Author: S8

We were searching for a new beach on the Island of Eleuthera in The Bahamas when we found ourselves idly turning down one of the side roads off the Queens Highway. We didn’t know it at the time, but we had turned into an old US Naval Facilities Engineering Command & US AuxiliaryAir Force base (NAVFAC Eleuthera) that had helped to develop the SOSUS system and track missiles during the 1950’s. Eleuthera is a long, thin and sparsely populated island that sits on the boundary between the Caribbean and the North Atlantic Oceans; the island is filled with stunning beaches that are found at the end of unlikely dirt tracks and a 4×4 is essential. We hadn’t expected anything different as we drove down an road that was being reclaimed by the bush.

Driving onwards, we passed an old gate house and a handful of derelict wooden buildings hiding in the bush. We thought nothing of it initially as we passed similar buildings when exploring Cotton Bay earlier in the week. We only begun to realise we had stumbled somewhere different to what we expected when, rather than park up next to a beach, we found ourselves edging out onto a crumbling apron of tarmac and concrete. It seemed to large to be a car park for an island of less that 10,000 people. It turned out to be a simple way of collecting rain water.

Originally known as the “US Navy Experimental Facility, Eleuthera”, the base originated in November 1950 when Western Electric was selected to construct a demonstration SOSUS (Sound Surveillance System) installation on the island. This was part of the larger Project Hartwell initiated by the Americans and MIT.  Initially, the base consisted of a wooden Generator Building, a wooden Western Electric Laboratory building and a Communications Center which was little more than a tent. Six hydrophones were also installed at sea as part of the project. A few years later the US navy sent over a construction battalion, The Seabees, to established a more permanent base and five green huts consisting of administration, a galley and barracks were built.

In 1957 the Eleuthera Auxiliary Air Force Base (AAFB) begun operations as part of the Atlantic Ballistic Missile Test Range,  The Eleuthera AAFB was part of the Air Force Missile Test Center’s Atlantic Missile Range, which was used for long-range monitoring of rocket and guided missile launches, controlled targets, drones, satellites, and lunar probes for the Air Force, Army, and Navy.  The Eleuthera AAFB was the fourth tracking station in along the length of the test range and formed part of there MISTRAM system.

The base was supported by twenty contractor employees of the Radio Corporation of America (RCA) (the primary contractor for operation and maintenance of the site’s instrumentation, including the MISTRAM system) and Pan American Airways (PAA) (the primary contractor for management, engineering, operations, and maintenance) during the 1960’s and 1970’s, and Western Electric in the 1950’s.  Pan Am employed the support staff, whilst RCA employed the electronic technicians, engineers, and related equipment operators.  At its peak, 45 Bahamian employees also worked at the base.  The MISTRAM facility was part of Eleuthera AAFB.  The Air Force Base Commander was evidently the only military officer assigned to the AAFB.  The top PanAm employee had the title of Base Operations Manager, and the top RCA employee was the Instrumentation Manager. The MISTRAM system was superseded in the 1970’s and the AAFB was taken over by the NAVFAC.

Having discovered the concrete aprons and spotting more derelict wooden buildings hiding in the undergrowth, we decided to explore further. The quiet of the surroundings and the density of the bush were reminiscent of Pripyat in Chernobyl, as hidden around the edges and just out of sight were old fire hydrants, walkways and other signs of life. We scrapped the car around the heavily overgrown roads (we decided against walking because of poison wood and mosquitos) and came into another concrete apron in the middle of a cluster of buildings.  We still did not have any clue as to where we were, but we later found out that we had discovered the old Maintenance sheds, Weather Station, Diesel Generating Station and Control Centre for the AAFB. Our first clue to the what the previous life was, was the discovery of some paper work stating Pan-Am Guided Missile Range Division.

It was clearly evident that the metal fairies had descended and cleared the lot since the base closed. Every building was trashed, weathered and beautiful to photograph.  Still laying in place in the generator station were eight 200kW diesel generators and their associated electric switchgear. Half supplied by Westinghouse and the other half supplied by General Electric, their guts strewn across the floor.  Surely 1.6MW of power would have been useful to the islanders?

We decided not to hang around any longer as we could hear some heavy grinding from workers at the still functional water plant close by and we didn’t want to unexpectedly meet them. We did drive through a few days later to grab a few more photos as we were passing and stumbled upon a pile of forgotten telephone switchgear.

 

Recently, Subbrit released a whole wealth of photos from their archives and it made us think, wouldn’t it be useful to have one place where we can list out other archives we have found.

Firstly, the Subbrit Collection:

https://collection.subbrit.org.uk/

A Flickr Collection from Herrison Hosiptal (Asylum) before it was converted:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/nowawildlife_lover/sets/72157629448251164/

A huge Flickr collection of Victorian Hospital Postcards:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/backmanmal/

A Flickr Collection of Warlingham Hospital, Croydon, before demoltion:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/ashenbury/sets/72157611132209493/

The Essex County Photo Archive, try searching for photos from Severalls, Warley and Runwell Hospitals:

https://unlockingessex.essexcc.gov.uk/uep/custom_pages/freetext_search.asp?content_page_id=80&content_parents=61

USAF Upper Heyford – photos from the 80’s:

https://www.defenseimagery.mil/imagery.html#a=search&s=heyford&t=0

Geograph – a great photo resource for old places.  Try searching for Barnsley Hall, Powick and St Mary’s:

https://www.geograph.org.uk

Photobox is always a good place for collections:

Whittingham Hospital

Do you have any websites that you use for Archive images, if so, let us know in the comments box below and we will add them (with a credit)

It’s is funny how there is always a song that fits the moment.  We feel that if we ever made a film about our trips down anything below the surface, Jamiroquai would possibly fit the bill.  Possibly not.  It would be clichéd, but we would be compelled to do it.  Probably a good thing we don’t make videos.  We wrote last year on how we got started and our memories of the gigantic asylums we adored; this time we thought we would talk about the world of derelict underground structures.  We may even admit to belonging to a society, or two.

We were introduced to the world underground structures right from the beginning.  The second site we ever visited, after our introduction to Pyestock, was the Shorts Brothers Tunnels in Rochester.  A mile long air raid shelter and factory on banks of the Medway.  Looking back, we should have been more prepared and taken something other than a dim AA rated Maglite.  Hindsight always raises a few laughs towards our newbish tendencies.  Since then, underground places have always drawn us in like a sink hole and we often find ourselves in the car racing the next destination that has just opened up.  Going underground is not something that everyone enjoys and actively seeks out, but we just happen to like it.

Above all, going underground relies on shear luck, timing and tenacity.  With access being limited to one or two entrance points it is very easy for an underground structure to be sealed up, or be buried over and forgotten.  Having only one access point is always a risky and you have to chance that you were not spotted going in.  We narrowly avoided contractors bricking up an air raid shelter in Portsmouth.  There are times when an underground site may be accessible for only a handful of days; when this happens the it is not uncommon for the entire urban exploration world to pass through and plaster photos over the Net.  Sometimes it is wise to keep a site off the Radar and to a handful of trusted friends to preserve for the future.  Too many places have been lost to careless talk and wanton forum whoring.  We only managed to see the Vickers Deep Shelter in Weybridge because of a chance encounter as we passed by in the car.

On the flipside, trying to locate an underground site can be very frustrating.  You can find yourself searching through the woods for a two foot square hole in the ground with nothing more accurate than a OS Grid Square, a fuzzy photo of a brown smudge and your own sense of direction.  Something which we have lacked on occasion, losing us an entire afternoon in the woods.  It is also very easy to become disorientated underground, especially if you stop paying attention to your surroundings.  Or reading the map wrong.  Or confusing your lefts and rights.  There is a strong possibility that we led a group of people astray down Box Quarry near Bath, only one of the UK’s largest underground spaces, because we turned right and not left.  But it is all part of the fun, if slightly agitated.

The final thing we have to say on going underground?  Sometimes a permission visit is the only possible way due to the ‘one entry nature’ of underground places.  There have been a number of old bunkers that we have only been able to visit because a kindly soul opened the door for us, or ex-LU employees who were feeling generous.

You may already know this, but TheTimeChamber has a little obsession with the old Victorian Asylums. We have a lot of information crammed into this website about them. Whilst we have this information, one thing we do not hold information on is old patients and their medical records (we have tried to glean information of what a patients day to day life was like from various sources). There is a simple reason for this.  The 100 Year Rule.

The 100 Year Rule acts was part of the Health Records Act that has been superseded by the Data Protection Act and Freedom of Information Requests.  Archivists have agreed that Medical Records should be kept closed from the General Public for 100 years. We are not aware of the full intricate rules about accessing patient records, as we have never desired to do so.

If you do require access to older records it is best to seek out the County Archivist, for the county the Hospital was based in, and make the enquiry through them.  The National Archives is the best starting point and they can point you in the right direction and provide the correct guidance. For more information, please visit the following guidance document: https://www.healtharchives.org/docs/After_100_year_rule.pdf

We do not wish to delve into the world of individual patient cases as it is not of interest to us personally. The information and history found on this website regarding the Asylums is more focused on the buildings, their development and their operation. In the past few months, we have been receiving more and more emails for patient information and medical records from family members trying to track down lost relatices.  This is something we cannot answer, nor do we wish to answer.  Our only advice is to head to the local archives or contact the National Archives to find out where they are held.

Revisits –  they are like watching a really good movie, you notice more.

Over the years we have been exploring we have found that the second time we visit a site, the more we discover.  The first visit is normally filled with a sense of wonderment, slight bewilderment and excitement – we power on through to cover as much as possible in the time. This leads us to spending little time on the photographs and details and whilst we return home feeling triumphant, we normally want more. Over the weekend we were lucky enough to pay the Shorts Brothers Underground Factory in Rochester a second visit.

Shorts Tunnel was one of the first sites we ever visited after we had been unceremoniously kicked out of Pyestock.  Being poor students and new to the hobby, we turned up with a point & shoot camera, tiny tripod and a double-AA Maglite. Our visit was with a much larger group and on looking back at our photos, they could have been better.  Years later, we fancied a revisit and like many sites Shorts Tunnels swings between being buttoned up tightly to access all areas. Returning to take better photos was a not an option. Over the years, there have been a number of sites like this.  We ignored a revisit to St Ebbas until after it was demolished because West Park overshadowed it.  Pyestock was struck from the list, Denbigh Asylum was partially burnt down and numerous others have been demolished.  When we look at some of the older photos, they makes us want more even though we know we can never revisit them.

Out visit to Shorts had been organised by Underground Kent and about 20 people attended.  Our guide very stated very clearly at the beginning “If you don’t want the tour, you can break away, just be back at the Entrance by 14:00”.  After a slight fumble and cracked head, we made our way down to the factory areas as quickly as possible.  We wanted clear light and decided to avoid the crowd.  The biggest problem with large group explores is that non-photographers have an amazing habit of stepping in the way of the camera, mid-shot. A guide also cuts out half of the fun and discovery. It is strange coming back to somewhere after so many years, we found that some parts had hardly changed, whilst others were unrecognisable.  A fire in recent years had ripped through an old paper store, decimating the area around it. Yet the attached air raid shelter had barely changed, other than a few items growing legs and moving around the place.

As we had decided to break away from the main group and explore on our own, this trip meant we came across hidden items we had previously not seen.  We managed to find a few cracking items, such as recessed first aid boxes, old graffiti and a couple of microfiche slides showing Blaw-Nox plans. Revisiting and taking the time to look at parts we had not seen before made for an enjoyable day.

Revisits, they are something every explorer should do.  Lets face it, there is always a photograph you want to recompose and try again with.

As many people discover, eBay is a dangerous place.  Idle browsing and impulses can lead to some interesting purchases!  You are not alone, we do the same thing.   In the past few years, we have brought innumerable items that are related to the website and other activities.  Books, postcards, photographs, plans, meters, all now clutter up our houses.

Every now and then something special appears in our searches, and we compulsively snap it up as we are powerless to resist! You may have noticed over the last few months that we have uploaded a lot of supporting information to some of the places we have visited.  This is a selection of what we have found online.  We have more sitting on our shelves, and one day we will sit down and post it.  This will include a huge cache of photos and information from the now demolished Carlton Hayes Hospital in Leicestershire.

The articles we have found can be seen on the following pages; Hellingly Hospital, Cane Hill Hospital, Graylingwell Hospital, St Crispins Hospital, The Epsom Cluster, Halberstadt and more!

So here is a small selection of what we have found, and uploaded, over the last few months.

 

When we first started TheTimeChamber, we threw ourselves into it.  We learnt to code, we added content and features and were continually on the look out for ways to improve the website.  Each time we returned from an explore, we instantly jumped into researching where we had been and begun writing a page about it.  It has also meant that the bookcases have started to creak a little.  Soon we discovered that the old way we managed the website was not adequate and our enthusiasm for updates started to wane. We found that we had slipped into a series of six monthly ‘mass updates’ and there was always something more interesting to do.  It didn’t help that only one of us knew how to code. A stagnant website is not good for visitors, or search indexes.

About 18 months ago we started to rethink how we would run the website and started to look at content management systems.  We trialled various platforms and finally settled upon WordPress and about a year ago the website was relaunched.

Lets be honest for a second here, things have not really changed in how we run things.  We still don’t update frequently and mass updates are still common place, although the blog receives a bit more attention than before. I guess we can relate this to the website, or exploring, not being either ‘new’ or ‘exciting’.

WordPress has revolutionised how we run things behind the scenes.  We now have the ability to edit pages as and when we need to and from anywhere in the world. This means that if we see a mistake, it doesn’t just sit there glaring at us like an unfed cat.  And if we have found some new information relating to one of the pages we can add it almost immediately.  It has allowed us to draft out a page months before we even post it, allowing for a much more thorough research process to be carried out. We do suffer from occasional memory problems and forget the direction that some blog posts were heading in, resulting in a large number of drafts drifting aimlessly through the ether. But the best thing is that the formatting and layout is now 100% consistent.

Is it worth it? Yes. We receive a modest 7,000 visitors a month, which translates to about 30,000 pages views (some websites claim much higher, but it depends on how you read the stats). It is nice to know we are being read by people searching for things as it keeps us going. We have also been Archived by the British Museum and we have been mentioned by magazines, councils and various news websites such as the Huffington Post.

So what is next? To be honest, we haven’t a clue. There are some sites we have lined up for the summer. We also have a backlog of things to upload which we plan to tackle in the coming months.

We may even write a few more photography based tutorials.

It has been a while since we have posted anything to the website, or explored the crumbling buildings we love.  A week in the mountains enjoying some fine white European powder in the Alps, Christmas and a house move have meant that life caught up with us and stood in the way.

As is the way with out exploring, this all changed very rapidly.  Out of the blue, and old explorer dropped us a message via Facebook. It simply said “I have arranged a tour of the non-public areas of Charing Cross, want to tag along?”

Well, yes.  Yes we did.  The old abandoned stations of the Tube have long since fascinated us.  But the thought of running the tunnels, dropping down air shafts and facing the horrendous outcome if caught has always stopped us doing anything other than taking the official route.  Which is slow, arduous and often ends up with a telephone being slammed down and any prospective tour being swept into the bin.  This is partly why we have an affliction to casual trespass.  But we have our limits and there are some places that we just will not go.  And as the UK scene has evolved, our motivation has dwindled some what.

Anyway, this wasn’t this post was meant to be about.  This was meant to be about Charing Cross, somewhere I only ever expected to see if the points just south of Green Park failed and sent us the wrong direction.  Our day started by meeting up within the main line station.  Explorers are an easily identifiable bunch, normally seen wearing old clothes, heavy boots, back packs and an expression that views the world as a suspicious open playground.  Our group looked exactly the same.  Once everyone had been arrested arrived, eaten a hastily brought breakfast, we set of to meet the Station Manager.  After a very brief H&S talk (it couldn’t be avoided) that told us very quickly not to smoke or fall on the tracks, we set off.  The Station Manager also told us that he would prefer to show a few people around, rather than find CCTV footage of unknowns strolling his closed off platform areas. Bonus.

Charing Cross Underground station has a complex history and has existed under a number of guises as The Strand, Trafalger Square and finally, Charing Cross.  At present the Northern and Bakerloo lines both serve the station, but there was a third line.  Unseen by the public, a set of disused Jubilee line platforms lay hidden behind a set of doors at the bottom of the main escalators.  This is were we spent the majority of our tour, poking around above and below the Jubilee line areas. We also spent a little bit of time spotting where the latest Bond blockbuster Skyfall had been filmed.  Apparently, the production team spent 5 months on site, for a 10 minute snippet of film! Time well spent in our opinion.

After we had finished with the closed areas, our guide explained that he would now take us into the closed areas and lift shafts around the Bakerloo line, the old construction tunnels and various parts of the ventilation system. We hadn’t been expecting that. The old Bakerloo lift shafts had been capped and filled with ventilation equipment when the Trafalgar Square and Strand stations were knocked into one. It is a strange feeling walking into a plantroom that is fancily decorated with green and white tiles and adorned with wooden fittings. It was great to see something off the beaten path, especially as the normal LU traveller doesn’t appreciate the importance of these systems.

It was also fun watching the raised eyebrows of Londoners as we disappeared in and out of various doors, and as we spooked them from behind vent grilles.

It was here we had to make our exit, and as we emerged above ground the group dispersed in the hunt for food/beer.

For close to 100 years Epsom was home to five mental hospitals, all of which were presided over by a 100ft high water tower. The exception was Manor Hospital, which was only meant to be a temporary site, and as is the way of the universe it was open for the longest of any of the Epsom hospitals. We recently found ourselves taking a wrong turning and ending up at the foot of the old Horton Water Tower.  Well, to be honest we thought we had, but all we found was a small plaque.  What had happened, had the land pirates really gone over board and taken the whole things?  Nope, NIMBY had struck, but unlike a wind farm, this was something that predated everyone who opposed it.

Epsom has had a chequered history with preserving and looking after their hospitals, it was only with West Park did a decent amount of the original buildings be preserved.  Long Grove and Horton were gutted and only a small part of each was preserved (The Long Grove admin is fantastic, but the same cannot be said for Horton’s), and due to the ramshackle nature of Manor only a small part was kept.  The biggest shame is that no a single main recreation hall has been preserved, just one of these would have made for a fantastic community centre. The only one that survived any vandalism was at St Ebba’s hospital, and even that was ripped down heartlessly.  As TheTimeChamber understands it, The halls at West Park, Horton and Long Grove all suffered arson attacks.

The other great shame is the water towers, until recently three of them still stood proudly over the old estate (originally four towered over).  That was until a local councilmen (Cllr Taylor and Cllr Buxton) backed a residential campaign to have to tower removed as it was an eye sore, apparently they were delighted when the demolition was announced. Surely the people who purchased the houses within the Horton Redevelopment would have known this? You cannot buy somewhere, and then declare that the pre-existing landscape is shit and something needs to be done – the only people who really can do that are the 1 percenters.  Other Hospital redevelopments have successfully converted theirs, such as Netherne and Claybury.  Even the Towers at West Park and St Ebba’s are being looked after and turned into flats.  Why wasn’t Horton’s treated in the same manor?  The need for £400k worth of under pinning may have been the principle cause that put off any developer tackling the project.  So it stood empty, derelict until the hammer fell.

Anyway, this is a small ode to all the buildings throughout the UK that could have been something, but were in turn demolished due to the lack of care by their current owners.  The Victorians must be spinning in their graves, if we hadn’t paved over them.  Somehow this is progress and sustainable?

Dover, it is always one of those places that you an count on to fill a dry spell. Nestled on the White Cliffs it has been chopped, changed and occupied by the military for centuries whilst they have pointed guns of all sizes at the narrowest point in the English Channel. Leaving behind in their wake a treasure trove of abandonment. During the Napoleonic ear, Dover was heavily fortified in an attempt to repel any would-be French invader. As is generally the way with most military hardware it was obsolete before it could be put to use, leaving behind vast citadels that had little point. Dover was also famous during for the coastal batteries that peppered the French coast line as they bristled like angry porcupines during World War 2. Now all that remains are a few scars on the landscape and hidden underground structures that supported them.

We found ourselves being rudely awakened by the alarm clock at 5:30 in the morning and begun to make the long journey down to the coast. Part of us was jealous that the majority of the UK population would still be tucked up in bed, but we managed to find some consolation in a short stop at McDonald’s for breakfast. We have visited Dover a handful of times, and each time we have ventured into places we have not seen before. We have found that our trips have always had one particular theme in common, the weather. Being a coastal town it is ravaged by the wind and rain and we have yet to experience Dover in the sunshine. Our only solace has been the shelter offered by the networks of tunnels that we planned to visit. With the militaries love of elevated positions, our visits to Dover have revolved around standing atop the cliffs in the bracing wind and rain trying to figure out where exactly the tinniest of entrances is located.

With explorers, Dover is infamous for the high number of deep shelters that were located next to the coastal batteries. These deep shelters were constructed throughout Dover to protect gun crews from German bombardment. Their original entrance have long since been demolished and the only remaining entrances are closely hidden in the grass. Our most recent visit saw us go to Lydden Spout, which requires a short and very vertical climb down the cliffs. Not something we had ever expected, but thankfully the weather was holding back and the climb was dry. We can only imagine what it would have been like to attempt it in rain. Other deep shelters entrances have included squeezing down past the original concrete capping and onto a clay covered stair case, or sliding down a slippery slope and past a small opening that would given us a quick lesson in gravity.

The other side of exploring life down in Dover is the napoleonic forts. Dover castle may be the pride of English Heritage, but there is another fortification of similar size and grandeur over on the western heights. Around half of the site has been converted into a government complex, but there remains many other parts to explore. Bastions, batteries, casemates, barracks and dry moats surround the main citadel in a state of dereliction. With the ever shifting landscape of exploring, their availability for exploration varies wildly (Dover is currently going through a state of closure) and access can be problematic. We haven’t seen as much as we have of the WW2 installations, yet the parts we have ventured in have been a breathe taking mix of dereliction and arched brickwork.

Whist we don’t get out and explore as mush as we would like to, we can always count on Dover to provide us with a mix of laughs and new sites to explore. We have barely begun to scratch the surface!

Following on from our trip down memory lane to Pyestock, and our slight regret that we never attached a blog to the original website, we are looking back at the Asylums. Even though they don’t feature that highly in the exploring world any more, partly due to their mass demolition and slight lack of interest from the ‘old guard’, they are something we loved. Nearly every explorer has been to one and like a few others, TheTimeChamber became a little obsessed.

It all started out with a trip to Severalls, a sprawling mass or corridors North of Colchester, straight after we had visited Pyestock. Being our first one we had decided to avoid the harder and more interesting ones in Surrey. Whilst it is an impressive size although the NHS had done a thorough job in clearing out everything and leaving behind nothing other than a single bed frame. We spent nine hours exploring a stark and empty space. We loved it. And when we landed back home, we spent hours reading about it after we stumbled on a book in the library. Feverishly, we started to look for more and came across the now defunct website County Asylums, and Simon Cornwells country wide list. We were hooked and within weeks we had paid the part demolished Park Prewett a fleeting visit.

That was back during the summer of 2007 and it would take us another 6 months to visit some where else. It wasn’t until a very cold winters morning did we find ourselves shivering our way across the fields towards Hellingly in Sussex. Hellingly was an odd one, situated in the middle of no where it had suffered innumerable damage and vandalism. Yet it held a derelict charm that made for some great photographs and an awesome main hall.

There was also little on site security, but we still found ourselves taking caution as we looked for a way in. Unknown to us, the window we had used to climb through was just round the corner from a door swinging in the wind. We could have avoided the tangle of brambles and the mad scramble through a letterbox, but why make it simple for ourselves? We spent the day there, carefully avoiding crashing through the ground floor and occasionally hiding from other explorers that we could hear in the distance…

Here the ball started to roll, we quickly followed it up with trips to Cane Hill and West Park, where we discovered how effective the security was. And how crooked some of them were. Cane Hill was protected by some very observant guards, who spent so much time walking the site that they had developed the ability to spot things out of place. Our first visit was fraught with the constant fear of turning a corner and being confronted by an angry guard. Out of all the the hospitals it was filled with the interesting stuff to poke about in, such as patient belongings/paperwork/equipment and we spent more time looking at what was left than taking photos.

West Park, for a while, was in a world of its own. The site owners had spent a vast sum of money installing a state of the art CCTV Alarm system activated by a laser grid. It did have a weak link, the guards. The highly effective security system was disabled by a guard who was more interested in sleep than his job. This meant that the land pirates descended and slowly the place opened up at the start of the summer. So we hit the tourist trail. It was just our luck that at the precise moment we stepped through a window, one of the guards stepped around the corner. Like rabbits caught in a cars headlights, we scrambled back through the way we came. Much to our surprise, the guard invited us for a walk round! Eh? Not what we had heard about the place.

Over the next 18 months we paid both Cane Hill and West Park numerous visits as they opened and closed up. On our final visit to Cane Hill, part way during demolition, did we come face to face with the Security. Luckily for us, one of our group knew who they were and started up a conversation. It was a strange bust as we spent most of the time reminiscing about the last 5 years worth of explorers traversing through the fence and into their hands. During our chat, the guards dog was going off the hook and barking at the bushes. It wasn’t until he set off back down the path did two explorers emerge and join us in what would become a very amusing explore involving a cupboard.

Eventually they both faced the wrecking ball and our local jaunts were lost. Even Hellingly suddenly disappeared and only a few were left scattered around the country.

This didn’t stop us for too long, the website had grown and we felt confident enough that we could try and organise to see a NHS hospitals that had started as Asylums. So we fired off a few emails and were in our way! Springfield, Goodmayes and Shelton threw open their doors and allowed us in.

Then, we stopped. Life took over for a while and we concentrated on other things. The old buildings were falling left, right and centre. The northern ones that we were patiently waiting to see suddenly disappeared, as did the southern ones. At the time we were at university and lacked the money required to make any long trips. Our interest waned.

Then, our last local Asylum was suddenly up for conversion. Graylingwell had been a nemesis for years, nailed windows and nervy security guards kept even the best explorers at bay and only a few made it through. Even then, they found the interior to be locked down and their movements limited. It sat quietly on the edge of the collective conscience, taunting us from behind a simple chain link fence. Then the developers moved in. Our first trip down was quickly scuppered by bad luck. Or second was much more fruitful and on yet another frozen morning, we made our way towards the buildings.

We spent the every daylight hour within the confines of the building. We dodged other explorers who were making one hell of a noise, fearful that they would attract unwanted attention. Considering it was the height of winter and the hours were short, we spent a large portion of time in the tunnels looking for a way across the site so to avoid the other explorers. Like many people before us, nailed doors stopped us dead and we didn’t find a way until we made out way back above ground.  But we did find something we had not expected.

In our experience, every service tunnel is a jumble of pipes to bang your head on and the scattering of unneeded items. In another hospital, Denbigh, we found an old filing cabinet tucked out the way in the service tunnels that contained a full set of hospital plans. What we found at Graylingwell was special, as we turned a corner to try another door that would take us out of the tunnels our torch beam fell upon a pile of old doors. These weren’t any doors, they were of a padded variety. We had only ever seen one before at West Park, and that had mysteriously disappeared after a music video shoot. After taking a few photos and having a general poke about, we left the way we came and started grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Since Graylingwell we haven’t visited another Asylum.  Severalls doesn’t interest us that much and we would only return to take some better photos. The few that do remain are in far flung reaches from where we currently live. Cornwall, Lancashire, Mid-Wales and Staffordshire aren’t in easy reach of a weekend. We may get round to dropping in on them, but the developers are lurking and waiting for the markets to improve, or the rot to set in and the listing to be over turned. They were great whilst they lasted.

A few months ago, TheTimeChamber had its 5th birthday.  We even wrote a blog post on it, where we briefly mentioned how it all started. Since then there has been a  sudden influx of Pyestock photographs across the internet this summer, causing a rush of nostalgia for us. So we have decided to write a retrospective post about our first entry into Urban Exploration. We suspect that this might lead to a series of retrospective posts about the places we have explored.

As you probably already know this website is run by two brothers, back in 2007 we found ourselves pacing the perimeter of Pyestock together looking for a way in.  We had little knowledge on what we were up to, but years of being kids running riot on a housing estate had given us some preparation as to what we needed to do. Pyestock was the many of firsts for us, from our first site to the first time we were firmly escorted from a site.  We had arrived at Pyestock with no more preparation that looking at the site layout on Google Earth. After a short bout of scrambling about the perimeter we thought we were in, but little did we know that there was a second fence waiting for us.  We were tantalisingly close and could see the sprawling industrial complex drawing us in for a closer look.

To paraphrase many fellow exploring blogs before us, the adrenaline had sent our senses into over drive and we had suddenly become very alert. Quickly making our way around the second fence we were in. Excitedly, we began darting from building to building, ducking under the mass of blue pipes that spread across the site like industrial tentacles as we went. Moving so fast led to an incoherent photographic record of what we saw.  Looking back we tried to take in too much in too shorter time, and after only a few hours we found ourselves leaving the way we came. Thoroughly satisfied that our first taste of UE had gone well.

On the car journey home that day we were already planning our return, Pyestock had wet our appetite and we wanted more. Two weeks later, we found ourselves driving the roads of Farnborough and back towards Pysestock. We had spent our time over the previous two weeks doing a little research and had a come up with a game plan. This time we were looking to spend the entire day within the site and we were safe in the knowledge that security at the time was lax. We had even upgraded our cameras specifically for the trip so that we could try and get some better photos.

Finding ourselves to be much more relaxed, we spent our time enjoying the decay. As we moved from building to building, we were amazed at the amount of engineering pedigree that had been left behind. The day was spent quickly moving through every building we came across and taking photos as we went. Looking back, we can only wish we had spent more time and knew what we were doing with our cameras! After close to 9 hours on the site, we made our way home not expecting to return.

Like most sites we have visited since Pyestock, we found ourselves wanting to return again. This time, bizarrely, we went back at night.  We can admit now that we did not see much and that the AA-Maglite torch we were using may have been a contributing factor. Rather than exploring the site, we decided to climb onto the roof of the air house and enjoy the birds eye view. It turned out to be a rather bouncy experience as the roof was made from a very lightweight construction. With shaky legs and near blindness, we made our way home for the third time in a month.

After our night visit and during one of many visits to the student bars, we began to regail our adventures with some friends from university. This caught their attention and we agreed to show them around.  We had already had numerous trips there and had inevitably become complacent and did not take our usual caution. Unbeknownst to us, a group from one of the exploring forums had arranged to have a mass explore on the same weekend that we were heading back. This caused the property owners to realise that their site was being infiltrated, so they lay in wait for anyone who happened to be going on that particular weekend.

This happened to be us.  Not a situation you want to be in when you have only just discovered exploring and had stupidly decided to take some friends along for a ride. After a brief shock of being surrounding by some angry people, we were firmly escorted from the site and told in a very definite manor to stay the hell away. With our tails between our legs and egg dripping from our face, we decided to move on from our affair with Pyestock and look for something else to entertain us. We soon found ourselves in the never ending corridor maze of Essex.

It has been a long time coming, but we have carried out a massive overhaul of the website. This is something we had been planning for a while, but due to certain circumstances, our hands were forced and we begun a rebuild.  From the initial look, it may look like nothing has changed.  But it has, and we hope to continue to bring improvements and updates to our audiences.

To put it briefly we have moved the entire website onto a CMS Platform. This has numerous advantages, and disadvantages, but it will allow us to update the site more frequently without having to rely on one persons coding skills and a particular computer. As it now also harnesses the power of databases, there are many funky features that we have added to make our lives, and yours, easier. The reason for this massive upgrade is that the CMS allows a certain amount of flexibility over a static website, i.e. small changes to the layout are applied to the entire site in one easy click. It also means that someone with little coding skill will be able to update the website, and this is something that has been a problem since the site started.

The layout of the site has not changed too much. There have been a number of cosmetic changes, such as popup images and a new front page. But we liked the style we had, and being from the school ‘if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it’ we decided to keep the old design.  A few sections have been merged together to enhance the overall experience, but we have not lost any of our original content (as the site stands, we have not added any new sites, but we shall be bring new ones soon).

It has taken a while as we have had to hammer the CMS system to our needs, which lead to a number of frustrated days when things did not quite work the way we wished.  But in all, it should provide a better experience for all.

A few short facts for you:

• It has taken a few hundred hours to convert the entire site,
• Over 200 pages have been created,
• Over 4000 images have been uploaded,
• The blog has been replicated word for word, and,
• over 25 sites are ready and waiting to be uploaded to the site.

We hope you enjoy the new look and feel.

Now, Best of British is not a magazine we normally read but we made an exception when given a copy by a relative. Imagine our surprise when amongst the pages we found reference to this very website. Seems we have caught someones attention, which is nice!

See the article in question below:

If your a reader of Best of British we would love to hear your thoughts on the website, so drop us a line through the contacts page.

Oh and you can find the website for the Best of British here

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It is like owning a car that rolls over onto 100,000 miles, you can’t help but watch! This month sees us enter our sixth year as a website and we thought we would write you a post, whilst wearing our rose tinted spectacles, on how it all started and the years in between.

Back in 2007 we found ourselves stepping through a fence and into Pyestock, a sprawling industrial centre in the heart of the home counties, and we entered the shady world of Urban Exploring. We had unintentionally started big, so big in fact we kept on returning to see more. This was until we pushed our luck a little too far and found ourselves being firmly escorted from the site with the stern warning never to return.

Pyestock had us hook, line and sinker and we were addicted. We cannot really put it into words and if you read other blogs around the internet, other people can’t either. But there is something about exploring that keeps drawing you back for more, even when you think you have had enough. Maybe it is that smell of damp decaying wood or the juxtaposition of seeing plant life growing in the middle of a derelict hospital ward?  Who knows, it’s hard to quantify or put in words.

So, we left Pyestock with our tails between our legs and found some fellow explorers and drove all over the south of England for a summer. It was only when the winter arrived did we let up and become a little more lax in our adventures. So as the cold nights drew in, we sat down and started to code a website. We found that the hardest thing with starting a website was the naming of it and we struggled for inspiration. That was until we opened up a vinyl mailer and read an album tracklist and a name sprung up. If you are wondering which album it came from, it was a track off the RAM Trilogy Molten Beats album. An album that we had grown up with during our teenage years. Anyway, a website was born and the exploring continued on.

Over the last 5 odd years, we have seen the sites and visited the majority of the tourist traps. We climbed, crawled and fell our way through the abundant dereliction that surrounded us at the time. With it, our website grew and morphed into something we hadn’t quite envisioned. We found that the underground sites and the old asylums took our interest most. We still have a huge backlog of places to upload now, but we will get to that soon. There were a few places that escaped us, but we saw some awesome stuff and made some good friends on the way!

As with everything, the landscape of the UE community started to change. Forums imploded and fell apart and the community we knew disintegrated. This didn’t stop anyone exploring though, all that had happened was that we moved into different homes and peered over the fence to see what the neighbours were doing. It was like a bitter divorce, but with everyone carrying on as normal. Exploring changed too, the large asylums once coveted had started to disappear, security companies had become more vigilant due to the lead thefts and good sites were kept much more quiet to prevent them being ruined. Our hobby was even mentioned by The Powers.

Here on TheTimeChamber we had fallen into a state of semi-retirement, hardly exploring anything during an entire year as nothing peaked our interest.  Life had simply got in the way as we beavered away towards our respective degrees. We had discovered that gone were the days of the easy explore we had started out with (if we are honest, we haven’t ever really gone for the hardcore explores). We shockingly had to start looking for things, rather than relying solely on the forums and the few trusty derelict sites we loved. Smaller sites begun to be discovered around the country, as well as going out and asking some places if we could have a poke around. Whilst these places lacked the size of somewhere like West Park, they did contain a certain charm and made for some great photographic opportunities. There was a downside to this, it meant that instead of driving halfway across the country to look at something you knew would take a chunk of the day to explore, mini road trips had to be planned. Something that didn’t always pay off as well as expected. Other times they did.

This didn’t stop us and slowly we came back into exploring. We rebuilt the website to incorporate more features, more research, and added this blog and and started to get back out there. We still relied heavily on the forums for our leads as, lets face it, they are a great resource if you want to find a few places to see. We also found that the people we had met over the last few years would drop us a line and invite us out to somewhere, which has lead to some of the best trips we have ever had.

This brings us to now. We still explore and it takes us a while, but the site does get updated too. There are a few plans in the pipeline, but in true laziness, they have yet to be started. Europe beckons. Who knows how TheTimeChamber will morph and grow over the next 6 years?