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Report - - Bath Press, Bath - Sept 2016 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Bath Press, Bath - Sept 2016

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Lil'Legs

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Seeing as this place has been discussed recently and hasn't had a report put up in a while I thought I'd give it a visit.

History is a bit thin on this place and as it's been done before I'll keep it short:


The Bath Press had been producing books throughout the 20th century under various names; the Phonetic Institute from 1913, Pitman Press from 1934, Pitman Ltd from 1974 and later The Bath Press. In its most recent years it was owned by French company CPI. By the beginning of the 21st century, however, competition from foreign companies, especially in Asia, meant that the company was making considerable losses and in 2007 the decision was made to close the Bath Press, and a branch of the company in Glasgow, with the loss of around 250 jobs. The site was put on the market in early 2008 and was bought by St James’s Investments in May.

More recently Tescos acquired the property around 2015 and submitted plans for more than 200 homes on the site that year after it finally dropped long-held ambitions to build a store. The planning application submitted to Bath and North East Somerset Council earlier this year was for 244 homes including affordable housing, space for offices and a basement car park.

The Explore:
After walking around the whole property scouting for a way in, me and a non-member knew the only way in wasn't going to be as simple as hoped, especially with the Old Bill station right opposite. So after a slight climb, some running, some more climbing and squeezing we were finally in. Once in the state of the place hits you immediately (as well as the stench of bird crap piled around). Apart from the odd thing here and there the place is stripped bear. However, none the less it was still a fun explore all round and had at least a good hour mooching around, finding various rooms, the basement (never knew so much death could reside in just 1 room) and even a bit of roof access.

Anyway, now for the pics:

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OMG!!
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Looking up to the hole we squeezed through to get to basement (Turns out easier access was just up ahead)
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Even found the Bar. No Drinks though. :(
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Behind this door, the room was full of dead Owls, Seagulls and other unidentifiable bird carcasses.

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Like this fella who was missing his head

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Finally, the roof.
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Time to leave the place, knowing what entry was like we cautiously made our departure, not as gracious as planned. However, after a quick camp out due to an Old Bill car patrolling just as we were leaving we managed to get out without notice.

Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!


 

Lil'Legs

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Jolly good stuff! Got any photos of that impressive façade to add into your report?
Unfortunately not, old bill nearly spotting us as we were clambering back out meant i just went straight back to the car. Wasn't till drove past i realised i completley forgot, was kickig myself as truly is impressive. Was going to go back but forgot about that until you asked lol
 

Els

Obsessed with BS7671
Regular User
Oh wow must have missed this first time round. My Grandad used to work there when it was the Pitman Press, he used to work out the amount of paper that was needed for books after he retired from the RN. It was a balance between the font size, paper size and total amount of text I think.
 

Seffy

SWC
Staff member
Moderator
We got chased out of here by a guy who we assumed was homeless (we only heard his livid voice as we were clambering across the roof) but turns out it was actually security! Went back 2 years later after they'd long moved out and the place was unguarded when we found security's diary and managed to find (and yoink) the page that detailed our little excursion :D
 
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