Supercharged

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

Castlefield Viaduct 2011

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

Cathedral Steps

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?!

Manchester Salford Junction Canal

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

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

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!

Ice Plant Crane Climb

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

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!

Debenhams

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...

The Works

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

Visited with Morse.