Urban Exploration - The Ones that Got Away

February 2019 · 5 min read

When planning your Urban Exploration trip, you need to be prepared for many disappointments. There are few places you can look to check if a place is accessible, or how to gain access.

Even so, all you can get is a general idea. Bookings too are out of the question.

Expect to be creeping around in dense foliage, getting crap all over your shoes, generally behaving like a sleuth and regaining your lost teenage years.

Asking for information regarding locations is frowned upon in the community, although if you have gained enough reputation you may get some advice.

It’s a good idea to earmark at least FOUR places to visit as you may only get a success rate of 50% at best.

Gathering all the information in advance is critical if you don’t want to waste all your time messing with a small phone screen looking at maps to find that elusive explore.

As well as the successes, there have been many places I have failed to access. Whether I get in or not I still photograph all places I visit.

Today’s sealed entrance may be tomorrow’s big hole I can climb through. Nothing remains the same indefinitely.

Today I present you with a collection of places that I (we) in some cases failed to access, and why.

Griffin Lodge, Blackburn, Lancashire

Twice I have visited the lodge and both times it has been completely sealed.

This old red bricked mansion house has been torched several times in the last few years and save scaling a 12-foot wall is now inaccessible.

I was reminded of my trip to Auschwitz when I saw these spiked railings. From what I can gather from a talkative local, the Lodge was previously used as a museum.

St John the Evangelist, Crawshawbooth, Lancashire

There are many churches in England, I mean they are everywhere so photographs of this to me are nothing special.

I read a report that someone had infiltrated this church in late 2018 so went along to find nothing but seals.

The building is for sale at a paltry £75,000. Considering the price of housing this seems extremely cheap. Once sold it will be then off the UrBex radar.

What a house that would make, that’s if you don’t mind living in the middle of a medieval graveyard.

Imperial Mill, Blackburn, Lancashire

The Lancashire mills were once the stalwarts of workplaces during the Industrial revolution. Now they are either renovated into flats, partitioned off to small businesses or derelict.

Imperial Mill is partly derelict and partly still used. During our visit we could see cars and people milling about.

It is also fenced off and boasts working security cameras. The part that is still used doesn’t want the likes of me getting anywhere near it, and for good reason.

Nameless House (Undisclosed Location)

I simply drove past this place one day it and noticed it was boarded up. It’s off the roadside in a semi-rural area and I earmarked it for investigation later.

Myself and @mender1 visited several weeks ago and it is sealed up tight.

These untouched places can be gems if you can get in, but it was not going to happen that day.

St James Church, Church, Lancashire

I have had little success in the way of churches and this one was no different. It is completely sealed with rugged metal doors.

I was never going to get in and have a look around. Unlike the other church, this one does not appear to be for sale.

Stephenson Brothers Dry Salters, Bradford, West Yorkshire

This is one of my most recent fails. I accompanied @mender1 and @goblinknackers to this central derelict mill, but again it was sealed tight.

Canvas covering was over one section informing us all that it was being converted to apartments.

@mender1 seemed particularly keen on this one and didn’t appear to want to give up. He tried slipping through the 6-inch-wide bars but simply wasn’t skinny enough to cut the mustard.

We spotted this large dead rat close by; you see all kinds of things and after a while it gets to be normal. Apologies if you are squeamish. The rodent kind of sums up this area.

Wapping First School, Bradford, West Yorkshire

This place looked fantastic and had obviously been empty for years but someone had taken a lot of effort to seal it up.

Double fencing was the problem, and it was that 6-foot-high spiky type that we found at The Latvian Consulate.

There was one point where I could have possibly crawled under a gate and someone had removed part of the spiky fence but due to all the pies I eat these days, I’m just too damn fat to get under it.

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All photographs were taken by myself.