism over the past few years but was a bucket list for me for many years. I finally got the chance to see it and spent a few years going back by myself and photographing it before it was destroyed.



Kings Park. This is an obvious choice. My very first visit was alone many years ago. Since then, I've met many friends through this location. I've also attended some of the most wild and unbelievable parties of my life here.



Rockland State Hospital. This became my another "home away from home" for me. Living in North Jersey, we'd be here every weekend. The schedule was mostly Overbrook one day, Rockland the other. I spent so many weekend days here over the years that I've lost count.



State Hospital. We all know this one. Still barely holding on. This became another favorite. Just a short drive away, we'd go every other week or so. This place was jaw dropping every time that I visited it. I've spent days and nights here and have always been amazed.



State Hospital. Another "local favorite". This one is one that I had put off for many years. Once I finally visited, I fell in love with the place. There was so much to see here, so much more than what everyone always posted.



State Hospital. Another semi local bucket list location. I had been oddly obsessed with this place for many years. I had thought I lost my change to ever see it. I'd spend hours gawking over other peoples photos of it. One day it randomly became a thing again and I finally got to go. It was one of the best days exploring I've ever had with very close friends:



NJDC. One final local favorite. Many of us in the North Jersey area kept an eye on this place. Notorious to all of us for being extremely difficult. Security here was as good as it gets. I'd visit with Vacant NJ many times at night to see if anything had changed. One day during demolition, every building was open and security was gone. We couldn't believe it:



Sanatorium. One of the places I always knew about but figured I'd never see because it was too far. One weekend we said screw it. Got in the car and paid a visit.



General Hospital. Another place I've always seen and wanted to go to but figured I'd never see because it was too far away. Finally took the trip!



State Hospital. Another story of thinking I was too late in the game because the place was too far away when I was younger. Little did I know that some buildings still remained and I finally got to see the place.



State Hospital. Another story of thinking I was too far away to ever see it. Then I met good friends who actually ended up living about 30min away from this place and we paid many visits to the campus. I got to cross another bucket list place off the list:



Finally, my last influential place. This place makes the list because it was the first time I ever ran into alarms. I'll never forget the feeling of my heart dropping to the floor at the sound. Thankfully I was with a local friend who had us out and in the car before anything happened.

The pictures are neat, already a lot of photography talents involved in this thread at the moment, thumbs up from Montreal to all of you guys!

Posted by randomesquephoto Boom. Pretty sure, you, and uliveanduburn are the best explorers here. Wow. Link to 7 wonders of NYC?

I've got nothing on him honestly.

I've just been consistent with getting to where I want to be and not getting caught, and that comes with what's now a decade of sneaking experience.

Some amazing stuff in this thread.

The 2010s were the decade of the slow downward slide of my brother's health, culminating in his death last month. I got to explore way too many hospitals in recent years

I guess the highlight was one of the mechanical rooms of this beast. A truly massive and pristine column-free space about three storeys tall and as long as a football field, filled with specialty equipment. I walked the full length of it checking everything out thinking I'll take pics on the way back, only to run into the lonely Johnson Controls dude right at the far end. Bah. At least he was nice enough to explain some of the equipment to me as he walked me out.

Hopefully I won't be pulling on any more hospital doors for a good long time.

Best wishes for 2020, y'all.

Everything here is pretty well known, but here goes.



2015 - (CLASSIFIED)
A friend found a way into somewhere cool and hyper sensitive. No information or photos for the aforementioned reason. Easily one of the best places I've ever been because the lights, sounds, and concrete geometry of the place were all sublime. Took a photo I thought would be incredible, but it came out blurry, which prompted me to learn how to manually focus the camera in low-light.



2016 - Sportscar Mills (You All Know This Place)
This is the place that really gave me the itch. Blew my mind that somewhere so big could just be sitting abandoned somewhere so prominent. Last I saw it, the entire complex had been totally gutted and some buildings demolished; its refurbishment into apartments is almost done. For those who didn't get to the top of the tower, the bell is mounted on display outside.









2016 - Hydro Mill (You All Know This One Too)
The hydroelectric equipment was fascinating. As of a visit a couple months ago, the pipes going into the rusted turbines have gotten a lot worse with large jets of water spewing in all directions. Probably not much longer until one of them blows out completely and destroys that part of the building. The sawtooth building has also almost totally collapsed.







2016 - P&A Mills
Totally demolished except for its front tower, now occupied by an apartment building designed to compliment the tower's original brick design. I have never seen more stuff in one place in my life and it just kept on going. The summer air in this place was muggy and everything in the main building was covered in condensation, mold, and mildew. After recovering from the pounding headache it gave me, I codenamed it "Toxic Mill".





I regret not going into this room below; the building was demolished like six months later before I could get back.




2016 - Dorms
I went here at 2AM in a fit of madness, knowing that if I didn't do it now, I never would. I got pretty close to panic at the end but I saw every floor, from which the story and photos resulted in FM status courtesy of 2X. These dorms were completed a couple years ago and are now in service.







2017-2018 - State Hospital (as called by Gravemind earlier in this thread)
As the only asylum/medical facility I've managed to explore, good god this place was incredible. I missed its glory days by about a decade; over half the campus and most of the tunnels were demolished by the time I found it, but the surgery building and entire north campus were still standing. What I thought was a ruined phone book in the basement was actually a small pile of typed and handwritten medical records from 1948. No other place has drawn me back as many times as this one.



Gravemind's shot of these doors is so much better.












2018 - Radio Station
My friend found a radio station (that shall not be named) after some schmuck made a video about it that blatantly revealed its location. Watched about a quarter of its contents mysteriously disappear (read: get stolen) over the course of three weekends. Haven't posted about it before to slow the spread, hence no information or photos.

The building still has partial power, which meant we could operate some of the NAB cartridge decks to play the surviving NAB tapes. My electrical engineer friend managed to splice together an audio cable to connect one of the NAB deck's balanced output to the unbalanced input of laptop we brought with, allowing us to digitize some of the NAB cartridges on-site before they're lost or stolen. I really want to go back and digitize more if the decks and carts are still there. Got me more into obscure audio formats, equipment, and preservation.



2019 - Burnt House
Bit of a departure from the previous ones; this house has been on my list for about thirteen years. Finally explored it when it became obvious it was to be demolished. On December 23rd, that finally happened. Glad I was able to cross it off my list before destruction. Turns out it wasn't actually burnt, it just looked burnt.







I'm hoping to get back into more regular exploration in 2020, find more places I don't know about, and make it back to some of the places that are still standing. Maybe get into better shape to make that easier too.

some grate pics in there. heres mine a uranium waste pile 1.




2.


3.

2018 when I explored my first “real” abandonment. To this day this spot is still probably up there in my list of favorites, if not my overall favorite spot. Really wish I was able to visit again before it got put into the process of renovation. Anyways, here’s the Hamilton Air Force Base’s hospital.
1. Front view of the hospital itself
2.Storage

3. Top floor stairway