Rooftops, drains, liftshafts and raves.

Keep arms and legs inside the cart at all times

2011-06-29T15:25:00.000+01:00

Please exit through the gift shop.

Peeling paint

2011-06-25T20:15:00.003+01:00

I've done some peeling paint. Somebody alert the UE authorities.

Please note, the nearest exit may be behind you

2011-04-26T10:51:00.003+01:00

You'd think there was more difficulty involved in infiltrating a live airport. Especially in today's anti-terror climate. But as long as you keep your wits about you, and remember where the last escape point you passed is, you should be fine (Also: be white).

I thought I might find the keys to that luggage buggy so that I could take it for a spin. Well, they were stupid enough to leave it unlocked.

London Craning

2011-04-21T10:02:00.004+01:00

I was in London for a few days and had a gap in my schedule. What better way to keep myself occupied than by climbing a crane some 25 storeys above central London?

Shouts to Lovely (for being a muthafucking BOSS), Winch (for being my main man in The South) and Nebs (for being the sickcunt who climbed the jib on this crane).

Chester the Molestor

2011-04-12T15:43:00.004+01:00

What's the point of having motion detectors and alarms on scaffolding if you don't bother arming them at the end of the day?

Comical works

2011-04-08T23:34:00.002+01:00

You'd be surprised how easy it is to get balls deep into a live chemical factory.

Theme Parks

2011-03-28T00:53:00.003+01:00

Sometimes people visit Manchester from other countries. What better way to keep these foreign visitors happy than to take them to theme parks and to go on a few rides?

Windmillin'

2011-03-23T23:51:00.004Z

Two posts within 24 hours? I'm spoiling you.

Rhyl Flats is a huge offshore windfarm.

The base of operations is Mostyn Docks.

These windmill blades are huge, incredibly light, and amplify the tiniest of sounds to deafening levels.

One does not simply walk into live dockyards.

Local History

2011-03-23T12:07:00.003Z

When you live in Manchester and immerse yourself in that city's rich industrial history, it's easy to overlook the rich history of the town where you grew up.

From the 1790s onwards, copper production was tha shiznit in Holywell, Flintshire. Thomas Williams developed Greenfield valley to reach this end.

Holywell copper was used to line the hull of Nelson's HMS Victory. The copper produced here was also used to make shackles on slave ships. Something, unfortunately, I'm sure a large number of Holywell's citizens would be proud of today.

Before Boulton and Watt's steam engine became the catalyst for industrial explosion in the 19th century, running water was the necessary tool used to power industry. Greenfield valley has a high number of hidden, tiny culverts which are truly ancient in terms of industry. These stone-built passageways are tiny and have a low flow of crystal clear water.

There's a lot more here that I'm yet to explore here, but this is the starting point.

Railway stylin'

2011-03-15T08:59:00.002Z

Run on tracks.

Supercharged

2011-03-10T11:07:00.003Z

When you move house, sometimes you have to go into the drains that are 100 yards from your new place.

Castlefield Viaduct 2011

2011-03-09T18:08:00.002Z

Sometimes it's nice to see the same places again.

Cathedral Steps

2011-03-06T17:36:00.006Z

For about 24 hours, this "holy grail" of Manchester exploring was so easy to access every n00b from all over the country was driving up to follow the tourist trail, only to learn that the builders developing the site got wise to things and locked it up tight. Better luck next time eh?!

Bunkons

2011-01-18T10:42:00.002Z

Warrington. Drain. Winch. Agour.

Peace.

Hoenoez

2011-01-16T14:17:00.003Z

Brapford

2011-01-04T16:27:00.002Z

I've been lazy in updating.

Here are a few pictures from Yorkshire.

With nckt.

Brap.

Manchester Salford Junction Canal

2010-11-12T13:09:00.004Z

The Manchester Salford Junction canal was opened in the 1830s to take boats from the River Irwell to the Rochdale canal. The Great Northern Warehouse was built above it at a later date.

The canal closed in the 1920s, and this huge space was converted into air raid shelters during the Second World War.

Medlock Tomfoolery

2010-10-23T20:49:00.003+01:00

Met up with my boys Gone and nckt today.

After we failed to reach one drain because it had been raining all night and Gone got a wader-breach on his way in, myself and nckt headed down to YouMissed and HFLB for some epic drain lolery.

Walked home with nckt fully wadered-up through the city centre. You love it.

Optimus Prime

2010-10-01T08:43:00.004+01:00

Optimus Prime is probably the largest culvert in Manchester.

It leads the River Irk beneath Victoria railway station before it reaches the Irwell near the MEN Arena.

Visited with nckt and ConcreteJungle, surprisingly none of us had visited this well-known Manchester drain before.

I'm so poor at the moment I can't afford batteries. The ones in my camera died before I could take any decent shots of this drain's main feature - a wooden, Victorian cattle bridge that has been culverted over. FML!

In My Sights

2010-08-22T13:35:00.004+01:00

"In My Sights" is a giant sewage storage tank in Greater Manchester.

When I say "giant" I mean GIANT. This place is huge.

Visited with nckt and ConcreteJungle. CJ made his first visit a few weeks back. A lot of safety rails saving workers from an 80ft drop into raw sewage had been removed by pikeys before he visited, but when we opened the same manhole on our joint visit we were in for a surprise.

The lid lifted, flies, heat, steam and the horrible stench all billowed out.

"In you go" suggests ConcreteJungle.

nckt and myself look at each other.

"Err... how?"

The pikeys who had removed the safety rails had been back and taken the ladder that had been bolted to the wall. There was now a 20ft gap between the manhole and the platform we wanted to get to. Luckily, the place was vast enough to have about 5 or 6 other options.

Many grated off, some locked, we eventually got lucky and found a ladder beneath one manhole. Only this ladder was roughly 80ft in height and completely exposed to the drop.

Leaning back on this ladder to avoid the debris and raw human waste caught on the rungs was terrifying and disgusting in equal measure.

Wading through raw sewage, slipping on the sloped concrete floor and getting used to a smell that could only be described as "Ungodly" was all part of the fun.

Unfortunately my pictures only really showed the filth and not the scale of the place. Check out ConcreteJungle's pics (http://substormflow.blogspot.com/2010/06/in-my-sights.html) to truly understand the scale of this epic shit tank.

Ice Plant Crane Climb

2010-07-18T17:24:00.004+01:00

The Ice Plant was originally built at the turn of the 20th century to make ice, store meat and fish, and was integral to making ice cream for Italian immigrants in the Victorian slum of Ancoats.

It was since used as the rehearsal space for legendary Madchester bands Inspiral Carpets and the Happy Mondays.

Currently undergoing a £12m re-development that will include 82 apartments as well as commercial units on the ground floor in an effort to recreate a "bustling village atmosphere" in Ancoats according to the developers northerngroup.

This was my first crane climb. Not huge by crane standards, but my numerous ascensions of the Lowry Footbridge held me in good stead for the vertical ladder.

Visited with Reddood and an another wrong'un.

And a naughty one from Reddood...

Dodge Hill Air Raid Shelter

2010-07-12T17:59:00.004+01:00

Stockport had 3 air raid shelters chiselled out of the soft, red sandstone beneath its foundations during the Second World War - Chestergate, Brinksway and Dodge Hill.

Chestergate is now a museum where, for a fee, you can walk around the largest of the three.

The more adventurous might have a stab at the sealed up, abandoned Dodge Hill.

The place is still lined with the bunk beds that Stockport's citizens once slept on while waiting for German bombers to piss off home.

We also found a bottle of methadone and some empty wraps of smack. Time to leave!

Grange Caverns - Holywell

2010-07-05T14:57:00.004+01:00

After a search for new drains with nckt, Buttons and Ojay, we stopped off here hoping to find a way into this former munitions store.

Buttons and myself had a look a few weeks ago to no avail. Though the site has been changed around recently and made access a little bit easier.

Originally a limestone quarry, it was used during WW2 as a munitions store and even mentioned by Lord Haw-Haw in one of his infamous Nazi broadcasts.

After the war it lay empty for a while before being briefly opened as a military museum in the 80s and has been empty ever since.

The place is well guarded by the farmers that own it. We legged it from dogs on the way in and found a spent shotgun cartridge on the way out. If you pay this place a visit, keep it real.

Debenhams

2010-06-04T11:42:00.004+01:00

Built in the 1930s, Rylands Warehouse was one of the last cotton warehouses built in Manchester.

These days it's a Grade II listed branch of Debenhams.

Most of the upper floors are used for stock storage, though some are abandoned apparently due to asbestos.

The top floor houses what seems to be a now abandoned ballroom.

Debonair from Jim Gillette on Vimeo.

Yaz getting us banned from UrbEx again...

Misc. Debris

2010-05-28T11:56:00.004+01:00

Various pictures from various excursions in the last 7 days.

The Works

2010-05-24T07:21:00.004+01:00

The Works is a massive CSO pipe in the Collyhurst ghetto.

Visited with Morse.

Vin Diesel

2010-05-23T01:51:00.004+01:00

Visited with Eotech.

Named after the stench of diesel that fills the air. Easily one of the dirtiest, most polluted drains I've ever been in.

Here's a video of it...

Milanese Adventure

2010-05-18T20:30:00.005+01:00

Apologies for not posting in a while. As you're about to see, I've been a bit busy.

I spent this weekend in Milan with nckt and Babystrangeways where we did what we do best.

After a rude awakening at userscott's Italian gaff on our first morning by the owners of the empty retail unit, we had to get out to find a new place to stay and make our mark on Milan.

Not too long went by before we found ourselves 20 floors above a four star hotel next to the Central train station. This would become our home for the next few nights.

There was even a chaise lounge...

The bedroom...

We slept until 2am when I was woken up by voices. I was convinced we were going to get thrown out of our second residence. As the voices came nearer I realised that they weren't hotel staff but drunken Polish people who had become inadvertent urban explorers by getting pissed, going on the rooftop and taking pictures. These n00bs were using their flash though.

The strobe of their camera flash lit up the crane that we were sleeping under. They were stood no further than ten feet away from us, but the spot we'd chosen was so good that they failed to spot us.

Waking up the next morning was incredible.

Walking around that day we spotted a building site on the same scale as Salford's MediaCity. We had to get to the summit.

Having done MediaCity previously, I had a good idea of what we had to do to get through the site undetected and where security would and wouldn't be on the site. However this was in a completely different country. A country where privately-hired security guards protect scaffolding with pistols strapped to their waists.

Shit.

After some ducking and diving, it took us 45 minutes to get from the first fence to the concrete shell of the building.

We searched for ages for stairs to the top only to find them unfinished at the 7th floor. This 20+ floor building might need some re-thinking.

Eventually getting to the top via stairs and scaff climbing the wind was unforgivingly blowing the platform we were on. Not having a tripod means I only got one picture from this incredible mission.

At least it was a good one.

A while later after climbing back down and looking to sneak our way out, I saw someone on a nearby balcony looking at us with a phone held to his face.

Our 45 minute ninja mission turned into a 45 second dash across a building site leaping over and under all sorts of perilous obstacle.

We were back over the fence in a jiffy and disappeared into the balmy Milanese night.

Hyde Falls

2010-05-07T13:36:00.002+01:00

This deep culvert was discovered by Dan Helsing who first walked its length from the infall to the falls with nckt where they couldn't continue without rope.

The following night I tagged along with them and we headed up through the outfall.

It starts as a concrete box with a plughole draining into it.

This way to my secret lair...

Dan Helsing keeps a look out...

From here it gets rocky and bastardly treacherous. Proceed with caution. Seriously.

It then opens up into the chamber that Dan and nckt reached the night before. WOW. The chamber is vast and echoes the sound of the water hammering down onto the rocks below both falls. I'm sure I have tinnitus from that place.

Middleton Mine

2010-05-06T12:07:00.003+01:00

After a night of hilarity camping in the Goyt Valley with Yaz, nckt, Siologen, Gone, Rookie, Little Mike and Appo we headed off to nearby Middleton Mine.

Middleton is a former Limestone mine which closed in the early part of the 21st Century.

There are 22 miles of tunnels underground. To call them "tunnels" is misleading. The place is vast.

Absolutely HUGE.

Appo and nckt pose with their childbait.

L-R Appo, nckt, Rookie, JG, Gone. Pic by Gone.

Palace Clocktower

2010-04-30T12:17:00.003+01:00

During our last visit to the Palace access to the clocktower was impossible. On a recent visit with Yaz we found a way in. We were later joined up there by nckt.

Last pic by Yaz.

City Inn

2010-04-25T22:54:00.002+01:00

Manchester has many hotels. This is just one of them, but it's a beauty.

Offering spectacular views, lots of floorspace on different levels and innumerable AC-units and generators it's a veritable smorgasbord for your average explorer.

One of me from nckt...

There's a twelve foot drop to the right of nckt in that pic. To the left, it's 12 floors.

Palace Hotel

2010-04-22T22:11:00.003+01:00

Palace Hotel rooftop.

With Morse, nckt and Babystrangeways.

The future

2010-04-20T20:33:00.003+01:00

Keep your eyes peeled.

The Manchester Tourism Bureau is coming soon.

Epic stuff, giving you an alternative tourist guide to Manchester.

Overnight Rooftopping

2010-04-15T11:19:00.011+01:00

Last week I experienced one of the best nights of my entire life, let alone my short "UrbEx career" - Having met up at 4pm on the Friday afternoon, I didn't get home until midday on the Saturday.

It was a warm, balmy afternoon when the first lot of us met. The first of the year. An early one too seeing as it was early April. Not bothered by ascending rooftops, my suggestion of exploring a beer garden fell on deaf ears and we were on the roof of the Ramada hotel in Piccadilly Gardens before I knew it.

This was a bizarre rooftop. As you overlook Piccadilly Gardens watching the hundreds of people below getting on with their lives you feel God-like. It's only when you turn to your left and realize that another fourteen storeys of the City Tower overlook you do you decide to hurry up, get your pictures, and disappear.

After this we headed over to the Labyrinthine Sacha's. A smaller hotel, but with a great rooftop. Having waited a decade for the most ridiculous of antique lifts to arrive, it took us forever to reach the top floor as it stopped on every floor that had called it regardless of wether people were going up or down. The non-linear floorplan of this hotel made it difficult to plot a route to the roof around a locked door. After finding our way into a noisy, hot plant room, we dashed past an engineer's tools and got to the roof.

This is where I stopped taking pictures as after this we were showing a number of tourists around some of our well-known spots (from which I've already taken plenty of photographs). At the time, I thought that getting six of us onto one particular rooftop under darkness would be tricky. Especially when a security guard got into the same lift as us. It was tense. Was he onto us? nckt broke the silence: "Do I know you?" he asked the hi-vis clad walkie talkie-user. Panic erupted on our entire party's faces, exacerbated by the confined space as we couldn't believe how far nckt was willing to push our luck. Having identified each other as former work-colleagues, the sense of relief was unrivalled. As we got to our floor we all waited in the lift with the security guard as nckt insisted we stick with him "to get some pussy".

Pic by Dan Helsing. ISO be high on this.

There were now six of us on this darkened rooftop overlooking the entire city. I didn't think our actions would get bolder than that. I was to be proven wrong at sunrise the following morning.

After decamping from the city centre to the outskirts for a rave in the woods, we made our way back to urbanity. We decided to get a move on and get to a rooftop to watch the sunrise. The MEN Arena's rooftop is not one that you'd immediately think of climbing for views seeing as it's quite low. But the view of the sun appearing over the Pennines, not to mention the view of every tall building in the city made this place the perfect vantage point. The corrugated steel beneath our feet bent slightly with each footstep. There were nine of us stood there, illuminated by the bright morning sun savouring every moment of it.

Pic by nckt.

After a swing and a miss at The Edge apartments, some tomfoolery ensued at Blackfriars Bridge - resulting in the new picture at the top of this blog. I had a newspaper and I wanted to read it. What better place than perched on a six-inch ledge 50ft above the Irwell?

It wasn't long after this that we headed to the roof of No. 1 Deansgate. A recent favourite of ours, its sloped roof made it perfect for lying back, relaxing, and getting the sun on one's face. The morning sun was baking hot. Looking out from such a high place, so close to the city centre is always fun. Particularly when the morning sun hasn't yet cleared the haze lying over the city.

Pic by Eotech.

From up here, we could watch the city wake up. As Market Street got busier, the sun got higher. It felt like we had been watching the city overnight (That's not to say that we were the pervy uncle watching it sleep), and now that morning had broken it would take care of itself and we were relieved of our duties. We disappeared back into anonymity.

Huge respect to the following people for being there:
nckt
Yaz
Scott
Eotech
Agour
Gone
Appo
Dan Helsing
Urban Warrior
Fisher Price & Mendez soundsystems
Babystrangeways
Dahmer et al
And of course to anyone else that I may have forgotten.

St. George's Church Apartments

2010-04-14T20:07:00.003+01:00

St. George's Church was designed by Francis Goodwin and built in 1826.

It's apartments and a listed building these days. It's clock tower has been covered in scaffolding for a while now. After a night rooftopping in town, nckt, Babystrangeways, Gone, NickUK and myself all headed over to do this.

By Gone.

And another from Gone...

The Tube Nightclub

2010-04-12T09:31:00.006+01:00

The Tube is a former nightclub in an old industrial warehouse.

The building has been converted into office space but it needs some serious work. All the problems just fall into the basement which is where the nightclub is. I've been in drains that were less damp than this place!

There was mold absolutely everywhere and the air was thick with fungus spores.

Visited with Dan Helsing, Gone and nckt.

If anyone could shine any light on the history of this place that would be great. A lot of research has gone into this place and yielded very little fruit.

BRSA Club (Part 2)

2010-04-11T11:37:00.004+01:00

After a massive, noisy failure earlier on in the night we headed over to this abandoned working men's club that sits beneath Manchester's Victoria train Station.

I didn't take any pictures last time. So here they are...

This one ain't getting done again for a while by anyone. Trust me!

Parkers Apartments

2010-04-07T07:48:00.003+01:00

Taking more n00bz out, they actually suggested we try this one.

What a winner of a roof. Brilliant views and a brilliant roof.

What a find. Fair play to the new guys!

Gripper Pt.2

2010-04-05T19:06:00.003+01:00

After planned visits to big drains were rained off, Dan Helsing, nckt and myself spent most of the afternoon looking for new drains in Manchester.

Stood in the rain, getting piss-wet through lifting manholes on scrubland. Not glamourous, and not successful.

We had new torches and were getting desperate. Off to an old favourite then!

April, Fool!

2010-04-02T12:55:00.005+01:00

Piccadilly Approach.

CLICK HERE!

Premier Inn

2010-03-28T20:30:00.003+01:00

Inducting some n00bs from St. Helens.

I realised I've never taken pictures on this often-visited roof before.

Spot the explorers...

And one from the Green Quarter...

Advent0r

2010-03-18T13:20:00.007Z

Meeting up with Yaz and nckt, we decided to hit some rooftops.

Starting in the Green Quarter, we were on our way down from rooftop number one when we decided to engage in some extra-curricular exploring.

Pic by Yaz.

Waiting until people were in the lift beneath us, nckt dropped some badman D'n'B beats for us to skank to while the lift was in motion. Only one person asked on their way out of the lift "What was that music?".

We then headed over to No. 1 Deansgate.

Pic by Jim Gillette.

This was one chilled out rooftop (despite being sat right outside the penthouse living rooms. Slap bang in the middle of town and high above everything. Beautiful.

Pic by Yaz.

Then over to The Edge apartments.

Sneaking past some Man City player or other's front door (he's known to get anxious around dust-chute exploring adventurers), we climbed the kind of ladder featured prominently on Claims Direct ads to get to the roof hatch.

More rooftop skanking followed.

Riding yer rooftops. By Yaz.

Peace.

(By the way, Blogger's an idiot so click all the pics for their full size glory.)

Green Quarter Rooftopping

2010-03-14T15:35:00.006Z

This week I was put back into plaster for another month.

To cheer myself up, I hit a couple of rooftops in the Green Quarter with nckt and Dan Helsing.

You can actually see Sneak on the rooftop on the left of that picture. Ignoring the GMP helicopter which was circling the area, we headed down and up to see Sneak on the other roof.

By now, the police helicopter was actually circling the building and was definitely interested in our rooftop presence. Not wanting any nighttime sun, we quickly got down the hatch and headed out!

edit:
Here's a shot from Sneak's perspective...

BRSA Social Club

2010-03-07T15:37:00.005Z

This little gem was visited with Gone and Sneak.

It's built underneath Victoria train station and was a working men's club for British Rail workers.

After a little bit of rooftopping and lift surfing, we got into this club which has been closed since 1992. It still has an electric supply and there's a ceiling fan which is eerily spinning in the darkness in the middle of the dancefloor.

We were in and out in a matter of minutes having been spotted getting in so I didn't take any pictures. These are from Gone...

It's an absolute gem. Access is unbelievable. So pleased to have visited.

Burnley

2010-03-06T15:15:00.004Z

I visited Burnley yesterday with Gone and Rookie.

Not knowing anything about the place we arrived and were meant to meet up with a friend but missed him. Not wasting a journey, we did a quick recce, avoided the scores of teenage mothers in McDonalds, donned waders and got into the River Brun.

There are three main culverted sections in the town centre. The furthest upstream we named "Treasure" owing to the huge amount of junk in it - a walkie talkie, a toy gun, two vacuum cleaners, a fridge door, a phone, a hubcap from a Mini, a wheel from a Mini, a car battery, part of an old style number plate (methinks a Mini was given a Viking burial a long time ago in Burnley).

Rookie in the treasure trove...

There are two rivers in Burnley, the Brun and the Calder. Both are diverted through the town by old stone grips which, judging from the style, must be from the early 19th century. Incredible how they're still working, practically unchanged today.

Downstream from Treasure we found a scuba mask and snorkel. Gone didn't take much convincing to get it on...

Further still downstream is a more modern twin tunnel concrete culvert.

After this we got to the roof of a nearby multi-storey car park after closing time. If you're reading this, NCP, get more vandal grease.

We then got to the roof of the Charter Walk shopping centre. Something my friend from Burnley said he hadn't done since he was drunk at 15.

One from Rookie...

If you're reading this Charter Walk shopping centre, get better security!

Sidedraft Induction

2010-03-05T12:03:00.005Z

It was about 10pm one night this week when I was talking to Gone and on a whim we decided to re-visit this well known Manchester drain.

Parking and wadering-up we walked through the infall. The flow was lower than our last visit and Gone had a pair of waders by now, so I wasn't piggy-backing him through the deeper bits. He rode me like that fox on the dog in The Labyrinth.

After walking down this pill-shaped tunnel for a while it comes to a taller, wider chamber with a side pipe. A quick excursion up this pipe lead to the motherload.

A massive overflow chamber with two floors of concrete and a rapid river of poop.

One of Gone's...

Heading back to the clean(er) water of the brook we headed downstream to the outfall. Proceed with caution from here. It's silty and full of potholes. We got back above ground and walked back to the car in our waders. Weird looks FTW.

Gash Collective

2010-02-28T18:54:00.009Z

On Saturday night, myself, Gone and Appo91 headed off to Bradford for the Gash Collective's latest event - the Trans-Pennine Exodus.

Leaving Manchester, we arrived at an Asda to fill up on supplies on the Bradford ring road. We spotted a Police portakabin and Gone was up it like a flash...

We had a few hours to kill until information about the party was to be released, so we ended up driving around Bradford looking at potential buildings to climb. After getting denied by one apartment building with a lock on its roof hatch, we soon found ourselves driving around the turnstiles and supporting pillars of Valley Parade - home of Bradford City football club. As close to UrbEx as you'll get without leaving a car.

We passed an empty office block in the city centre and thought to ourselves what a great building it would be to have a look at on a return visit. Time was passing by and we didn't want to be caught in an empty building when the information for the free party was released.

After another phonecall to the Gash Collective's information hotline, we darted across town to the meeting point, parked the car and proceeded on foot. We saw a couple of police officers near to the rendez-vous and a lot of confused-looking young people.

It soon transpired as three coachloads of people arrived, that the police were outside the venue. Locals spotted the organisers gaining entry and called the police thinking they were copper thieves or some such. Not only that, but the venue itself was the office block we'd decided to give a miss half an hour earlier in case we missed the main event.

As the car park shutters opened, folk started running in and the police got their batons out. Swinging to hit, and swinging hard, one in particular seemed quite over-aggressive. As another door opened, more people ran in and more batons were swung. Appo got in at this point and I lost Gone in the crowd.

After a brief minute, police re-enforcements arrived, as did more and more potential party people, and I met back up with Gone. We slowly walked around the building when a headtorch-wearing silhouette appeared on the fourth floor roof.

"YOU ALL NEED TO GET IN THROUGH THE DOORS ON THE OTHER SIDE!"

By now the square where Grattan Road meets Tetley Street, Providence Street and New John Street was packed full of people. The police had blocked off all of the roads at the ends of these streets to try and contain things.

Every now and then you'd hear a huge cheer as more revellers surged through a newly opened door. The bass started pumping inside and was loud enough to be heard down the hill at Sunbridge Road.

The police (who must have numbered 60 by now) eventually cleared the building of people, this is when we met up with Appo again who told us stories of girls getting trampled on and police hitting people with their batons despite the fact that they couldn't comply with the police's instructions and get out because other people were in the way. It was around now that we saw Yaz and Sneak - two of Manchester's finest - for a brief minute before getting lost in the crowd again.

While waiting for it all to blow over (after all, my car was parked within the police corden), we decided to go to the roof of the nearby Morrisons to get a view of proceedings. Access to this rooftop was a nice mix of skills. We stayed low on this flat roof and watched the people leaving in small groups.

On our way back to Manchester we saw one of the coaches going towards Bradford on the motorway with a police escort. We arrived back in the city centre at about 2am and proceeded to bust some mad skanking from the comfort of our own car, with Gone strobing his camera's flash with some LOUD dubstep and DnB past the Printworks and down Deansgate. TAKE THAT YOU CONFORMIST SCUM!

Click this to see what it was like outside!

Images courtesy of Gone, Appo91 and myself.

Hulme Flume's Little Brother

2010-02-24T14:05:00.005Z

Having had my cast removed in the morning, I popped round to Gone's residence to say hello. Obviously, we ended up going out exploring. After a quick sussing of our entry point, we donned waders and entered the Medlock on a snowy Manchester evening.

Hulme Flume's Little Brother is, I assume, a sewage overflow pipe headed towards the River Medlock. It follows Princess Street up to a small penstock chamber which dissects its course with sewage at Whitworth Street.

This six foot diameter round brick pipe is beautiful. Lots of fun, and quite dry (after initial entry).

Gone gets sewerfresh...

Gone again...

Me...

Arachnophobia

2010-02-24T13:52:00.005Z

Arachnaphobia is a culverted section of Gore Brook that runs underground from Platt Fields Park for about 1km before re-appearing at the Fallowfield Loop.

Gone and Urban Soldier at the Crystal Maze infall...

Impressive ironwork beneath Hart Road and Wilbraham Road...

Further downstream, Fallowfield Brook joins...

My first explore since breaking my wrist, drastic action was taken to protect my cast from subterranean water...

Image courtesy of Gone.

Out of Action

2010-02-19T01:55:00.005Z

There haven't been any updates here for a while and it's because I decided to UrbEx a mosh pit the other night...

I've had to cut back on what kind of sites I do. So here's a photo of the Arndale's food court getting the shit well and truly UrbExed out of it...

Sweet, sweet deals.

Rodney Court

2010-02-11T12:03:00.005Z

If 1960s architecture in the UK is anything to go by, Le Corbusier has a lot to answer for.

The post-war years saw an increase in population and subsequently the demand for housing also grew. City planners in the UK were enamoured by the works of Swiss-French architect and Urbanist Le Corbusier.

Ignoring the fact that a lot of Le Corbusier's city planning was somewhat utopian and short of practical detail, the UK had built huge numbers of high-rise tower blocks for use as Social Housing by the end of the 1960s.

The poorly designed tower blocks were home to vandalism, muggings and break-ins - all aided by the maze of narrow corridors and poorly lit communal areas - symptoms of clumsy design.

----------------

Rodney Court is in Miles Platting in Manchester. Situated between deprived Ancoats and more-deprived Collyhurst, we certainly weren't UrbExing in Beverley Hills.

The building is 38.4m over 13 floors. Most of which are fire damaged. It's currently owned by Urban Splash who no doubt intend to make something great of it.

Heading in on the ground floor, we were aware of the ever-present potential threat of crackheads and hobos. These tower blocks were dodgy places before they became derelict. Luckily, we found a sledgehammer near our entrance which we could take with us to save ourselves.

The only thing we needed to save ourselves from in the end was pigeons. Plenty of pigeon poop on the top floor.

Comedy when Rookie shone his torch into a doorway on the roof and a load of pigeons flew out as if they were bats on Scooby Doo.

Cookie Culvert

2010-02-05T10:35:00.005Z

This morning I'm sore from head to toe. Every muscle aches and it's thanks to UrbEx.

After an attempted explore of Sidedraft Induction turned into a recce in the morning, a recce of this new culvert that I'd discovered became a full on explore in the afternoon.

This culvert is about 370m in length and, judging by the number of different styles, was built in four or five stages.There's everything from round brick to RCP in this culvert. So interesting. I couldn't recommend it enough. I'm so pleased to have "discovered" it.

Visited with Gone.

Named "Cookie" because of the beautiful smell of baking biscuits that fills this culvert.

"Rope Burn" Culvert

2010-01-31T14:51:00.006Z

This 1km long culverted section of the River Medlock in Central Manchester is also known as "5th Ave Culvert" and "Umissed".

Long, dark, and almost featureless concrete.

Visited with Gone...

...and Sui...

Why did we name it "Rope Burn"? Well, isn't it obvious?

Access was A-Team-esque. Except instead of using skill we made the most of gravity. This would become problematic as we couldn't get out the same we came in.

To escape, we had to cross the river and walk through the knee-deep Medlock at 1.30am with the outside temperature at -2C.

A bank of silt leading to a ladder was our refuge. Only this stinking pile of sand was also knee-deep. EEEEUUURRRRGGGHHHH!

What an awesome excursion!

Bunker Drain, Warrington - Jan 2010

2010-01-28T16:55:00.008Z

Visited with Gone, Ojay and Rookie.

Ojay and Rookie

Gone

As Gone opened the manhole cover to get back out he shouted "There's a bus!". A bus had stopped right next to the manhole and all of its passengers were staring at Gone as he emerged from this drain. Subtle!

Bunker was also the birthplace of "Wet drain free climbing".

BBC MediaCity - The Heart - Jan 2010

2010-01-26T21:10:00.007Z

After some time at the Lowry footbridge, we decided to walk over to this new development and scope it out.

Security was, as to be expected, tight. But as these pictures show, it wasn't watertight ;)

Fancying our chances, we went for it. After infiltrating the site itself, access to the 25 floor "Heart" apartment building was as inviting as an ice cold cider at the end of a long summer's day.

The building is being completed from the bottom to the top. From about Floor 22 upwards there's nothing. The five floors below are part-fitted with appliances waiting to go in. Below there, most of the apartments are presumably finished as the doors to these rooms are locked.

27 floors above Manchester, things are incredibly calm.

You feel so safe, yet so precariously in danger at the same time.

Visited with Gone. Check out his shots... Gone's Blog.

edit: We're famous...
http://www.mediacityblog.com/index.php/uk/article/urban_explorers_infiltrate_mediacityuk_take_amazing_photos/
http://www.placenorthwest.co.uk/news/archive/5218-urban-explorers-break-into-media-city.html

Football elbows Urbis

2010-01-26T16:03:00.012Z

The National Football Museum is relocating to Manchester's Urbis.

A city which struggles to separate its identity from football has decided to spend up to £8million of public money on ensuring the opposite happens. The National Football Museum (http://www.nationalfootballmuseum.com) will be relocated from Preston to Urbis in Manchester's city centre.

Designed by Ian Simpson (who also designed Beetham Tower), Urbis opened in 2002 as a "cultural museum" in the heart of the redeveloped city centre. After a year or two of ambiguous purpose, Urbis eventually found its feet and the visitors started to come through its doors. Indeed, last year was its most successful, with more than 250,000 people visiting its numerous exhibitions.

Despite it being the aesthetic equivalent of chemical self harm, Urbis holds a position of significant cultural importance in Manchester. There have been exhibitions on The Hacienda, Punk Rock, Hip-Hop and Urban Living and development. Last year, the museum even engaged with the emos who famously loiter in the adjacent Cathedral Gardens by curating an exhibition on Manga cartoons (Japanese cartoons popular within the emo subculture). Not only has Urbis documented the social development of Manchester, but it has actively engaged with it.

The Emos who spend their time nearby are seen as a social problem by many who are intimidated by their presence (despite the subculture's generally pacifistic and self-centred nature). Council dispersion orders and the like only add to the feelings of alienation and distrust of authority that many members of subcultures often feel (Massey, 2006). The fact that Urbis sought to actively engage with these people shows its awareness of contemporary social issues and is to be commended.

The National Football Museum (which drew 100,000 people through its doors last year) had been struggling for funding and was facing closure. That is until Manchester offered an £8million deal to tempt it from Preston to Manchester.

Despite the fact that Urbis welcomed two and a half times the number of visitors the National Football Museum did last year, Manchester has opened its arms to a city-centre Mecca for visiting drunken football fans whilst giving a cultural institution with an active role within the community and space that it occupies the boot.

The Football Association has already pledged to commit £10million to develop a football museum at Wembley Stadium. Why then, has the City of Manchester spent £8million of its own money on the same thing? Are they going to share the artifacts between sites? This massive capital investment, despite its philanthropical nature, will take years to see a return on. Meanwhile, Urbis is kicked to the kerb - evicted with no plans for its future.

References:
- http://www.urbanalternatives.org.uk/documents/music%20and%20place.pdf
- http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/othersports/article-1093350/Mawhinney-caught--8216-obscene-8217-storm-bring-national-football-stadium-Wembley.html
- http://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/s/1182980_national_football_museum_to_move_to_urbis
- http://www.guardian.co.uk/culture/2010/jan/24/urbis-manchester-cultural-football-museum

"EW" Tower

2010-01-21T23:37:00.007Z

Having spotted some scaffolding, a quick recce in the day pointed to the most obvious of access points. It looked easy. A little too easy...

Halfway up, we froze as we saw blue, flashing lights approaching. Imagine our relief when it turned out to be an ambulance.

Partners in civil offenses, Rookie and Gone.

The scaffolding went to the top floor. But not the roof. Luckily there was access to another adjacent roof. That's where these pictures are from.

Conditions were horrible and rainy. This tiny flat roof was covered in water and the rain was getting onto my lens.

Thanks for looking.

Gripper

2010-01-13T18:22:00.003Z

Following on from yesterday's post, here's what the drain looks like on the inside. Except it looks nothing like this. It's pitch black.

Gone gets the best view...

Visited with Rookie and Gone.

Cave Clan

2010-01-12T16:06:00.003Z

This morning, as I made my way down to a culvert I had yet to explore, I spotted graffiti left there by the Cave Clan.

You will struggle to read about the history of Urban Exploration and not come across the Cave Clan. This Australian group of are renowned worldwide in the UrbEx community for their exploration of underground spaces. Imagine my surprise when I saw their tags right here in Manchester.

These pictures were taken with a long exposure. It was pitch black in there. Expect a return visit with some torches. Watch this space...

In the meantime, check them out: http://www.caveclan.org/

Great Northern Tower. January 2010.

2010-01-11T22:39:00.002Z

Construction was completed in 2007 on this 25-storey apartment building. The elevators are coded to ensure the privacy of residents. Guess who had to take the stairs to the top.

Seventy-two metres above Manchester at sunset on a cold winter's day.

Guardian Exchange

2010-01-10T22:10:00.002Z

Hidden between the Town Hall, Chinatown and the Gay Village is the Guardian Telephone Exchange.

Built to withstand an atomic blast and keep communications from Manchester clear in the event of nuclear war, its location was clearly chosen to ensure the safety of Manchester's politicians, Chinese, and gays.

Castlefield Viaduct. January 2010.

2010-01-10T21:52:00.005Z

After chancing a forty foot drop, we hid from a loitering police van, ducked from passing trams and got asked "Are you fucking stupid?".

Built c.1880. Grade II listed.