"God I love that smell. It's the smell of dead hospitals, you never forget it. For me, it's like chocolate. I'm utterly addicted to it. If I get a scent of dead hospital, that's it, I'm off." Quote by Rookinella, Urban Explorer
The quote above is taken from The Independent newspaper today. The title of the article is "Space Invaders, and it is all about the "latest high adrenaline cult" of sneaking into empty hospitals and factories. Hey fellow bloggers I think us lot might have been way ahead of our time. Mind you loads of other kids our ages back in the day were also probably Urban Explorers too!
But I can relate to how Rookinella, quoted above, feels and can completely understand how the smell of old, empty buildings can be so amazing. I well remember the smell of old tenement flats we used to play in & have our gang hut in, especially one room called the Curry Room due to the smell of the curry poweder which had been scattered there.
But it's not only the smell of these empty place that is so good. There is the thrill of first finding an empty building, then working out if you can get in and how you can get in. And once inside the thrills only increase, There is the feeling of walking where no one has lived for years. A feeling of seeing old familiar household objects, which belonged to previous owners, made somehow new by their gutted and ruined surroundings. And there is the thrill of "What if this building is not quite deserted?" And the thrill of walking down worn, deserted tenement steps as darkness falls, the way in front of you lit only by a guttering candle or flickering workies lamp.
In our day we explored deserted houses, factories, workshops, swimming pools and probably some I have forgotten. We often got chased out of them by security guards and vicious-looking Alsatian dogs. But that only added to the thrill! I don't think I have finished with this topic, & I am sure that bobrob or Alien Orders will also have post to add to this topic!
Never mind the scent of napalm first thing in the morning, make mine the smell of an empty building, mixed in with the smell of a burning candle and the smell of old yellowed pages from The Sunday Post opened at the Oor Wullie section!
Cheers!
Arkos
Links to explore: Rookinellas photos of places she has visited at:
And also the URL of a site for Urban Explorers to log their conquests at:
2 comments:
Wow we were at the cutting edge of that one, the Lewis and Clark of the abandoned factory.
It was urban blight caused by a planned road development that caused that in Edinburgh Southside in the 70's.
the road never happened but it gave us many an empty tenement to rake about in.
the pigeon factory was the best. We also bought out first Gat guns with stolen loot from banks the Printers.
One thing I remember is that adrenalin meant that someone would always feel the urge to "curl one oot".
I wonder if the nouveau urban explorers turn up at their mates hoose with their Ma's washing line wrapped round them, chore everything they can find and then do a big shite on the floor, or if they just ponce about with expensive digital cameras.
I've curled out may a log in a derelict tenement and i am fair proud of it as well. But it was more like being the Vasco da Gamma of urban decay. But what was it like the first time we entered the pigeon factory? As you went through the gate there was that room on the right with the broken window and you could see the spray painted battle honours of JUNGLE on the wall and the thought that there still could be a few jungle boys dug in somewhere in the labyrinth of empty rooms and loading bays! It took a stack of guts and a lot of running away before the first step into the factory was taken.
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