NEWS: Urban Exploration: The Art of Trespass

CULTURE: Urban Exploration: The Art of Trespass

Some people like sports, others collecting stamps. I like climbing to rooftops and walking through sewers.

Urban Exploration (also known as “UrbEx” or “UE”) is an activity in which participants seek out interesting man-made places that are normally unseen by or off-limits to the general public and document them. This usually includes, but isn’t limited to, abandoned buildings, cranes and building sites, rooftops, drains and sewers.

Entering these kinds of spaces usually involves trespassing – merely a civil offence here in the UK.



My first excursion was to a train station in the heart of Manchester that was abandoned and left to slowly rot in the 1980s. The low, midday winter sun shone through the platforms onto the old brick walls. Announcements from the tannoy of the busy (and very much in-use) railway station across the road can be heard in the distance – almost ghostly reverberations of the station’s past.

Since this visit I’ve been hooked. I was stood inside a living time capsule with people walking past outside completely oblivious to the history that was sealed up on the other side of the wooden boards nailed across the windows.



It’s not just the unseen history of these places that draws me into exploring. What’s stopping anybody from walking through a door marked “No Entry” besides social convention? A sign like that, or one that says “Authorized Personnel Only” may as well read “Interesting stuff ahead” as far as your average explorer is concerned. The door might hide service tunnels carrying steam pipes through the building’s arteries, or maybe even a network of tunnels built for moving coal through a building but relegated these days to guiding broadband cable. It might even be a boring old broom cupboard.

But how are you to know without turning the door’s handle and peering into the unknown?



The thrill of simply being in these places is enough for most explorers. After taking what must have been ten minutes, contorting every which way possible, a friend and I gained access to one of Manchester’s historical listed buildings by squeezing through a six-inch gap. Having done our research, we knew that parts of the building were alarmed. We stood at a doorway and warily shone our torches into the room, scanning the ceiling for the infra-red sensors that might lead to our downfall. Deciding that there was no immediate danger to us, we went in. We were only one step into this room when the loudest, most obnoxious-sounding alarm began to sing. As the siren fired up, the rush of adrenaline that I felt was powerful enough to make me think that I was genuinely about to die. I’d completely forgotten what I did for my third birthday until this moment.

As we made an about turn and ran to our entry point, we realized that there was another obstacle in our way – the six-inch gap we struggled to climb in through. This time it was above head-height too. I was sure that as I struggled to pull myself through that hole, a security guard would grab my ankles. Beyond learning that the colour of adrenaline was brown, we also learnt of the superpowers that it can give you, since we were both out of there quicker than you can say “Definitely no alarms in here… Oh shit!”.

Looking at these places is a purely innocent activity. We needn’t be as scared of getting caught as we were when that alarm went off. Explorers live by the saying “Take only photographs, leave only footprints”. Criminal damage and theft are frowned upon within the community. Explorers just want to see the places and take photos.



Most of us are nerds swapping tips on the most powerful torches, the best value waders and how to get that killer photo. Taking photographs of the beautiful places we find is as much a part of Urban Exploration as hopping over fences and evading security guards. Some explorers take their photography very seriously – most underground pictures are taken without flash simply because a long exposure with torchlight usually produces a more aesthetically pleasing picture than one bleached by a sudden, bright explosion from a flash bulb.

Walking through the city with an explorer’s eye could be considered a blessing and a pain in the arse. For example, you’re out doing some shopping, but you can’t help but look down every alley that you pass and think things like: “I could move that trash can, jump on top of it, and then I’m as good as up that fire escape”. But without that lateral thinking and problem solving, we wouldn’t see the things that we see.

A lot of people will sit at their kitchen table with a screwdriver dismantling any number of mod cons for the sole purpose of getting a better understanding of how it works. Explorers do exactly the same thing with cities. You get a much better understanding, and maybe a deeper love of the city you live in by seeing its foundations – its ugly side.



The world’s first industrial city, Manchester, is full of hidden tunnels, underground canals and beautiful Victorian sewers. Today’s Manchester is full of the same charm but in different places, be it the multitudinous array of high-rise rooftops dotted around the city or the machine rooms on hidden hotel floors. These two cities co-exist with each other and with the third city – the one that most people see. Nowhere is this more evident in Manchester than where an Art Deco theatre, backing onto a Cold War communications bunker, sits fifty yards from a Neoclassical library, which is across the road from the site of a slaughtering of protesting workers in 1819. This area is surrounded by office blocks full of drone workers completely oblivious to the exciting world beyond the door that ominously commands: “Do Not Enter”.

Hopefully I’ve been able to give you an insight into our hidden world. Maybe you’ll even think about what’s behind that door, or where that manhole leads the next time you see one. Chances are, given the number of people who explore the unseen side of Manchester on a daily basis, that it’ll be one of us with our cameras on the other side.

You mean that damage and theft is frowned upon unless you happen to run a huge UE forum?

Good article.

Yeah you're right. I happened to write this before all that shit came out unfortunately.

I don't know about the rest of the cities in the U.S. but Detroit basically started this around 10 years ago.

It wasn't even really illegal since most of the buildings were faux occupied meaning the first floor usually had some kind of restaurant/diner and the 2nd floor was usually an art gallery, so what's to stop you from getting in the elevator and pressing 32 instead of 2?

The biggest danger is from people who are squatting, and any potential structural deterioration.

Given that there is an inherently illegal element to this hobby, I suspect it started much further back than that, but pre-Internet people had less convenient anonymous means to discuss it, so few records exist.

My guess is, this goes back as long as buildings. We will always be fascinated by other people's spaces.

At the same time, it's getting more and more difficult for Internet-era people to find places which haven't been Google Earthed and placed up for public consumption. In NYC we tend to walk quite a bit, i try to make a habit of not taking the same route to and from a place when possible. Keep the eyes open and the iPod at home, might stumble upon some cool shit which people had forgotten about as time progressed. Seeing people do this is inspirational as hell. Shows that there are those who appreciate what's out there and want to see it with our own eyes as opposed to merely reading someone else's account of what once stood.

This is the coolest thing I've read in a while. Exploration is good for you.

There were urban explorers in the Victorian age. Obviously there was a huge boom in urbanisation at the time and eccentrics used to go for evening strolls through the sewers of London.

A more recent development was "Building Hacking" by students of MIT in the 1970s.

Cool article. I would be way too scared to try something like that but I bet it's fun for people who don't panic like I would.

I remember being maybe 10 years old and exploring the basements of the World Trade Center with my friend, following a long freight tunnel all the way up to the street & seeing a guard there. And another time when I was a kid my dad took me & a friend on inner tubes to Bannerman's Island, a mysterious place in the Hudson River. Now as a grown up this article has certainly peaked my interest in checking out some of the endless hidden spaces all around me in NYC.

I've been exploring for years and years. Some legal some illegal man was made to explore new worlds, seek out new civilizations ...

And if not for exploring no shots like this would exist.




Detroit 2000/2001

Beautiful

I was in Manchester at the weekend, have to agree it just screams out with hidden areas and secret routes. Love that city. Great Article!

great article... i'm part of a group in north america called UER (urban explorer resource)

thousands of photos of amazing locals, directions to secret spots, and networking with like minded individuals http://www.uer.ca/

we also explore mines, caves, ghost towns, back country, etc. i live in California, USA. Mojave has thousands of mines and hundreds of ghost towns, it's spectacular.

I'm sure y'all know there is an Urban Explorers Group here on Suicide Girls. Stop in and participate. It's a neat hobby, and that group deserves a bit more activity.

-ReAct
"...And forgive us our trespass, as we forgive those...."

I'm on UER too. I'm Jim Gillette.

Fantastic article. I am off to buy a flashlight.

I really enjoyed reading this. It sounds fun