Year in Review 2012 - Thread - Urban Exploration Resource

Things are very slow for me right now, and I must say I'm kind of enjoying not trying to feverishly plan trips every weekend like I used to. That being said, after a two year travel hiatus and nearly three years since I last boarded a plane to America, I'm getting ready to finally head back over imminently which hopefully will reignite the spark I've been without for a while.

So I thought I'd do a cheeky retrospective of one of my archive years. I joined UER in 2014, but have been exploring since 2009, and I think my first 'year in review' type post followed a couple of years after joining, so I've got a few stacked up!

2012 was a great year for me. I began using a wide angle Sigma lens I still use religiously to this day and, among other things, I embarked upon my first international exploring trip with a five day jaunt to France and Belgium, both staple stomping grounds of European and British explorers. I found a sprawling hoarders house with one of the most tragic backstories I've come across, and saw a few really cool places (and some not so cool...). It was also a year where I didn't do a crazy number of places much like this year is gearing up to be.

A lot of these locations have now gone, which, a decade down the line, isn't really too surprising.

1. 'The Mosaic House' - I have no idea what this old farmhouse was called, but it was owned by a Middle-Eastern family who got into debt and did a runner, and they decorated it with it's own unique style.

2. Harefield Grove - a large manor house - turned conference centre on the outskirts of London, I got in here after wangling permission with my friend who convinced the owner we were taking reference photos for a client wanting to do a full scale photoshoot in the place.

3. Tone Mills Dyehouse - I paid my first visit to this truly iconic location within the UK exploring community on a seriously bitterly cold February day. Perhaps one of the best industrial explores this country ever had, it still stands derelict to this day but an empty, graffitied, battered shell of what it looked like at this point.

4. Rewley Road Swingbridge - the only time I ever actually ventured over the fence to this railway relic, despite it being a fixture in my home town. The swingbridge is one of the last remnants of the secondary railway line which ran through the city of Oxford and the only moving bridge on the River Thames other than Tower Bridge, abandoned for decades after Rewley Road station closed. It is currently being restored.

5. GKN Screws & Fasteners - the main part of the old GKN fasteners factory that remained was all underground, the network of basement tunnels, storage rooms and corridors were sometimes erroneously referred to as a hidden 'shadow factory'. The land was partially redeveloped around 2015 and had a large hospital built on half of it.

6. GEC Siemens Lighting - a large but really ruined factory, close to the GKN site. Situated next to a large football stadium, the grounds were used for overflow parking on matchdays which led to my first attempt here a few months previous being called off. Now long since demolished.

7. RDB Interiors - another, smaller, equally ruinous factory located near the previous two. Again, long since demolished and redeveloped.

8. Shipton-on-Cherwell Cement Works - another local site to me, which I finally got around to doing a few years after starting. Shippy, as it was known, was a mostly demolished cement works beside one of the canals north of Oxford, it's chimney dominated the countryside for miles around. Unfortunately the remaining parts were demolished in around 2015.

9. Mansfield General Hospital - and now we get to the big stuff. I've talked a lot about Mansfield General Hospital before, both on here and with my American friends, and for good reason. It was, by far, one of the most infamous, crazy, wonderful and notoriously difficult hospitals to explore in the country at the time. It was situated right in the middle of the town, surrounded by houses, and the security guard lived opposite the entrance gate. Having the police called on you here was pretty much a rite of passage for those who got over the stupidly exposed fences. It was awesome, and perhaps the most infamous hospital since the days of Cane Hill. It closed in 1992 so was sat at a lovely level of decay but unfortunately it too was demolished in 2014.

10. Radford Mills/Viyella Works - At first glance this was a huge, imposing mill. But further examination revealed only a small area at the rear was actually derelict, which was a disappointment. We did, however, get into the boiler house which was very rarely accessible and by far the best part of it. The building was, I believe, converted in 2013 although it may have been demolished I can't remember.

11. Les Grands Moulins de Paris - My first ever foray into exploring on continental Europe. Les Grands Moulins is an enormous, long derelict death trap of a flour mill in Lille near the France/Belgium border. The phrase death trap is perhaps too kind to portray just how dangerous this building is, but it provided an incredible introduction to European exploring.

12. Dadipark - Dadipark was a famous children's amusement park located in northern Belgium. It closed due to many safety hazards and issues which the park couldn't rectify and then became a literal playground for explorers. I had one of the most surreal explores of my entire life here, as we rocked up and found that in the car park out front was a load of mobile medical check-up and blood donation vehicles, behind which was the open front gate into the amusement park. So of course we just casually strolled through the car park and walked in, and then realised that sharing the park with us was a load of elderly people being walked around by nurses or relatives or even pushed around in wheelchairs, it was truly bizarre but perfectly encapsulated the Belgian attitude to exploring at the time. Sadly Dadipark was torn down about three months after I visited.

13. Gieterij Vuylsteke Foundry - I can't remember much about this place other than it was absolutely pouring down with rain at the end of an incredibly long first day of exploring Europe and I struggled to take photos with no tripod in a very dimly lit foundry.

14. ECVB Power Station - perhaps one of the 'old school' best locations in Belgium, an exploring staple over there for many many years. Unfortunately my visit didn't exactly go to plan as we visited on a weekday, the same day demo crews had turned up to start dismantling parts of the exterior. Cue a very awkward moment where I climbed over the fence without realising the crew were a matter of a few metres away from me cutting up the pipe I had just climbed down. Luckily all was good and we wandered off to do the 'museum' part, which, in hindsight, was actually pretty damn good. ECVB is still there, sort of - everything has been totally ripped out from the buildings leaving an empty shell, except for the Rateau-Meuse turbine in the main turbine hall which has been left elevated high off the ground on it's concrete plinth.

15. Du Parc Stockings Factory - another oldschool staple of Belgian exploring. Du Parc was a famous brand of stockings and hosiery but their factory here had been abandoned for a long time. At this point the weather turned decidedly humid and stormy which made for an interesting experience. I did, however, love this place.

16. Schotte & Fils Tannery - Located literally across the road from Du Parc, the old Schotte & Fils Tannery was in a much worse state than Du Parc. It had been half demolished at some point and so sat in a stripped and ruined state, but with the storm going overhead it was pretty cool. The rest was completely demolished a year or so after the visit.

17. ABT Train Carriage Works - A chance find by myself, whilst planning the Belgium locations. It was difficult to miss the enormous derelict factory from the air! Unfortunately most of the internals had been long stripped out, but bizarrely there was a Trabant parked up inside surrounded by a makeshift workshop. Only in Belgium...

Explored during a huge storm, with some of the most torrential rain I've ever witnessed. Now long gone, of course.

18. Forest View Hospital - For a time, one of the most well trodden tourist hotspots in Belgium. A hospital/care home which closed when the new one opened literally next door, it went downhill incredibly quickly and was demolished in early 2013.

19. Triage-Lavoir De Peronnes - A place I always wanted to go back and shoot, because my handheld photos from here were so awful. A huge coal washing plant which served three nearby collieries, the building was empty for decades but had the exterior windows replaced and the outside repainted at some point.

20. Monceau Power Station - More often called 'Power Plant IM' for some reason - I was lucky enough to visit it when it was still pretty much intact, and laughably easy - which was what Belgium exploring was famous for. Soon after, it was absolutely torn apart by metal thieves and is a battered, ruined, trashed shell now. This was my first 'proper' power station and I can distinctly remember walking around it in stunned awe a lot of the time.

21. Ruined Factory - I still have no idea what this place was called or even where it was, we passed it on the way to somewhere else. It was fucked.

22. Preventorium Dolhain - One of the 'oldschool great' locations in Belgium, a place that everyone went to at some point. The actual sanatorium building was stripped almost bare, it was the Magireus Deutz fire engine outside which commanded the most interest.

23. Chateau Chat Noir - My first Belgian chateau, it was pretty nice, but small fry compared with some of the others that were out there at the time.

24. Chartreuse Fortress - Another 'oldschool great' location, a huge military barracks and fortress in Liege. I actually loved this place despite it's total destruction, it was a very photogenic place so much so I went back the next year to finish off the things we didn't see.

25. Cristallerie Val Saint Lambert - One of the best factories I've seen, and one I keep forgetting existed. Half of this old crystal/glass factory was derelict and had been for some considerable time, whilst the rest was still an operational factory and museum. Unfortunately I missed a couple of the really nice parts here, but it was still a great place to see. The derelict parts have all been demolished now as far as I'm aware.

26. Swimming Stadium - an outdoor art deco swimming lido in the middle of a large public park, the fact there had been so much rain which meant the water level in the lido had risen considerably made getting in a bit more of a hassle than I expected...

27. Kasteel Goorhof - a totally ruined chateau, with very little of interest to see. Other than having to save my mate from falling into a ditch full of water here there wasn't much to bother with.

28. Doel Village - the famous abandoned village in Belgium was the perfect way to finish the trip. Antwerp port has wanted to build an expansion of their port facilities onto the land occupied by the village for years, but a few residents are refusing to leave which has left the village in limbo, and it now serves as an ever evolving street art canvas. For the most part the buildings are kept well secured however on this occasion we got very lucky and found the community centre open which was great to see.

29. Water Eaton Grain Silo - my local explore, I think this was my last visit here before it got demolished. In celebration of the Queen's golden jubilee we decided to drape a load of union jack bunting and flags down the sides, some of which stayed up until it was demolished. I really miss this place.

30. Southfields Farm - one of my stock car racer friends tipped me off about this abandoned property near his yard. I went expecting nothing and discovered one of the most tragic hoarder properties I've ever seen. Of course word eventually got out and it got run through by the tourbus, as of 2022 the entire property has collapsed to the ground.

31. Standish Hospital - exploring Standish before the security guard moved out of the manor house and all the alarms were turned off was always an adventure. There were a few less impressive buildings which weren't alarmed, and in truth the security guard was really nice and would let you walk around the buildings as long as you promised to not go inside ( ;) ). I'll never forget my second visit here in 2012, walking up the main drive and seeing the security guard walking down the drive towards us pulling a suitcase, giving him a cheery wave and a hello and carrying on!

As of 2022 the main older parts of the hospital have been renovated and redeveloped into housing.

32. Ashlyn Villa - one of the most incredible 'time capsule' houses I've ever seen. Empty since 1995, half packed up for a moving job which never happened. Very very few people ever got to see this one because it was as bait as could possibly be.

33. Foster Bros. Mill - one of my favourite industrial explores of all time. There was just something incredibly photogenic about this former oil & cake mill, which was sadly totally destroyed by a fire in 2014.

34. Newport Towers Hotel - a shitstain on the exploring community, I don't know why I went here. We did bump into a model doing a sexy photo shoot though...

35. Berkeley Vale Hotel - another hotel located near the previous one, and if it was possible, even shitter.

36. Downing's Malthouses - situated next to Foster Bros. Mill, this was another lovely photogenic place, and one not many people bothered to do for some reason. Now being redeveloped along with the land once occupied by Foster Bros.

37. GKN Screws & Fasteners, revisit. I ended the year with a revisit to the GKN site. This was the penultimate time I went here and the last time I took any photos down in the dank tunnels. To make things a lot more interesting, this time I explored it in a truly torrential rain storm which meant water was cascading down into the tunnels through the various holes in the ceilings. The noise inside was absolutely biblical, truly one of the best memories I've got from any location.

It's actually very sad, looking back, as it would seem only two locations out of all of the places I visited a decade ago are still around in some form. Such is the price of progress I guess!