So, onto the picks – I’ve selected one photo each from five Sick Britain members…

1. Howzey….

2. Compound Eye…

3. Urban Spaceman…

4. AltoExyl…

5. Alistair Hobbs…

The articles include quick tips, safety and legal advice, lighting, working with a model, light painting, photoshop tips and even a competition to win an Epson Stylus Photo 1400 A3+ printer by submitting ‘dereliction themed’ photos which should be quite easy for most of us!

Pick up the magazine now at all good stockists (I’ve always wanted to say that).

Q1: Who are you?

Simon Cornwell and I run the urbex|uk (www.simoncornwell.com/urbex) website. I’m also one of the moderators on Derelict Places (www.derelictplaces.co.uk). I’m also known in the community as “Simon Cornwell”. It was a conscious decision from the start that I would use my real name for all my urban exploration; I feel it adds integrity to my writings and explorations.

Q2: Why do you do Urban Exploration?

I was always in-and-out of derelict houses, old bomb shelters, river culverts and tunnels as a child and never really grew out of it. When I discovered various urban exploration sites on the Internet in the late 1990s, I realised it was something I missed and started sneaking in and out of derelict buildings again.

I’m driven by mainly by curiosity. What’s in that old building? What was it built for? Who worked there? Why was it designed in this form? Why did it close? I turn these transitional sites into temporary museums where the price of admission is guile, agility and courage. Therefore I’ve experienced being in various locations which I would never have been able to: anything from old lunatic asylums through to top-secret military installations.

Q3: What's the best explore you've been on?

Cane Hill, 13th July 2002. There had been various pictures of some of the interiors of the buildings (mainly the laundry, corridors and water tower) on Andrew Tierney’s “the_one” website but this was the first time I’d been deep in the bowels of Cane Hill itself. The main hall had been burnt down a month before, but the Chapel was still fully fitted with its pews, pulpit, organ and other furniture.

There’s always something special about going in a building and not knowing what to expect. But that day in Cane Hill was superb. (It was later written up as “Grand Tour” on my website).  Cracking the water tower six years later was also memorable and it felt like finally finishing the site off.

Q4: What's worst explore you've been on?

St Lawrence’s, Bodmin in January 2007. We drove all the way to Cornwall (from Royston) only to get busted within five minutes of reaching the Fosters building. We were really unlucky: the alarm system was malfunctioning, the security guard was therefore on the prowl looking for people, and we turned up at the same time.

Another memorable experience (for all the wrong reasons) took place at an asylum with a film crew. It was decided that we wouldn’t go up the water tower, but everyone was so fired up by the day’s filming that they all shot up the water tower stairs like rats up a pipe. The director pointed out a missing slat on the way up but forgot about it whilst climbing down. He fell the last step, scraping his shin on the jagged edge of the rusted metal slat, before slamming down on the concrete floor. We thought he’d bust his leg, but he managed to hobble out with help.

Q5: If you could explore any site/facility in the world, what would it be?

Area 51 is top of the fantasy list followed by the wreck of the Titanic.

Q6: Are there any pieces of kit that you'd recommend to others?

Heavy boots, multiple torches, mobile phone, water and food.

Also get the best camera you can afford. I wish I had a better camera for my first forays into Cane Hill. I was halfway through formatting the “Grand Tour” when I realised that the quality of the photographs I’d taken were crap. It was the early days of digital photography, and the early tours on urbex|uk reflect that, but I wish I’d got a conventional camera or a digital camera with better resolution.

Q7: If you could give any tips to newbies or experienced explorers, what would they be?

Remember the motto: “Take only photographs, leave only footprints.” Keep to that rule and you’ll stay on the right side of the law. And that’s for newbies and experienced explorers.

Never delay exploring a site. Always seize the day and get out there. These places are in transition and they won’t stay derelict for ever; they could be demolished tomorrow.

Q8: What would win in a fight: 1,000 chickens or 1 giant chicken the size of a thousand chickens?

The 1,000 chickens would swarm all over the 1 giant one and gradually destroy it.

I’ve put together a few examples of graffiti that I found whilst grazing the pastures of Flickr, I guess you can’t start any post like this without really mentioning l’artiste du jour: Banksy. Not only is this piece very pretty it also carries with it a heavy social commentary as does much of his work, whist it’s instantly funny I feel a wave of sadness when I look at it – that feeling of our history being washed away…

That’s not to say that you have to be particularly arty to create work with humour and social commentary, there’s something about this piece that I really like even though there’s not a great deal to it…

Whilst it doesn’t carry any appreciable meaning I love aethetics of something like this…

The same goes for this more elaborate and colourful piece, I love it…

I’m not really convinced that this next one counts as Street Art since it was an installation in the Tate Modern but I think it shows what impact a piece of art can have when rendered on a large scale (something graffiti plays to significantly)…

Please don’t get any of my praise confused with tagging (i.e. single line drawn names – neither colourful or artful), the pointless scrawling of a name across a building or railway bridge does nothing for anyone. I’ve heard arguments that graffiti started out as tagging so we should think it’s OK but I don’t buy it, tagging is for wankers – pure and simple. The above examples all take thought and skill, that’s what makes it art to me and that’s what makes it awesome.

I heart street art.

Incidentally I also found this interesting article 35 Beautiful Examples Of ‘Urban Decay Photography from Smashing Magazine – it’s not a ‘tips’ article but the shots themselves may provide inspiration if you’re looking for it.

Q1: Who are you?

Gibbo (real name Andy). A Yorkshire born but North-West based fella who now co-administers WWW.NWEX.CO.UK

Q2: Why do you do Urban Exploration?

Like every young lad, I was fascinated by empty and abandoned buildings, probably for the thrill / ghost aspect I was lucky enough to see the old Victoria Station, and parts of the old Orgreave Coking Plant (scene of the bloody miners battle on June 18th, 1984). The complex was huge and had it’s own sidings and an engine shed full of coal wagons and a couple of diesel engines. I just wish cameras weren’t so expensive to operate back then.

Q3: What's the best explore you've been on?

Without a doubt, St Joseph’s Seminary near Wigan.

Q4: What's worst explore you've been on?

Burtonwood Services. An interesting building, pretty much intact inside, but we stupidly lingered after the explore and got arrested in an extremely heavy-handed two police force operation.

Q5: If you could explore any site/facility in the world, what would it be?

It would be nice to see if Area 51 is actually everything it’s hyped up to be. In the UK it would have to be the Fun Ship the Duke of Lancaster over at Flint, North Wales.

Q6: Are there any pieces of kit that you'd recommend to others?

The trusty Maglite with an LED conversion. You lose the warm incandescence when light painting, but it gives an amazing throw. I’m also a big fan of clockwork torches. They’re cheap and always worth carrying as an emergency spare.

Q7: If you could give any tips to newbies or experienced explorers, what would they be?

For noobs: Don’t hang around a site after an explore!

For experienced explorers: Never forget your beginnings. You were a noob once and probably left in the cold and shunned by those more experienced. So give the noobs a chance. Over at NWEX that’s our philosophy and have certainly reaped the rewards – trips underground to some fantastic mines that you would never otherwise see, they’re not even listed on the internet and you’d never find the access! We even have a member who gives us trips in his plane!

Urbex isn’t a way of life, it’s a hobby – albeit a very unusual one. It’s also a hobby that is forever changing.

Q8: What would win in a fight: 1,000 chickens or 1 giant chicken the size of a thousand chickens?

1 giant chicken. It would just stand on the 1000 chickens.

Site Inaccessible

Sometimes you turn up at a site hoping for a good day out and you just end up frustrated because you can’t gain access, this might be because there’s no obvious route in (hole in the fence, easy wall to jump, etc.) or it might be because the site has been demolished. Obviously there’s nothing that can be done about the latter but in terms of access but be persistent – if you try hard enough you might find a way. I’m not talking about causing physical damage here though, that’s not my bag and it’ll land you in serious trouble if you’re caught – try to think laterally and it usually pays off. Perhaps try going around the back of the site, approaching from a different angle or look for signs that someone else has been around and see if you can figure how they got in (gap in a hedge, footprint on a wall, etc.).

Sometimes other people’s photos might contain hints whether they intended to or not, look at someone’s photos in order of the time they were taken – the first photos will probably be closest to their entrance and the last closest to their exit.

Security

This is a big issue for urban explorers, we all know that in most cases we’re going to be somewhere we shouldn’t be and so security can be a problem but there are ways to minimise your ‘footprint’ and avoid detection. That said, sometimes the presence of security at all may be the issue – some people aren’t comfortable exploring sites with an active security presence (e.g. guards on patrol) and that’s fair enough, you should only ever do what you’re comfortable with if that’s the way you feel. I think most of us feel that if a site has no active security and is truly disused and derelict that our presence isn’t causing any harm since we don’t do any damage but you still have to worry about being spotted and either security turning up or even worse – the police.

If you run-up against unexpected activity on a site the first thing to do is try and figure out who they are, it’s key not to panic and worth remembering that they’re probably not expecting to find you there either so if you’ve spotted them first you’ve got the advantage. Often the unexpected individual(s) end up being other explorers, in this case you could introduce yourself or just carry on with what you’re doing – most explorers tend to be friendly if not slightly suspicious. Another class of unexpected site presence could be thieves or vandals, it’s easy to think that there’s a kind of kinship in this case because you’re both present in a place that you’re not meant to be but don’t fall into this trap. These people are committing criminal offences and even if they’re happy to continue their ‘business’ with your presence you should still leave, if the police turn up you will be implicated in their crimes whether you like it or not, there’s also a risk that they might be upset by your presence and respond with physical violence.

If it doesn’t look like other explorers or thieves/vandals then it’s either going to be security or other people that have genuine business there (e.g. builders or surveyors), though sometimes it can be hard to tell them apart as people on derelict sites all tend to wear high-viz jackets and hard-hats. Once you’ve established that you’ve come across unexpected site personnel you’re faced with the choice of what to do next, you might decide to stay and avoid the occupants or leave and I’ve done both in different circumstances. If you do stay you’ll need to actively avoid being spotted, this is best achieved by stealth and you should take everything slowly and quietly from this point on and you need to think about everything you do – the easiest ways to give away your presence are by making noise or by using a camera flash. It may also be worth limiting your explore, you might have to avoid certain buildings or areas where security seems to be higher (patrol routes, CCTV) or any areas where you’re exposed in plain sight. The other option you have once you’ve spotted an ‘official’ presence is to leave, there’s no shame in this at all and as long as you leave carefully and avoid detection you’re guaranteed not to get caught – if you stay there’s always a risk.

You might end up running into the police even after you’ve exited the site (many will not enter unless asked by security due to health & safety concerns). I once made the mistake of parking right next to the entrance to a derelict site and a local dog-walker called the cops, assuming either that the car had been dumped or that I was up to no good (in my case I think the former because the cop was more concerned with the car than me). If you encounter the police you should cooperate completely, remember that as long as you’ve not caused physical damage or taken any ‘souvenirs’ (which amounts to theft whatever you think) then you’ve not committed a criminal offence and you should be fine. Being obstructive is the easiest way to get yourself arrested, even though you’ve not done anything wrong all the police need is to suspect that you have and they’re faced with no choice but to arrest you. My advice is to explain that you’re there taking photos, just having a look around and that you’re sorry for causing an inconvenience, answer their questions, be polite and you’ll be on your way soon enough.

The reason most head-torches are unsuitable is that they sit smack bang in the middle of your forehead which might be perfect for a caver but if you’re an SLR user you’ll find that when you bring your camera to your eye you’ll end up banging the body (or attached flash) right into the torch.  The other problem is that you’ll need the torch for exploring and to aid focusing but unless you’re light painting you won’t want the torch light to come out in your shot and trying to switch off a head torch whilst wearing gloves can be a pain.

Given all of my whinging above you’ve no doubt realised that I was getting fed-up with the situation but luckily I came across the Cyba-Lite Explorer, it’s effectively a small pen-torch (like a mini-Maglite) that comes with a clip-mount and an elastic head-strap…

From a general standpoint this is handy because you could clip it to a tripod, a baseball cap or whatever you like but the most useful part to me is that the clip mount swivels.  This means that I can wear it as a head torch but mounted on the side of my head, meaning that it won’t get in the way of my camera and that rather than fiddling with any switches I can just point it away from the subject of my photo if don’t want to capture the light.  My only criticism so far is that it could be brighter, it does well enough but there’s no way I could use it as my sole torch in the really dark places but hey – I carry my 4-cell Maglite as much for defence as for light!

You might think that I’m gushing with compliments about something pretty simple but having this torch has made exploring and taking photos so much simpler and hassle free that I just can’t help it – especially seeing as you can pick them up for less than a tenner (I paid about £14 though).  If anyone’s interested in picking one up there seems to be an offer on at 7dayshop.com where it’s going for £8.99 delivered.

This was a sad day for me and whilst some of Sheffield’s residents protested it still sickens me to see that not enough people cared about the history and heritage of Sheffield to save these magnificent structures.   The same goes for the removal of the Avesta Bull – I’m watching Sheffield’s history being drained away year after year and it really does make me sick.

Photo by Paul Denton Cocker, click through to his Flickr page.

• Wear wellies where practical. Wellies will offer the maximum protection from grime and scrapes and also allow you to tread in some really mucky places, the downside is that they’re bulky and can be hot/uncomfortable if you’re doing a lot of walking.
• Wear something with a soft rubber sole. You might wonder why but earlier today I was on a site doing a recon mission to scope the place out and I was wearing my smart going out shoes which have a hard soul.  These things were clip-clopping extremely loudly on the concrete floor in the big empty rooms, if there had have been any security or any miscreants on site they sure as hell would’ve known where to find me!
• Whatever you wear, protect your feet. Don’t be daft and wear sandals or even fabric trainers, if not wellies you could always try walking boots or if you have them try steel toe-capped boots for ultimate protection from falling debris.