# The Urban Exploration Thread



## spirit

I know there is a thread already about urban exploration, but the last post was written two years ago and I don't really want to bump a 2-yo thread. 

You can reply when any photos you have or your urban exploration visits if you like. 

So today I went out to explore an old abandoned mental asylum in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich. Sadly because every single window and door is boarded up, getting in was not really possible and also it would be pitch black inside, so sorry about the lack of inside pics.  

The asylum was closed in 1998 I believe, but I think it was used as offices up until a few years ago - apparently the police occasionally use the building as a place to test firearms and so on, so apparently inside there are loads of shells scattered all over the place, as well as of course old furniture and medical equipment. If you want to see some inside pics, I'd suggest taking a look at these two threads here http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=13192 and http://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/showthread.php?t=17229

The building is obviously Victorian and I was very surprised to see how big it is! It is actually a lot bigger than I thought it was going to be! As I walked round I could see where explorers had ripped boarding off the windows and smashed glass in order in to get in. I couldn't also help but feel as if the asylum would be a perfect place for an ambush - it was a pretty haunting place! I also couldn't help but think that it'd be an awesome place for filming.

Getting to the asylum was pretty easy. There are no fences or anything stopping you from accessing the building, you just literally turn of at a roundabout and drive up a road and you're pretty much there. 

If anybody is interested in urban exploration and is visiting the Norwich area of Norfolk, I'd definitely recommend a visit - even if you can't get inside, it's interesting just wondering around the outside. I can give you the exact location and some other abandoned buildings in Norwich which you can explore if you like. PM me if interested! 

Right, enough reading, here are some photos. Sorry they're not the greatest and sorry for all the B&W shots. The weather wasn't the best and B&W shots suit this building anyway. 






So above is the main entrance as viewed from the road. 






Yeah as the asylum only closed 14 years ago, all the original NHS signs are still in place, including this one by the main entrance (nobody could be bothered to remove them I guess?)






Scary stuff! Dad didn't want his car to get clamped, so as I walked around taking photos, he drove alongside me. There is a road going around the whole building anyway, so it was easy.






Here's the entrance from a different angle.






Entrance tower.











See what I mean by 'every window and door is boarded up'? 






There was a car park for staff out round the back as well as this boarded up outhouse.






There's another outhouse.






There's a view from the back. 

So there we go! My first real bit of urban exploration.  Next time I'll go somewhere where I can get inside, but I thought the asylum would make an interesting visit, especially as my Mum did some work there back when she worked with the NHS.


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## voyagerfan99

An abandoned nursing home in Maine was my first urban exploration. Quite freaky due to the fact it was a cold, dark day outside, plus the fact that the place is totally trashed from druggies. These were taken before I had my 50D, so forgive the unartistic quality.






The Front Entrance










Hallway with the flash





The hallway without the flash





Reception










Random hairdryer chairs















I have plenty of cooler places, but I'll save those for later in the thread. I'm sure Geoff will pop in here at some point as he explores with me.


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## spirit

Ah yeah when I was searching to see if there was already a thread about this sort of thing I saw those photos. 

What camera were you using?


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## voyagerfan99

Fujifilm S1500


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## spirit

voyagerfan99 said:


> Fujifilm S1500



Ah yeah I've used several of those in the past (my friends have 'em). It's a bit like my S4000, only older and has a smaller zoom and the whole camera itself is physically smaller.


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## Geoff




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## spirit

'Kill people' - such nice, happy thoughts. 

On a serious note, that second photo is a masterpiece. It's seriously haunting but really captures the abandonment and loneliness of the place. 

I'm guessing these shots were all taken in the same building? Was it an abandoned swimming pool?


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## Geoff

vistakid10 said:


> 'Kill people' - such nice, happy thoughts.
> 
> On a serious note, that second photo is a masterpiece. It's seriously haunting but really captures the abandonment and loneliness of the place.
> 
> I'm guessing these shots were all taken in the same building? Was it an abandoned swimming pool?


Thanks Jason, yes these were all shot in the same place.  Surprisingly there weren't any pools here as far as I know, this was the auditorium.


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## spirit

WRXGuy1 said:


> Thanks Jason, yes these were all shot in the same place.  Surprisingly there weren't any pools here as far as I know, this was the auditorium.


Ah yeah didn't spot the stage at the back of the third photo - and the complete lack of a pool. *dumb moment* 

I'm having a bit of a dumb day today lol.


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## voyagerfan99

I suppose I should toss some of my BSS collection out there as well


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## byteninja2

Nice pictures, I would not go inside after a scary movie  I have a asylum closed down for around 40 years, its beat up.It is about a hour away, though.


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## voyagerfan99

State schools have so far been mostly my thing. Though I have explored the headquarters of an old textbook publisher.































While I was there I shot off my first fire extinguisher
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And threw a chain off the roof (I like my laugh at the end)
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## Dragunov IV 424

So you mean pictures of old buildings, or just places?


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## Perkomate

Unfortunately (or not) there's not many abandoned buildings around my area, cause I'd love to go check out some abandoned stuff.
Nice photos everyone.


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## Punk

Dragunov IV 424 said:


> So you mean pictures of old buildings, or just places?



I think that the pictures, the thread title and the posts say enough about what we're talking about here.


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## spirit

Dragunov IV 424 said:


> So you mean pictures of old buildings, or just places?



Old buildings.  

I'd like to go and explore HMSO Sovereign House in Norwich someday. It's massive! 





There it is (not my photography)

Here's some pretty mediocre urban exploration I did last week. It's some sort of abandoned/burned out shed I found whilst out on a bike ride.





(photo edited  )

Everything inside it was pretty much all burnt out and there wasn't much to see inside so I didn't bother taking any photos. The one thing which remained was an old burned out chair.


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## Geoff

Travis, we really have to go exploring again.


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## spirit

Went to the barbers yesterday to have my hair cut. Whilst I was waiting for Dad to have his haircut, I was looking through a book with old photos of Norwich and whilst I was flicking through one of the books, I saw a photo of some of the staff and nurses outside the main entrance to the asylum I went to last weekend (the one in Thorpe St Andrew, Norwich). I can't remember what year the photo was taken, but it was definitely before World War II. Not much has changed really, apart from now all the windows and doors are boarded up, and nobody works there.


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## Gun

There are a couple of abandoned places near where I live. There's a morge about 5 minutes away .


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## The_Other_One

Repost from the "Post your Pictures" thread by request 

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Sooo...  I had not been exploring abandoned locations in years and my girlfriend was interested in the supernatural and such.  So, what better place to re-visit than one of the first abandoned locations I went to...the Brian Center (an abandoned retirement home)


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## spirit

Thread bump. Got bored on Photoshop and decided to edit some of the photos I took whilst exploring that asylum back in June. These are much better than the original ones (see the first post in this thread).





















Wanted to make it scary and a bit dingy.


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## TFT

Taken at an old mining town of Wanlockhead, Scotland.


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## spirit

Thread bump!

Stumbled across an interesting place in the middle of Norwich today: Earlham Crematorium Gardens (part of a larger group of cemeteries in Norwich collectively known as 'The Norwich Cemetery'). Yes, it is still a working and open cemetery , but part of it is abandoned and extremely overgrown. A kind of sad place to be honest, but very peaceful. I think it’s fair to say the abandoned parts have been left to Mother Nature. Some of it is very posh and well-kept though.

It was kind of sad walking around here. So many graves, most of them completely forgotten about. A lot of people called Eliza buried here and mostly from the Victorian era. 

When you see how young some of these poor souls died, it makes you feel lucky that we’re not living back when they did. 

Some photos are below (rest are on my Flickr, link at the bottom of the post).

In other news, the abandoned mental asylum (also in Norwich), which I posted photos of above is being demolished as we speak. Apparently the land had been up for sale since January 2011 and in April 2012 it was purchased by a group of developers who proposed to demolish the abandoned asylum and turn it into a business park. Asbestos removal teams and security has been up there since August last year slowly demolishing the site. Since the tower is listed however, that cannot be demolished, but the rest is being demolished. Some demolition photos can be found here (scroll down to the February 2013 demolition photos). Quite sad really, I won't be able to explore that place again. Shame because I wanted to go back with my D-SLR at some point. 




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr




Earlham Crematorium Gardens, Norwich - Explore (May 18th 2013) by JasonBrown2013, on Flickr

*View the rest here!*


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## Perkomate

Charity bump.

I'm looking at getting into exploring and stuff more. 

I've heard of some cool places here in Sydney and want to get inside of them.

I did go and check out an abandoned house a few streets away from me that was kind of cool. Absolutely terrible photos though.











They're the only two I want to share.


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## EvanK

Just stumbled across this thread today, there are some great shots on here!  I love that second one from Jason's cemetery set.

My shots are cheating a bit, the first one is actually just a tunnel at Cape Spear, a very touristy seaside destination.  It has a bit of a spooky vibe to it, though.






The second shot involved a bit more of exploring, it's an alleyway in downtown St. John's a bit off the beaten path.  More to come from this album in a future post.


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## G80FTW

Some buildings around my hometown:

This was a gas station owned and operated by a close friend of the family. 













This was another gas station built in the 1940s and only lasted until 1970 when they built the interstate the locale of this place moved a couple miles down the road right off the interstate. Its called BETO Junction.













Some old one room school house along highway 31, the roof has obviously been redone so I assume it is being used as storage by whoever owns it now:








And this, is the urban explorers wet dream.... This building I have been inside before back in 2004, however I lost all the pictures I took and have not managed to get back inside since due to it being right off the main highway and police do watch the area for trespassers. There is ways onto the site though, that require miles of walking through forests and fields, which is how I got this shot.  After the wildlife I encountered on my last trip, I decided its better not to take this venture alone.  







This was the Sunflower Army Ammunition Plant. Nearly 15 square miles of over 1,000 abandoned buildings and over 140 miles of roads. The site is nothing short of the biggest abandonment in America, being the size of a small city.  From 1942-1998 the site was owned by the department of defense and operated by Hercules Aerospace to manufacture and TEST ammunition for the military including bombs.  It was the largest ammunition plant in America and the first to produce many types of ammunition.  

In 1998 it was shut down for good and pending to being put an EPA cleanup list that never happened and was deemed military excess and in 2006 the land was handed over to a private developer for cleanup whom was given $109 million to do so. Within a year, the developer only managed to demolish less than half the buildings (originally over 2,200 buildings) and in 2008 the money ran dry and so it sits. There is no actual security on grounds anymore, but there is still small activity from the developer within the main north entrance buildings. The rest of the 10,000 acres has been leased out as farmland for pastures. But nature has certainly reclaimed the area in a hurry.  Here are a few pictures (most taken with my cell phone) that show just how much of the outer roads are left:


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## Geoff

Great photos Nick!


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## G80FTW

Found out that the hiking trail I was on yesterday resides right next to the plant. Granted, without GPS finding my direction there might be hard as its all woods. May need to invest in a compass....


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## G80FTW




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