Who are we?
We are two brothers and like you, we hold down full time jobs and lead a normal life. The only difference is that every once in a while we don old scruffy clothes, grab our cameras and head off into the wilderness. Occasionally we remember other useful items such as water, torches and the odd snack. Unknown to each other we had spent the same week reading about derelict buildings and Urban Exploration forums. That was back in 2007 when we discovered that there was 100 acres of industry laying derelict on our doorstep. Since then we have not looked back, except when we hear the scuffle of footsteps behind us or the loud banging of a door in the wind. It has been an adventure filled with tense moments, incredibly stupid moments, and moments when we forget we are in the middle of a derelict site with security just round the corner, laughing like hyenas because one of use has taken an unexpected nose dive out of a window. We have met some fantastic people along the way, and we will get to you later…
We can’t explain why we do it, we just do. It is a bug that we cannot always ignore. We blame That Smell.
The Website
If we are honest, it is not what we had ever expected. It started as somewhere to post a few photos that we had taken so that we could share them on the ether, then we begun reading about the buildings we were visiting. So it started to expand. Then it expanded a little more, then redesigned to become more functional and then set about expanding again. We even started to document buildings that had been converted, but their past uses forgotten. This has led to a rather comprehensive site, not only filled with photos, but information. Eventually the website was separated down into two sections, Places we have explored and a section dedicated to our photography exploits unrelated to our explores.
In 2012, we decided to bolt a blog onto the side of the website so that we could add some human elements to the mountain of historical documentation. We felt that the website was a little sterile and too much like a university text book. The WordPress platform proved to be so useful and easy to use that we decided to move the entire website over and TheTimeChamber was born for the third time. Hopefully this should allow us to easily update the website in the future as we had fallen into the habit of doing ‘mass updates’. It may cause us to uncontrollably tinker with everything. Especially after an update, which has an obnoxious habit of resetting things.
We don’t plan any further upgrades, they take far too long.
Contributors
There are a number of people who have helped us along our journey that we would like to thank. They are, in no order,
- Our UK Friends (Kingrat, Lilli, MarkR, The Riddlers, WIMR, Mex, Esp, TC, Box, Tumbles, PaulN, Citadel Monkey, Pix. The list goes on..),
- Our German and European friends, Sascha, Peter, The Berliner Unterwelten and the Bundeswehr.
- Our ever suffering partners who put up with our random trips/muddy clothes/broken cars and general exploring obsessiveness with out (too much) fuss
- South West London and St George’s Mental Health NHS Trust,
- North East London NHS Foundation Trust,
- South Staffordshire and Shropshire Healthcare Trust,
- Wealdon Cave and Mine Society,
- Subbrit & the people we have met
- Don @ Upper Heyford,
- Various Council Planners throughout the country.
A Small Disclaimer & Copyright Notice
Derelict buildings pose a huge hazard to people who enter them, so if you do decide to get off the computer and enter the wide world, please take care. That is all we ask. That and we cannot be held for your own actions, whatever they are. It is your life and your responsibility, by reading this you agree to that anything that happens is not our fault and we cannot be held responsible. Dangers include, but are not limited to, unguarded drops, asbestos, lead paint, broken glass, rusty metal, wild animals, radiation, poor quality air, other human beings, prickly vegetation, rotten floors to fall through, rotten ceilings to fall on you and unstable walls to crush you. By visiting derelict buildings you could die, or suffer permanent life changing injuries so we advise you dont. Also its worth remembering that you should only visit with the land owners permission.
P.S. The photos contained within this website are property of the website owners (unless otherwise stated), so is the text and words contained within. They are under our copyright. We have tried as far as possible to identify material we have used by providing website links to the original material, or credit to the original authors/photographers/drawers but in some cases despite trying we have been unable to do this. If you wish to use anything from this website, or discuss any material shown please contact us via the contact page and we will try to come to an arrangement.