Coming Undone.
The past 3 odd months ive been playing pc games... Portal 2, Crysis 2, Bioshock, GTA 4 etc...
My old laptop was never fast enough to run such games, but when the British Transport Police seized it, i lasted only 2 days, unable to explore cos i was out on bail, without any form of entertainment. So i bought a decent Laptop with an Nvidia GFX card.
The police raided my house and seized my laptop, along with all my negatives and a few other suspicious odds and ends (manhole keys, railway track maps), after they caught me and 3 others in Aldwych, the most famous of London Undergrounds abandoned stations.
The others i was with had devised a plan to get to it, involving climbing onto the roof of the substation next to Russell Square tube station, climbing in through a skylight, then navigating a way down through a mishmash of cable ducts and shafts, to emerge from a riser cupboard next to the tube stations lifts. Standing atop the substation, a can of Spesh freshly injected, i admit i utterly ignored the voice in my head that pointed out just how risky and utterly stupid the whole plan was. As it went, i had to remove a larger section of skylight to fit as im no longer the skinny bastard i was or that the other, younger fellas are. Making our way down, there was yet another squeeze through a tiny floor grate, then a bunch of crawling, ducking and diving, before, jumper pulled up over my face, i found myself running down the stairs onto the platform at Russell Sq, only to leap straight off it and spend the next few minutes overexerting myself running down the live northbound tunnel towards Holborn and the Aldwych branch tunnel.
The Aldwych Branch, shown here with its old station name of 'Strand'.
Reaching it it, my heart leapt. One of those 'waited eight years to see this' kind of heart 'leapings' and very soon we were jumping up onto the abandoned platform that served the old branch line at Holborn...
And i think this is were we utterly fucking ourselves... as it seems we were seen by station staff via the two cameras on this platform...
Unaware of this at the time, we carried on to the amazing old crossover junction, where the running tunnels became divergent in status, one still with tracks laid and lights on, the other stripped of all the amenities for running a train through it, its lights gone. We stuck to the live tunnel and before long were stepping up onto the platform of the tube Holy Grail. It was all kind of surreal. The place was near immaculate. At this point, i just couldn't help myself...
At lasssssst!
We spent about 10 minutes looking around (not taking any photos cos i thought id do that later....), searching the tunnels running further out to the dead end for the 'layed up' train that could've been there but wasn't. Climbed god knows how many stairs to the top, visiting the darkened ticket hall very briefly, (where we heard a lot of sirens wailing very nearby outside) before climbing back down and heading into the utterly derelict other side, where the platform wraps around the end of the track bed, forming a buffer for the now trackless line. It was here, standing in the silent dark, our hearts finally slowing down, that we heard the barking dogs...
Hearts rapidly speeding up again, we tentatively headed northbound and stepped into the western tunnel, our shoes crunching even while sneaking along its trackless gravel floor. There were others now down here, further north near Holborn. They were yelling in loud authoritative voices... and they had dogs, yelping and barking, likely freaked by the unusual surrounds. We stopped and waited in the dark, the awareness that the Police were down there with us dawning as those very Police made their way towards us. We'd guessed by now that the sirens outside were those of the cop cars pulling up outside the abandoned station, so with no real way of escaping, we just sat back and waited.
Two coppers came round the bend, jovially talking to each other and waving their torches around. I stood up n raised my hands... then all hell broke lose.
'On the fucking ground!!!! Get on the ground, on the ground or you'll get this gas in your face!!! Nowwwww! Hands behind your back, nowwww!'
Those handcuffs were tight... and stayed tight all he way, the long trek back through the branch tunnel and up to street-side outside Holborn, where about 25 British Transport Police were congregated. A short ride to their station near Goodge Street, followed by a long wait to be processed into custody, eventually saw me enter into custody and spend the next 21 hours locked up by myself in a solitary cell.
All very bad. Very bad indeed. I never want to find myself locked up again like that. But things improved, cos it seems they'd thought we were terrorists... So they brought in, it would seem, Homicide Detectives to deal with our case... When after being interviewed by these two distinguished CID gentlemen, it became glaringly apparent to them that we were just urban explorers, who essentially meant no harm and i guess the perspective they had from dealing with real crimes, put both of them on our side. I was bailed, along with the others till the next week. I walked home barefoot (prison shoes were too small lol) and prison 'jammies to find my room ransacked.
The four of us ended up on bail for a total of two months and fifteen days. Upon returning after the first week, i was re-arrested and re-interviewed, based on evidence of further trespassing on my computer. I pointed out that id been doing this stuff since 1996, and faced with photographic evidence that proved i was a recreational, yet essentially harmless trespasser, they finally seemed to have all the proof they needed that i wasn't a terrorist.
The two detectives stated, from the get-go that they were going to push to get us cautioned rather than charged. They said we'd inadvertently stirred a hornets nest up through the ranks to the point that even Mi5 were making enquiries. Faced with the evidence you see beneath what you're reading here, the very evidence on this webpage(not to mention the websites of the other 3 fellas i was caught with), it seems we made the BTP and a few other law enforcement branches, pull back and realise that without doing any harm, we'd alerted them to just how insecure the tube was.
That, coupled with the kindness and grace of the two detectives was what saw me let off with a caution for 5 counts of trespass and 2 counts of malicious damage. Ive not explored a single thing for nearly three months now, which has been tough, but im off to North America in August anyways...
With literal terabytes of data, lol, most of it Zero's, now having been seen by the BTP and God knows who else, publicising the following short film, part one of four im told, no longer worries me. Check it out, if you haven't already, Zero's done a fantastic job.
Crack The Surface - Episode I from SilentUK on Vimeo.
Finally, i kinda told a fib when i said id not explored a single thing... well kinda. I ended up being the recipient of the most amazing surprise going away party last week. Really blew my mind to find everyone from London, a bunch of other English folks who are into drains, waiting for me down the Westbourne along with explorers im friends with from Canada, the USA and France. It really was mind boggling brilliant and im immensely grateful and blown away by it.
The Fam.
Its been nearly three years here in London. Three very busy,'epics' busting years, full of drama and excitement, sewage and live rail dodging, skyscraper climbing and roadtripping and to those who know who they are, im so very thankful and will miss you all.
My old laptop was never fast enough to run such games, but when the British Transport Police seized it, i lasted only 2 days, unable to explore cos i was out on bail, without any form of entertainment. So i bought a decent Laptop with an Nvidia GFX card.
The police raided my house and seized my laptop, along with all my negatives and a few other suspicious odds and ends (manhole keys, railway track maps), after they caught me and 3 others in Aldwych, the most famous of London Undergrounds abandoned stations.
The others i was with had devised a plan to get to it, involving climbing onto the roof of the substation next to Russell Square tube station, climbing in through a skylight, then navigating a way down through a mishmash of cable ducts and shafts, to emerge from a riser cupboard next to the tube stations lifts. Standing atop the substation, a can of Spesh freshly injected, i admit i utterly ignored the voice in my head that pointed out just how risky and utterly stupid the whole plan was. As it went, i had to remove a larger section of skylight to fit as im no longer the skinny bastard i was or that the other, younger fellas are. Making our way down, there was yet another squeeze through a tiny floor grate, then a bunch of crawling, ducking and diving, before, jumper pulled up over my face, i found myself running down the stairs onto the platform at Russell Sq, only to leap straight off it and spend the next few minutes overexerting myself running down the live northbound tunnel towards Holborn and the Aldwych branch tunnel.
The Aldwych Branch, shown here with its old station name of 'Strand'.
Reaching it it, my heart leapt. One of those 'waited eight years to see this' kind of heart 'leapings' and very soon we were jumping up onto the abandoned platform that served the old branch line at Holborn...
And i think this is were we utterly fucking ourselves... as it seems we were seen by station staff via the two cameras on this platform...
Unaware of this at the time, we carried on to the amazing old crossover junction, where the running tunnels became divergent in status, one still with tracks laid and lights on, the other stripped of all the amenities for running a train through it, its lights gone. We stuck to the live tunnel and before long were stepping up onto the platform of the tube Holy Grail. It was all kind of surreal. The place was near immaculate. At this point, i just couldn't help myself...
At lasssssst!
We spent about 10 minutes looking around (not taking any photos cos i thought id do that later....), searching the tunnels running further out to the dead end for the 'layed up' train that could've been there but wasn't. Climbed god knows how many stairs to the top, visiting the darkened ticket hall very briefly, (where we heard a lot of sirens wailing very nearby outside) before climbing back down and heading into the utterly derelict other side, where the platform wraps around the end of the track bed, forming a buffer for the now trackless line. It was here, standing in the silent dark, our hearts finally slowing down, that we heard the barking dogs...
Hearts rapidly speeding up again, we tentatively headed northbound and stepped into the western tunnel, our shoes crunching even while sneaking along its trackless gravel floor. There were others now down here, further north near Holborn. They were yelling in loud authoritative voices... and they had dogs, yelping and barking, likely freaked by the unusual surrounds. We stopped and waited in the dark, the awareness that the Police were down there with us dawning as those very Police made their way towards us. We'd guessed by now that the sirens outside were those of the cop cars pulling up outside the abandoned station, so with no real way of escaping, we just sat back and waited.
Two coppers came round the bend, jovially talking to each other and waving their torches around. I stood up n raised my hands... then all hell broke lose.
'On the fucking ground!!!! Get on the ground, on the ground or you'll get this gas in your face!!! Nowwwww! Hands behind your back, nowwww!'
Those handcuffs were tight... and stayed tight all he way, the long trek back through the branch tunnel and up to street-side outside Holborn, where about 25 British Transport Police were congregated. A short ride to their station near Goodge Street, followed by a long wait to be processed into custody, eventually saw me enter into custody and spend the next 21 hours locked up by myself in a solitary cell.
All very bad. Very bad indeed. I never want to find myself locked up again like that. But things improved, cos it seems they'd thought we were terrorists... So they brought in, it would seem, Homicide Detectives to deal with our case... When after being interviewed by these two distinguished CID gentlemen, it became glaringly apparent to them that we were just urban explorers, who essentially meant no harm and i guess the perspective they had from dealing with real crimes, put both of them on our side. I was bailed, along with the others till the next week. I walked home barefoot (prison shoes were too small lol) and prison 'jammies to find my room ransacked.
The four of us ended up on bail for a total of two months and fifteen days. Upon returning after the first week, i was re-arrested and re-interviewed, based on evidence of further trespassing on my computer. I pointed out that id been doing this stuff since 1996, and faced with photographic evidence that proved i was a recreational, yet essentially harmless trespasser, they finally seemed to have all the proof they needed that i wasn't a terrorist.
The two detectives stated, from the get-go that they were going to push to get us cautioned rather than charged. They said we'd inadvertently stirred a hornets nest up through the ranks to the point that even Mi5 were making enquiries. Faced with the evidence you see beneath what you're reading here, the very evidence on this webpage(not to mention the websites of the other 3 fellas i was caught with), it seems we made the BTP and a few other law enforcement branches, pull back and realise that without doing any harm, we'd alerted them to just how insecure the tube was.
That, coupled with the kindness and grace of the two detectives was what saw me let off with a caution for 5 counts of trespass and 2 counts of malicious damage. Ive not explored a single thing for nearly three months now, which has been tough, but im off to North America in August anyways...
With literal terabytes of data, lol, most of it Zero's, now having been seen by the BTP and God knows who else, publicising the following short film, part one of four im told, no longer worries me. Check it out, if you haven't already, Zero's done a fantastic job.
Crack The Surface - Episode I from SilentUK on Vimeo.
Finally, i kinda told a fib when i said id not explored a single thing... well kinda. I ended up being the recipient of the most amazing surprise going away party last week. Really blew my mind to find everyone from London, a bunch of other English folks who are into drains, waiting for me down the Westbourne along with explorers im friends with from Canada, the USA and France. It really was mind boggling brilliant and im immensely grateful and blown away by it.
The Fam.
Its been nearly three years here in London. Three very busy,'epics' busting years, full of drama and excitement, sewage and live rail dodging, skyscraper climbing and roadtripping and to those who know who they are, im so very thankful and will miss you all.