Back in the day, it seems like people were sneaky as fuck. They were building hidden structures everywhere, such as
ROC Posts which were used during World War 2 and the Cold War. I know these aren't exactly secret (unless you came across one which was never discovered before), but it makes you wonder if the secret construction of similar things is still happening.
Are secret structures and buildings still made, or was this just something which they used to do back in the old-school days when there was a war to fight? It'd be awesome to still be able to find hidden buildings in another 50 years time, just like you can do now.
Comments
C/O
"Partisan"
Oh my god, those pics were so fucking cool. I don't know what it is about me and abandoned places, but if I had the time and money, exploring things like this would be my number one hobby. I have been to some tourist trap historical sites, and that is kinda cool, but places like these would be so much better.
C/O
"yearning for dust and decrepitude"
Check this out, too. Shame the Urbex scene is being taken over by sellout hipsters with too much money, BUT it's a great insight.
Or would health and safety throw a fit and make sure it's all properly demolished, etc etc?
Dismantling things takes money, if you don't want to spend it, and the company that built it is long gone, I suppose you just build a fence around it and hope for the best.
Health and Safety work for their interests. The world of Urbex is full of paranoia in the beginning, as you soon learn that the sites which are goldmines are rapidly demolished for modern constructions such as Flats, Shops or whatever else.
The classic, long-standing areas are ones which are known to be used for Urbex and are not really locked-up. These are places such as Asylums, National places (gas and coal) and anything which has been stripped to its bare essentials.
The best thing to do is walk around your town or prospective City and work your way round. Get an OS map or electronic equivalent and mark down places which tickle your pickle - be they:
Of course, don't rush into it and scale a crane or whatever. Last thing I wanna see is your mangled body on LiveLeak as the wind caught you off guard, as it does when you're a few hundred feet up.
Like I said before, never can do enough research. It really ties you in with the history of the place and you truly feel at one with it.
You can get Google Earth overlays from here or just by Googling for "whatever google earth overlay".
As for OS, it stand for Ordnance Survey, so I'm sure you know what I'm talking about. You can get maps in your local Newsagents, WHSmith or other Town shop. Also you can download this program and the maps for it. Just pick and choose the ones you want (see image), but they are a digital version (obviously).
Just open the map files in MemoryMap (the program) and voila! You can even add markers to them etc. has a learning curve but I used it to map out Zombie escape routes. Ahem.
Open torrent in uTorrent and you get this...select/deselect the ones you want. It's a huge fucking file otherwise. As you can see in this one, I selected the Yorkshire Moors.
That info looks really cool but its all UK. Is there a USA version of overlays like this? OS is UK, I think USGS is USA but not sure.
If anything, I imagine the USA would have a bigger, yet more paranoid security for overlays and "secret" locations. I guess there are still Cold War bunkers and buildings, but I wouldn't suggest going into them due to Terrorist Laws. A mate of mine was arrested in the UK for being in a Gasworks that was abandoned (Pyestock) under the Terrorist act so good luck in the USA.
As for maps, Ordnance Survey is the default go-to here in the UK. You might have a similar, complete, map company of the USA. Forums dedicated to Urban exploration (Urbex), Urban Historians etc are the best place to look for.
If you do any cool stuff though, make sure to post it here first
http://gardenbunker.blogspot.com/2008/06/background.html