Date: 2008-07-15.
Tags: london, millenium mills, srt, tellychubby
[photo: zero]
Naturally, rigged and roped I descended to aid our photographic pursuits and try and discern exactly what the fuck was the happening at the bottom. From my intermediate perch it was obvious the remaining water was coated in a white crust, much like fat poured from a frying pan into the kitchen sink and left to harden. Short of tossing in legions of greased amputee hookers with gaping vaginas the fun quotient of this location had been expended.
To appreciate the impending london sunrise (an actual sunrise in london - crazy I acknowledge) we raced the rising sun to that old staple of London explorers - Millenium Mills. I first visited MM with Siologen and twinky-z in July 2006 and little appears to have changed. The last days of a film set were being dismantled on the non-river side but otherwise the same gaping windows overlooked the river like the vacant eyed vegetable whose brain has given up and just shutdown. The lights weren't on and nobody was home. Not entirely true I guess, since the security guard's car blocked the only path to our entrance. Gusto mustered, sacks pumped and prayers said to gods I don't believe in (who would ignore them anyways) we strolled towards the tellychubber car. One headrest was visible through the back window, the bastard was sleeping on the job. Level with the car we saw him splayed across the seats, eyes shut, mouth agape snoring away the beautiful dawn. You glorious, glorious slackassed bastard! I salute you and your minimum wage motivation! I hail your non-existent work ethic!
The Mills' innards are sparse, to match the floor in parts. A nighttime assault could quite easily leave you quiet and lifeless like the building itself. Long falls await the reckless, floors structurally supported by naught but pigeon shit beckon the inattentive. We topped the building with the sun peeking over the horizon, grabbed some snaps and dozed sporadically against the cold rough concrete.
Exfil matched the brazen infil, with daring SAS flair we rapped out the windows on the non-secca/non-film set side, dropping as gracefully as one can hindered by the friction of a single rope descender rigged for pulldown. It jammed up of course and required some seriously non-demure rope flailing and swearing. Enthusiastic waving did little to convey our harmlessness to the highrise onlookers so we cheesed away through the underbrush into the slowly waking London.
Post secret-bustage (coming soon, August Blitz blah blah blah) we discovered the motherfucking stargate. Nestled away amongst the thorns and nettles of Hackney Wick sits a small overgrown site, previously owned by Thames Water. Macguyver was sadly missing, elusive as ever with his finely sculptured mullet and glazed tan but we felt him in spirit, heaving open the mighty gatic by the combined might of our three singly inadequate keys. Below us, once presumably part of the Thames water ring (an overflow perhaps (look ma nested!)) was a underground chamber much like the wells/wtfs in Manchester.
[photo: zero]
Naturally, rigged and roped I descended to aid our photographic pursuits and try and discern exactly what the fuck was the happening at the bottom. From my intermediate perch it was obvious the remaining water was coated in a white crust, much like fat poured from a frying pan into the kitchen sink and left to harden. Short of tossing in legions of greased amputee hookers with gaping vaginas the fun quotient of this location had been expended.
To appreciate the impending london sunrise (an actual sunrise in london - crazy I acknowledge) we raced the rising sun to that old staple of London explorers - Millenium Mills. I first visited MM with Siologen and twinky-z in July 2006 and little appears to have changed. The last days of a film set were being dismantled on the non-river side but otherwise the same gaping windows overlooked the river like the vacant eyed vegetable whose brain has given up and just shutdown. The lights weren't on and nobody was home. Not entirely true I guess, since the security guard's car blocked the only path to our entrance. Gusto mustered, sacks pumped and prayers said to gods I don't believe in (who would ignore them anyways) we strolled towards the tellychubber car. One headrest was visible through the back window, the bastard was sleeping on the job. Level with the car we saw him splayed across the seats, eyes shut, mouth agape snoring away the beautiful dawn. You glorious, glorious slackassed bastard! I salute you and your minimum wage motivation! I hail your non-existent work ethic!
The Mills' innards are sparse, to match the floor in parts. A nighttime assault could quite easily leave you quiet and lifeless like the building itself. Long falls await the reckless, floors structurally supported by naught but pigeon shit beckon the inattentive. We topped the building with the sun peeking over the horizon, grabbed some snaps and dozed sporadically against the cold rough concrete.
Exfil matched the brazen infil, with daring SAS flair we rapped out the windows on the non-secca/non-film set side, dropping as gracefully as one can hindered by the friction of a single rope descender rigged for pulldown. It jammed up of course and required some seriously non-demure rope flailing and swearing. Enthusiastic waving did little to convey our harmlessness to the highrise onlookers so we cheesed away through the underbrush into the slowly waking London.
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5 Comment(s)
Where to start?
2nd para, "intermmediate" lose the extra m.
3rd para, something funny going on with your tenses'n'cases, "last days" ... "were"?. "Vacant eyes" to "vacant eyed". "Who's" to "whose". "Entire" to "entirely". Lose extra y in "tellyychubber".
4th para, "naught by" to "naught but".
You're welcome :-o
Actually quite sad I lost my roll from here. Second derelict thing of three I've ever been in, believe it or not...
Jeez, way to rub it in. You're replacing my mother which is concerning. I even found a couple you neglected to mention or perhaps you just felt sorry for me... snappy snaps might scratchy scratch but at least they haven't lost any of my rolls yet. When are you starting a site for me to proof?
Was this some kinda anniversary?
Nice spirals... how big are they? It's hard to get a sense of scale... they look like those spiral slides that were a favourite of mine in the playground when I was ten...
SIolo, not intentionally we just needed a good place for sunrise. Lots Rd would have worked to but MM Is closer to home. Tube they're about 1.5m in diameter. Big enough to roll a baby down.