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Monday 27 February 2012

Urbex - the movies ! and a pitch

Urbex in the movies, hmmmm - your worst nightmare, the film is going to be either total shite or the next time you go exploring you end up a nervous wreck.

Personally I've always thought Huncoat Powerstation would make a good location for a zombie film, or locals surrounding the building with flaming torches.

Huncoat Powerstation

I can just picture the marauding hourde (with or without flaming torches) coming across the wasteland.

Huncoat Powerstation


I came up with a cracking idea for a urbex horror (well I thought so), a pitch as they call it in the trade, but whilst having these idle daydreams at work one day I then started trawling the net as you do.

First nugget I came across was that Paramount Pictures contacted the owners of the ship Duke of Lancaster

Turns out they wanted to use the location for the new Brad Pitt film World War Z.

Ghost Ship

But nothing came of it by the sounds of things.

So Urbex horror, first up is Urban Explorers. Not one I've seen on the shelves of our local Asda, but here is the trailer in all its glory.



Oh, here we go a longer one



Next up, Death Tunnel, set in an old hospital/asylum type place so not sure about the name of the film. Looks interesting this one (to me).



 Session 9, inspired, it is said by an unoffical visit to Danvers State Hospital




Anyway, here is my pitch (it was a shit day at the office) that I dream't up...

 Asylum Seeker - leave nothing but footprints

(nice tagline don't you think ? ok, no)


Urbexers explore the rotting buildings around us.

Urbexers explore the rotting buildings around us


Documenting the decay of industry & the forgotten world around us.

Documenting the decay of industry & the forgotten world around us


Ever wondered whats in that old building you pass as you run for your train ?

Ever wondered whats in that old building your pass as you run for your train ?


What would you find ?

What would you find ?


 The doors that slam and the floors that creak...

The doors that slam and the floors that creak


Dare you enter the abandoned asylum ? Sprawling houses of madness hiding the many dark secrets best forgotten.

The pinnacle of Urbex is the abandoned asylum, sprawling houses of madness hiding many dark secrets best forgotten


You avoid the security, the metal thieves, the weed farmers and the homeless in the decaying victorian factories. But the asylum is empty ? slowly rotting....

You avoid the security, the metal thieves, the weed farmers and the homeless in the decaying victorian factories. The asylum is empty ? slowly rotting


What lurks in the shadows ?

 what lurks in the shadows ?


Waiting

 waiting


For the kill !

for the kill


Leaving nothing, but footprints...

leaving nothing but footprints


Hang on, hang on,  if you are a film producer, email me, I have more ideas  - Lawn of the Dead, just think Crown Green Bowling with zombies, it has hit written all over it.

Plus loads more.......




Sunday 26 February 2012

RAF Croft

Another easy mooch on an extremely wet day last year.


RAF Croft became tenanted by the USAF in 1955 to provide a processing point for personnel and dependants when Burtonwood was assigned the additional function of a MATS terminal for passenger flights between the US and UK.  The terminal was located at Prestwick in Scotland.

This is a very gentle site, which to be honest is why Urban Spaceman and I visited, I was at the time popped up on painkillers on painkillers and shouldn't have been playing out.

It would seem some very new keep out and asbestos warning signs had appeared, but onwards we go, take a seat....


RAF Croft



RAF Croft



RAF Croft



RAF Croft



RAF Croft



RAF Croft



- an old theatre/cinema on site

RAF Croft



 RAF Croft



RAF Croft



The local taxis service left a little to be desired....

The local taxis service left a little to be desired



RAF Croft



RAF Croft



RAF Croft


Totally soaked and covered in muck we left and I went home for a bath.


 RAF Croft




Crack the Surface - Urbex documentaries

Very interesting professional videos on urbex by SilentUK.

These guys are at the pinnacle of urban exploration, helps to explain why we do it - but if you don't get it, you don't get it and never will ?

Enjoy !



Crack The Surface - Episode I from SilentUK on Vimeo.





Crack The Surface - Episode II from SilentUK on Vimeo.


 






Urbex Shitstorms Feb 2012

Am I guilty of easy explores ? I possibly am, but given a spinal injury last year I'm going to use that as an excuse (a lot better thanks).

A few headlines on the urbex front this week and my advice, learn't a long time ago, some things are stupid and somethings should not be posted online.

First off, Britannia Bridge, I flew over here in January, its a bit high with the Menia Straits below

Britannia Bridge, Menai Strait

Other photos and reports of explores have been on the "usual" websites for ages, but this week they started to be deleted as worried explorers started to have sleepless nights over this

 http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-west-wales-17095194


Next up people in very high places get very upset and embarrassed about gaps in security and try to crush human rights (read this article!!!)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2012/feb/24/london-underground-explorers-security-services?INTCMP=SRCH


My thoughts, as cutbacks kick in for police forces and as factories close, this wonderful country is slowly turning into a urbex paradise. Sometimes you should say no and skip some explores or perhaps not post the pics and reports.


Oh and just in case your wondering would I have done these explores, the answer is

Bridge -no !
Underground - yes ! (but for avoidance of doubt I haven't)


Huncoat Powerstation - Part 1

"Part 1?" you say....

Huncoat Powerstation for those who don't know it, is, well a dead power station. If Huncoat was a restaurant it would be a Mcdonalds, possibly a drive thru - a guilty pleasure.

Is it Urbex ? Well it was was a one point, but you can now simply walk in from the side of the road, its been stripped naked of anything remotely metal, anything burnable has been burnt, anything you could possibly vandalize has been.

So whats the attraction ?

Well the silence, on wet day the dripping noises, its location, its ease of entry, its graffiti, it is simply Huncoat.
 

For many urban explorers in Northern England their first explore was a Huncoat mooch and its a place that just keeps giving with the graffiti changing all the time.

Many non Urbex photographers pop into Huncoat, its that kind of place.....


 My first trip to Huncoat, was pretty much my first Urbex mooch, so Urban Spaceman and I visited one saturday lunch time. As I said above, the first thing you notice is the silence.


Huncoat Powerstation



 Huncoat Powerstation



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 my goodself, taken by Rob



 Huncoat Powerstation


We came, we mooched, we snapped away on the cameras, we where Urbexers ! Then the feeling someone else was in the building, we are newbies in all this and we stop and listen - silence and dripping water.

We stop again, silence, and off we go upstairs and

 The Model Urbexer


You see, its that kind of place, want to do a photoshoot for a sports catalogue this it would seem is the place to do it.


 The Model Urbexer



 Huncoat Powerstation


I must at this point drop into the blog a shout to the girls Zoie and Yvette, and plug the website of Zoie, the quality of her photography blows me away and she does have an urbex interest, just check out her ballerina shots at Rosebank Mill http://www.zoie-photography.com/

- Should say they gave us some pointers to a few local explores.


The Model Urbexer



IMGP2040



Any way on with the pics


 Huncoat Powerstation




Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



Huncoat Powerstation



 Huncoat Powerstation



 Huncoat Powerstation



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 Urbex spider



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



Huncoat Powerstation




Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 Huncote Powerstation - Revisited



 Huncoat Powerstation



Part 2 to follow but in the mean time, see you at Huncoat.

Oh, September 2013 a group of us had a wool spinning night at Huncoat