Urban Exploration
The Ghosts Of Our Past Still Lerk
I have always had a fascination with abandoned places, bunkers & exploration. Sadly I live in an Town where there really is not that much in the way of abandoned stuff, it has ether been demolished, has site security that would turn you away at the gate or just been made impossible to breach without breaking the law. So I often have to travel around to find places.
In the UK Trespass is a civil offense which means someone can theoretically sue you for going on the side without authorization, however if you follow the common rules of. Leave only foot steps & take only photos they really have nothing they can do you on. If you leave the side when asked then they can't even call the police as they can legally do nothing. Some government & military sites it is a criminal offense so be careful when looking round such areas, they are more likely to have thermal & night vision which you can't really hide from. If you can find the owner & get permition to look round & take photos that is even better. But in some cases that is impossible.
I do find it funny that in SEC-OPS Urban Exploration is a very popular hobbie. SEC-OPS is also the field I work in for my day job. Night time from the website you can see it is electronics.
Once a golf course just outside of Great Chart Ashford, they use to offer Pitch & Put & The Driving Range. Later on they offered Artery & Paint Balling. However at some point in 2019-2020 the money run out & the place shut down. The site is completely abandoned now & access is really easy. Access to the main building is though the kitchen, a surprising amount of stuff was left behind to, though no golf clubs, though they could have been stolen. There is CCTV at the site but it is dead, no power is coming into the meters & the DVR was ripped off the wall in the main office. They is also a mobile phone mast at the bottom of the site that is operational where access is required for maintenance.
More info here: https://www.kentonline.co.uk/ashford/news/homes-to-be-built-on-closed-golf-course-206131/
This is an old artillery battery Plotting room from WWII. The plotting rooms were the brains of the operations where all commands, targets & enemy location would be sent to. The radar station that served this battery is long gone with no trace. Most of the surface structures are sadly gone. However this is one of meany WWII installations that survive along the top of the of the cliffs between Dover & Folkstone. Most of what survives are the bunkers & tunnels. Sadly the Plotting room has had two concrete blocks put over the hatch so it is currently inaccessible, so unless you have heavy machinery access is impossible. That is why I am glad I got the to go down this site when I did. The dressing station of this site as far as I know is still accessible, but you have to clime down a dangerous path along the cliff face.
This is the battery right next to Lydden Spout & served the same purpose. The dressing stations were the field hospitals that would treat any wounded that got injured one site. A very likely occurrence during the course of the a war. This is quite a large complex, the bunker covers a lot of field it is built under. Sadly in the 60s when they were building the new A20 they sadly demolished & burred a lot of what was on these sites. Access to this site is about a medium as you have to squeeze though a small hole to get in, the air in the bunker is not great. Also the entrance is quite well hidden, took a lot of research & cross referencing old maps with Google Maps to find. The reward was great though.
Along the cliffs between Dover & Folkstone are a number of interesting structures to small to dedicate their own page to but are still interesting none the less. These range from small bunkers to surface structures such as sound mirrors & pillboxes. Also the surface structures of the two battery's I explored the dressing station & plotting rooms of the battery's. There is quite a lot to see along the cliff top. These are all along a public foot path do access is easy.
The town of Ashford has a rich history with rail. It is the main depot for most of Kent to this day as the current functioning depot is located to the south of the station. The one located to the north was recently demolished & this one has sad abandoned for years, long before I was even born. But due to it being built in the 18th century it has not been demolished & instead has been left to rot.
An 18th century fortification that was part of quite wide complex located on top of the cliffs. This part was used as a road tunnel up into the 1960s when a new road bypass was built rendering it obsolete. The tunnel was then sadly sealed up & forgotten about. You can still see the pressure pads for the traffic light system as the tunnel was only large enough for a car to got one way at a time. Access into this site is currently impossible, no obvious routs were found, despite scouring the area. Inside are the old original water tanks & a few other interesting relics that I hope one day see when I can figure out how to get in. There is still a lot to see on the exterior of the site though. I have since figured out how to get in. You need a ladder & climbing gear.
The station that use to serve the town of Lydd until the late 60s when I closed operation to the public. Other parts of it were used up into the 80s. The station also was used as a tier garage. These days the site remains completely derelict. The track is still used for a train to transport radioactive material to & from Dungeness Power Station. There was a platform on the other side of the station at one point but sadly it has been demolished along with pretty much everything that was in the rail yard. Sadly about a week after me & my partner visited the site it burned down to the ground. From the news it looks to have been completely gutted. Probably the work of some local chavs, for it is always chavs. Access to this site is easy.
I don't know much about this battery & bunker complex. The site is located just off a main road between Dover & a small village. There is also the remains of a radar station nearby I want to explore at some point. Part of the radar station is still in use by another organization. It does seem to have a dressing station but the entrance is once again filled in with mud & the original entrance does seem to be demolished sadly. Access to the site is easy. However the National Trust is currently working on restoring the site & have locked off all the buildings. So it should be open to the public at some point which is good.
One of the Royal Observer Corps bunkers from the cold war. These were dotted around the country & the people inside would be tasked with taking readings & reporting them back to a main ROC bunker. That bunker would then report all the findings to the mane base of operations. From there that data would be triangulated with the weather so where the fallout would go could be located. Locations of blasts, types of blasts. Radiation levels. This data would then be reported to what was left of the population & what still existed of the local & main government.
Another Royal Observer Corps bunker. There is also a WWII structure that is in very poor condition next to it. Sadly a lot of these are in poor condition or have been demolished.
Just a collection of random pillboxes I have found on my travels.
A bunch of three prototype sound mirrors built for early testing of the technology in the World Wars. They sit behind a holiday caravan park.
Pakefield ROC Post & Kessingland Chain Home Low Radar are both located on this site. During WWII this radar station was used for detecting aircraft flying in. After the war it took up a new used of an Master ROC post. & was abandoned in the 1968 reorganization.
Located in the Western Heights area right next to St Martin's Battery. Was a family owned car garage that operated for 40 years up until 2014 when it got abandoned due to the owners retiring. Sadly the council took over the site after wards & did nothing with it but abandon it to the point the place is completely trashed. Access to the site is easy however access into the building will depend on weather someone has breached the boarding up.
Located in the Western Heights with an excellent view over Dover & a great vantage point of the castle & cliffs in all there glory. On a clear day France is visible in the distance & the area makes for some great landscape photography. It is really a spot only locals know about as it is nestled up at the top of the cliffs. This former 18th century battery received quite a few upgraded during WWII, however pretty much lays abandoned but left accessible for the public to have a look around. The Dressing Station is locked behind a secure gate & all over entrances filled in with mud. Access to the site is easy, decent lock picking skills for the Dressing Station.
Aldwych also known as Strand Station was closed in 1994 due to lack of traffic which had been a problem the whole life of the stations operation. Even when the station first opened, on the first day it had no passengers, it did not help it was right next to Temple Station. The line was suppose to go further on but the line never got built so only one side of the station was ever operational. The station however was built with expansion in mind however the numbers were never enough to utilize it.
It is the only station in London that still has the original OTIS lifts, due to the low passenger numbers it was never seen as work investing the money to upgrade them or add in escalators like most other stations saw.
Access is though guided tours only, so unless you can sneak in though the tunnels, that is your best bet to getting in.
An old instillation from the 1800s & was never fully completed until after Neapolitan was defeated. This fortification comprises of two main parts, both extensive in there workings (Detached Bastion & North Center Bastion). They are some of the larger arrays of tunnels you can find in the Western Heights fortifications. Sadly completely abandoned & left to rot, subject to over growth & vandalism from the local youth. The top of the fortifications are accessible from within & are heavily over grown making it hard to spot where the artillery would of been placed. While I did not get a photo of every part I did explore the whole thing.
There are two main access point to the site currently. Both require going into the trench, it is recommended to take a ladder unless you can clime like a monkey. So access is restively easy.