Urban Desolation

If you go down in the woods today

2010-11-08T16:41:00.000Z

Your in for a disused mental health hospital. Sat just outside Bristol lies Barrow Gurney hospital, a former mental health unit for Bristol area once branded the dirtiest hospital in the UK after examiners found a trail of errors and failings now shut since 2006. Now it lies overgrown and abandoned subject to a summary execution from the bulldozer in what looks to be an abstract pattern of demolition and failed planning attempts. The remaining wards now stripped of traces and prepped for demolition still leave clues to its past murals painted in the children's wards now draped in police tape from training exercises, and the odd bit of paperwork forgotten marked with notes about health and safety and the latest drug available. They all leave traces of the former for those brave enough to face the stench of the damp and mold, but still complete with the hospital smell from years of cleaning still lingering, clinging on in some hope to keep some sense of past identity in the stripped out wards and corridors.

A victim of the ressession

2010-10-25T17:35:00.001+01:00

Spend spend spend was the motto around the start of the 21st century, Then it went wrong the economy failed. The building industry crashed and burnt in a pile of shoddy Barrat box's and high rise designer living sold by a guy in a flash car and suit, and even more flash name designed to fit the nature of the new build flats offering an empty promise of a better life.
What we have here is the victim of the recession, Once a noisy loud and dusty place now silent bar the odd footsteps and muffled voices of the explorer and the odd passing worker to check the site security. This site once produced concrete for the new shopping center in Bristol and various other projects across the south west now it sits awaiting a change in fortunes or the sad embrace of the welders touch and demolition.

RAF graveyard

2010-09-11T21:41:00.000+01:00

Deep in the middle of the Cornish countryside lies the former RAF base built during world war two made to protect the western approaches to the UK. This base was to combat the U boat menace, now its left to the firefighting department of RNAS Coldrose for training and used as a dumping ground for air frames no longer required, left to rot in Cornish salt air.

again the scurge of digital photography rears its ugly head

2010-08-12T22:21:00.000+01:00

So we moved from an age of grains of silver and hours in a darkroom to an age of pixels and digital file and Photoshop, From the quantifiable tangible nature of the negative to sandisks latest offering of memory containing nothing more than silicon.
Here we have the issue, The image has moved from tangible to an digital world.
So by now some of you are curious as to what does this have to do with the exploration of abandoned buildings and spaces in fact nothing at all to do with it
But what it does effect is my work flow and output rather than the negative and contact sheet and hours spent in the dark room, the images now sit languishing on a hard drive moved about and edited in the digital domain only to be forgotten about.
So what we have here is a series of images of various locations in the UK that for the past few weeks and months have just sat on my hard drive

Enjoy

moment of clarity

2010-07-13T23:35:00.000+01:00

Before all the hype and nonsense that UE became in the uk and interforum shite raised its ugly head and people cashing in on this game . There i was climbing the fresh build towers of swansea just to see the view and not look for credit or my cock sucked on a forum or flickr. This is ue pure an simple kids fresh kills this is not, but this one image says a lot to me for my work. Yea i got my degree now, but just a simple brain wave to check some old photobucket account can give you the kick you need to think about your skills in another mindset, to stay away from all this bullshit maybe even put the camera down and sit and pause and take in what this can offer to the human soul rather than this hype fest that UE has become.

yes im drunk and in a philosophical mood tonight after seeing some work from a few years ago.

plymouth shelter

2010-05-14T21:03:00.001+01:00

A small ladder leads into a little know part of the dark days of world war 2, this is many of the world war 2 shelters made during the dark days of the blitz to protect the people of Plymouth from the blitz this small hatch cracked and rusting originally an escape route this now gives us access into this world. hardly under ground bar a few feet of soil and concrete hastily made in the start of the war using the cut and cover method a large hole dug filled with a concrete floor and lined with pre made panels and tied together with a series of steel beams then buried to offer some form of protection against the falling bombs this space small and poorly lit offered some shelter from regular raids. During the time in the shelter the former occupants left us clues in the form of small pieces of graffiti drawn in pencil on the wall. This portrait of life in stoke gives us a tangible personal clue to the day to day life of the people of Plymouth during the dark days of world war 2 and adds a historical and personal context to what would just be a series of rooms and chambers without the graffiti.
To enlarge the images click on them

Plymouth navy day 1944

NAFFI

a list of local names and addresses and a possible football score at the bottom

to add a scale and perspective to the graffiti the below images give a context and scale of the shelter.
the shot towards the cubical for the toilets

this would have been lined down one side with benches.

Penallta Colliery

2010-04-22T20:06:00.004+01:00

Recently found myself in wales and well it would be rude not to visit what south wales was famous for and no not Tom Jones the coal. Penalta colliery was first shown to me by another local explorer, at the time the site was under renovation the bath house and winding house where both bricked up and tightly guarded following the restoration and site works finishing this enabled access to the bath house and winding house at last.The bath house is a lovely mix of 1920's art deco movement a stunning mix of brick and curves sadly the full splendor of this building purpose its showers have been wrecked by mindless idiots smashing the glazed brick cubicles in domino fashion. still the art deco building even in this state of decay still holds quite a bit of charm. onto the winding house this dates to 1908 when the site was first built, the internals of the winding house are long gone only trace left is 2 large fans to push air down the shafts.the inside of the winding house is made of glazed tile and brick arches sadly my images of this half of the site where not that good a bit more info is here on the link http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penallta_Colliery
the images where shot on a mamiya 645 with fuji 160s film with a 80mm lens

weekly visual diary

2010-03-31T18:44:00.001+01:00

Well i always carry a camera with me when im out and about, by the end of the normal week i end up with a series of images that sometimes sit on the hard drive or end up going nowhere but the bin. So what i have decided to do is just add a few images to this every week or so to kinda act as a visual diary, so what we have here is a small sequence from the last week i still have a few london street shots to go on here and a few other bits and bobs so standby for them

work experience

2010-03-14T13:06:00.002Z

so again as a part of my FDA iv'e got to do 30 hours of work experience and do a quick description of what i had done so here we go.

Rewind to last September i found myself sending a few emails to the local paper the herald after a few emails and a call to the office. I found myself at the office at 8am not quite knowing what to expect. The morning started with the normal introduction and the standard health and safety talk and then onto the task at hand.
The day to day work of a local news tog the day starts with a list of jobs and times to be at the locations. This week we had everything from a sex offender to fire arms taken from a drug dealer to silver wedding anniversary's and to be on call to any braking stories that required shooting. So monday we had to do a shoot down at Laira bridge where 2 girls saved a guy who fell in the Plym river while drunk. Then the day after it was drugs bust to shoot images of the weed they found at an address in Plymouth. This was the standard pattern to the week drive to a job do the shoot back to the office upload the images to the computer system with a quick bit of editing ,from there they are printed as acontact sheet and taken to the news desk for the editors to choose the correct image for the paper. Towards the end of the week i had the opportunity to do some of the shooting myself this led to me having a few images in the paper. This was of a certificate presentation and a woman who had made some community art in Saltash. The image of the certificate presentation was used in the paper on page 20. over all it was a good week and i gained a good insight into the working of a press photographer and the use of flash and the work flow management needed to produce the images to the correct standard

leading on from this i did a day's shooting for skills cornwall. This was down in the redruth lesure center.This was organised by http://www.prospects.co.uk/ this involved the local college s and education groups and businesses. The aim of the shoot was to supply a series of images for use in the promo of the next event. I used the 17-40 and the 70-200 lens and a flash for fill in and a canon 30d. The images where shot as jpg and then edited down to a large and small file.
the images where corporate style shots full length and and close up details to be used to promote the next skills cornwall event

exhibition

2010-03-11T12:25:00.000Z

So right we have some work being shown as a part of my FDA course. the full info is below for the show, so lets get some feet thru the door and get a few people there spread the word and lets fill the place

thanks

now 26 uk urbex mega mix

2010-02-25T21:25:00.000Z

So rather than posting a separate report for all the sites, i will just dish out some chunks of prime film filth from under Derby and some Greek wet dream shots of TG greens pottery. And just for the brummies im in ur control rooms playing with your dials and buttons then onto a bit of cold war flavor bunker.
Thanks to urbanity for this mini epic road trip and the other heads that gave us a bit of intel.

captain birds eye flow selecta

now for tg greens a very quick look here was in and out after 20 min and onto the
next

then onto the power station

bunker

excuse the lack of info on this last site its for its own good

reflections

2010-02-06T22:50:00.001Z

just a few shots of reflections found in a few sites in my local area. not enough shots to do a full report on a forum so will just put em ere shots taken at former brewery and factory connected with mining in cornwall

The book

2010-02-02T21:56:00.000Z

After a few months of playing with images and pushing em round a computer screen we have the end result my first book. yea i know its self published and done thru blurb so haters back off because im happy with it. it can be got a blurb.com link is below when mine comes i will post a few pics

link to the book
http://www.blurb.com/books/1170131

a blast from the past kodak style

2010-01-26T20:22:00.000Z

today with a few hours to kill i decided to test out an old Kodak Junior camera link from wiki http://www.camerapedia.org/wiki/Kodak_Junior , after re spooling the film from the now standard 120 to the old 620 spools.I picked up the light meter and took the camera for a walk round truro college came back with some abstract images taken from the building.The camera itself has very little control short of the 2 shutter speeds and aperture control. the focus is on the front of the lens and is marked in feet this lack of focus may explain how some of my images are out of focus or have a strange focus point but again im impressed with the end result of the images

From 120 film

ignore the fact the last one was scanned backwards

random artworks

2010-01-21T17:21:00.002Z

so we have a list of random images ive made over the last few months to add to this section of my blog this will be expanding with fresh images on a regular basis

blue stone

From random artworks

London

2010-01-20T11:36:00.002Z

So we have here a quick visit to London met up with Dante http://blackmonolithiclandscape.blogspot.com/ for a bit of a wander round the capital the foul weather put payed to a whole days shooting but i managed to get the below images

From london

taken outside the identity and passport service building in central london

From london

The Daily Mail

2010-01-08T21:23:00.001Z

so what do we get when the tea boy or recent university graduate decides they can construct a news article this http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-1241584/Plot-attack-presenters-Most-Haunted-busted-pranksters-caught-discussing-plans-online.html
After the total and utter fiascoe at the north wales asylum where they remade a padded cell. Even tho the padded cells have not been used since the 40-50es due in part to the use of better drugs.along with this several other parts of the building where constructed as props to suit the needs of the show.And that ended in the main hall being burnt down 2 weeks after the show aired.Due to this feelings within the urban exploration community where not at the best towards the most haunted crew.Because of a recent thread on 28 days later about the planned most haunted visit to RAF Rainham to film the new episode of the show.this led to the comments posted by members that felt strongly against the most haunted using locations to produce what is essentially a stage manged false show.
so fast forward to the so called journalist picking up on the thread on 28days later who then decides to produce some gutter journalism on what was essentially nothing.And with this twist what was a simple off hand comment by myself into that of me assaulting the presenter of most haunted. All this shows is that A why did this ever class as news and B all this shows is again the total dumbing down of the news to the lowest common denominator again by papers like the daily mail.
thanks tho to the editor for producing this so called news as my hits on my website and blog have been very high today

langdon hospital

2009-12-29T22:34:00.000Z

take one explorer a canon 30d and the explorers favorite lens the 10-22. Add to this a newly discovered very soon to be demolished hospital and you have the recipe for win. So we rocked up to the Langdon hospital in Dawlish in Devon the site is under redevelopment and several of the wards closed in the 80es according to what was left behind in the buildings. the wards are now being demolished the diggers are in place to make way for a modern medium secure unit.The site is a mix of 2 or 1 story buildings the ones we did where single story blocks children's wards and some secure wards complete with kick marks on the doors and the NHS obligatory left behind paperwork. The highlight was finding the dentist chair and equipment still left in situ complete with drills and bdsm attachments. So on with the explore after getting into the site the first block has 2 wards and assorted toilets and baths the NHS pink issue aka the female side of the ward and blue for the male. The wards are quite empty and there are a few odds and ends left behind in cupboards and dotted around the rooms. The second building we come to has a series of what can be described as cells rooms with a bed and a few creature comforts. This was obviously not enough to stop the inmates from kicking the doors as they where taken from the legal system or after being sectioned under the mental health act. Onto the last block after negotiating the dodgy dry rot floors and keeping our ankles intact we made it over to the dentist complete with chair and stand for the equipment. we did have a look in what we can presume is the mortuary block and find a gurney for transporting the bodies and the hydrotherapy department tho we could not get access to the hydrotherapy dept.all in all a good way to say good bye to 2009 i think images to follow soon

right the current situtaion

2009-12-05T10:30:00.000Z

Ive been very slow on the update of this page so the situation is the road trip went very well in august and ive restarted in truro college in sept sadly this has the negative effect on me in terms of work output.But i did do a week of work experience with the Plymouth herald that was epic fun. so the exploring has been very thin on the ground recently not much to be had due to rain n lack of cash hence the lack of fresh stuff on the website.

last week in hell

2009-08-04T12:07:00.004+01:00

Well i have one more shift left in the hell that is the 118 call center on the swine flu calls welcome to the national i want a few days off work service this sums up the use of the place then bring on 10 days of urbex

website

2009-07-06T09:47:00.001+01:00

so there are a few more sets added to the website and more to come soon such as the 4 asylums london trip. and the road trip planning is looking like it will deliver loads so better get working to pay teh bills and get dollar

4 hours in the cooler for crimes against urbex

2009-06-29T08:13:00.005+01:00

Right for my crimes against the urbex community and not paying a word of attention to the haters and oh noes its locked down and so lets start hating again even tho they had no intentions of goin due to the l33t status they have obtained from previous hate campaigns i was sentenced to 4 hours on the national express cooler the air con offered plenty and delivered nothing but pure sweaty hell.
Right back to London the myth buster road trip so i get to London on sat meet up with patch and ride the tube to Colindale,again according to rumor mill oh noes nothing left all gone well after 3 hours or so and 20 odd shots of pure slide film filth and a quick oh shit run moment we are done there.On to the next one Springfield now this one was a very fun explore as for the access i cant say much but yea apart from all the its locked down due to mc_nebula ms paint map with oh look the current access is still there, and the original access taken was locked down and this was gone before mc_nebula's visit and anyway the original access was very high vis and would not of lasted long.so we get in have a few hours in this very nice site and after patch very close to getting nommed by the very fucked floors we left the way we come. Onto the next site Atkinson Morley hospital in Wimbledon again one that was according to the vine of info gone so again we rock up and find wow whats this its there and nothing had been done due to the credit crunch wow im loving the credit crunch,after a bit of heras ninja and a quick climb we are in at this point we don't know where the security office is so we have a wander about and then patch is taking a shot outside a door in admin and hears them talking and notices that he is outside the security office ah shit run back upstairs and decided to leave. I was not a big fan of the site myself as it was very much stripped prior to the cred crunch and was due for conversion and not much remains but like Pokemon you gotta catch em all and onto the next site.
An old fave of mine West Park asylum in Epsom we had a very fine evening wander,no problems and saw one hell of a lot of the site the highlight was the water tower lush view over to London from there.well we had our fun there and after a mc shite milkshake n tesco sushi we where off again this time to crack one of the hardest sites in London battersea power station. At this point i was so knackered and the thought of drinking yet more relentless was not sounding very nice to me so so me and statler voted with our feet and left, so then starts the long wander along the river to find the YHA for the night after a few externals shots of battersea i do the slog to the YHA and get my head down for a few hours well needed kip. this trip was epic much love n respect to patch mc_nebula and statler for doing the London driving n loosing his fags the random express supermarkets for the food and the NHS care in the community and random cuts for giving us the hospitals again im very gutted i missed the opportunity for battersea this weekend promised much and delivered more shame about the aircon on the coach tho

well i have been a bit busy

2009-06-24T16:53:00.007+01:00

right bit of an update here more stuff is now on my site it has been updated and there is more to come. Right so last weekend we did a mini day trip to mid wales asylum talgarth, was nice to see the place again but sadly its now fucked after the owner has stripped the roof of its tiles and now the place stinks and is falling apart quite quick now. also while in the area we pulled by cwm coke works in beddau it is a stinking relic of the former coal industry in wales it was made to produce coke for the steel industry awesome looking site but sadly the fear was strong on this one after stories of the security letting the dogs loose n quite frankly i did not wanna get nommed by a pissed alsation we dicided to bail. On the way home we hit barrow gurney hospital near bristol was nice to see the place again but sadly its been demolished in places and very badly stripped of tiles n lead and what ever else that thay can sell, still has that barrow stink tho. thanks to tumbles for the guide Link the pics from the weekend shall be online very soon.
Right so this weekend im heading over to london to meet up with patch Link and a few others and hit a few sites n one of my faves west park to see what has opened up and see if we can do collindale and springfield asylum then when the darkness falls onto battersea and a few high places to do some sick night shots of london the t64 is on standby and waiting for the darkness
more to follow monday when i get back

good bye cornwall hello devon

2009-06-13T11:03:00.003+01:00

well today is the end of the 12 months of abject hell bought on by living in a dive of a student house and the flat mate from hell.so this is all to change now with easy cheap access to london via mega bus and a location that is more conducive to getting the project done now to find a job and get a few more sites done let the main bulk of my work commence this summer

urbex as we know it is dead

2009-06-10T20:51:00.005+01:00

After having this blog for quite a while iv'e decided to get around to using it and having it linked to my site. So the general overview is urbex is dead as we know it after the last 12 months of listening and reading the huge interforum rants and bitch fests and by my own guilt partaking in one or two ive decided ive had enough of the haters and attitute crews that UE is attracting at the mo. Decided to take a step back and become one with the shadows and go about it for my own gains not to impress or get points on someone else the intial aims of urbex have been lost and its a sad site to see
URBEX IS DEAD

Right on the good side the first year of uni is up, only 2 more to come thank god. And i have a summer of work and shooting for the major project that documenting the decay around the UK this project will culminate in a book and a exibition of my work well this is the plan. i have a large upgrade on the site so look out for that
dave