Centre Point – 2015
Spurred on from some party antics in the last couple of weeks I think it’s time I actually start to contribute to the forum. First as always, a bit of history about this brutalist behemoth.
[https://www.saflex.com/sites/defaul...public/1339763_centre_point.jpg?itok=jWKDF7uj]
“Centre Point is a building in Central London, comprising a 34-storey tower; a 9-storey block to the east including shops, offices, retail units and maisonettes; and a linking block between the two at first-floor level.
It occupies 101–103 New Oxford Street and 5–24 St Giles High Street, WC1, with a frontage also to Charing Cross Road, close to St Giles Circus and almost directly above Tottenham Court Road tube station.
The site was once occupied by a gallows, and the tower sits directly over the former route of St Giles High Street, which had to be re-routed for the construction.
The building is 117 m (385 ft) high, has 34 floors and 27,180 m2 (292,563 sq ft) of floor space. Constructed from 1963 to 1966, it was one of the first skyscrapers in London, and as of 2009 was the city's joint 27th-tallest building. It stood empty from the time of its completion until 1975, and was briefly occupied by housing activists in 1974. Since 1995 it has been a Grade II listed building.
In 2015 it was converted from office space to luxury flats.” – Copied from Wikipedia
I found the fact the site was once occupied by a gallows to be particularly interesting, didn’t find any bodies though, didn’t check the basement however.
The explore:
It was cool. It was the tail end of summer. It was late evening at Tottenham Court Road. Our team for the night consisted of cut.and.cover, and a friend of mine whom we shall call ‘Charlie’. The site sat in the middle of a sort of roundabout and had hoarding around the majority of it, mixed with a few vehicle access points. The constant stream of traffic passing and the lack of pavement on the site-side meant we had to choose our moment carefully. A hop, skip and a jump and we were over the hoarding and snaking our way through stacked scaffolding towards an open side door leaving the bustling London streets behind. On the other side of the door we were greeted by a brightly lit lobby room, with the stairway up placed just behind a black dome camera. On the floor on the left side of the photo you can see the large O from the CENTRE POINT sign that clings to the top of the building that the builders had taken down while the renovation was taking place. All crouched down and listening carefully for any signs of life we crossed the lobby and up the stairs, no angry guard chasing us, the coast seemed to be clear.
I’m afraid that the interior of the building was largely uninteresting, consisting of a concrete shell at this point with materials stacked on each floor waiting to be installed in the newly refurbished building. The stairs however, seemed unending. At this point the security team must have all been asleep as we hadn’t seen or heard from them at all so, feeling safe at 15 floors up, we took a breather. A refreshing sip of Mountian Dew was all that was needed to spur me up the remaining flights of stairs. On the top floor landing there was a ladder and a closed hatch between us and the roof that was swiftly opened, and finally we were back out in the night air.
The cool summer night felt pleasant after the 34 storey hike yet we wasted no time in taking our photographs. At this point there was a scaffold tent on the roof, adding another 6 meters or so on the top. The view from this point was really special. 360 degrees of London’s skyline. On this particular night there seemed to be a supercar meet so the calm night hum was frequently interrupted by the rev of a Lamborghini or the like. Not so impressive when they're just sat in traffic.
There was a platform built parallel to the tower that on every other floor had a temporary gantry leading to it. Except the roof. I wanted to get across and take a shot looking across the skyline from here so I decided to navigate my way over. From the edge of Centre Point tower there were two scaffold poles secured to the adjoining tower; one at shoulder height and one at foot level. I took hold of the bar and began to shimmy across. Now there is a school of thought that, when at height, you shouldn’t look down; this in practice is near impossible. With nothing between me and the ground except from 34 floors of air the sweaty hands ensued and the heart rate increased. Once I reached the other side I was feeling sick to my stomach, I had to clamber over a k-guard fence to get onto this platform. With one leg either side of the k-guard and my weight balanced 50:50, I noticed an inch of play in the fencing, it was swaying side to side and I was unable to reach the floor of the platform. I quickly abandoned this tower structure and scarpered back to Centre Point tower where I had to sit down and brace myself for the vomit. Which thankfully didn’t arrive.
After this ordeal it was time for us to leave, and the way down is always much nicer than going up. Still no sign of the security we bounded over the site hoarding and off into the streets of London.
Thanks to Charlie and Cut.and.cover
Until Next Time
Spurred on from some party antics in the last couple of weeks I think it’s time I actually start to contribute to the forum. First as always, a bit of history about this brutalist behemoth.
[https://www.saflex.com/sites/defaul...public/1339763_centre_point.jpg?itok=jWKDF7uj]
“Centre Point is a building in Central London, comprising a 34-storey tower; a 9-storey block to the east including shops, offices, retail units and maisonettes; and a linking block between the two at first-floor level.
It occupies 101–103 New Oxford Street and 5–24 St Giles High Street, WC1, with a frontage also to Charing Cross Road, close to St Giles Circus and almost directly above Tottenham Court Road tube station.
The site was once occupied by a gallows, and the tower sits directly over the former route of St Giles High Street, which had to be re-routed for the construction.
The building is 117 m (385 ft) high, has 34 floors and 27,180 m2 (292,563 sq ft) of floor space. Constructed from 1963 to 1966, it was one of the first skyscrapers in London, and as of 2009 was the city's joint 27th-tallest building. It stood empty from the time of its completion until 1975, and was briefly occupied by housing activists in 1974. Since 1995 it has been a Grade II listed building.
In 2015 it was converted from office space to luxury flats.” – Copied from Wikipedia
I found the fact the site was once occupied by a gallows to be particularly interesting, didn’t find any bodies though, didn’t check the basement however.
The explore:
It was cool. It was the tail end of summer. It was late evening at Tottenham Court Road. Our team for the night consisted of cut.and.cover, and a friend of mine whom we shall call ‘Charlie’. The site sat in the middle of a sort of roundabout and had hoarding around the majority of it, mixed with a few vehicle access points. The constant stream of traffic passing and the lack of pavement on the site-side meant we had to choose our moment carefully. A hop, skip and a jump and we were over the hoarding and snaking our way through stacked scaffolding towards an open side door leaving the bustling London streets behind. On the other side of the door we were greeted by a brightly lit lobby room, with the stairway up placed just behind a black dome camera. On the floor on the left side of the photo you can see the large O from the CENTRE POINT sign that clings to the top of the building that the builders had taken down while the renovation was taking place. All crouched down and listening carefully for any signs of life we crossed the lobby and up the stairs, no angry guard chasing us, the coast seemed to be clear.
I’m afraid that the interior of the building was largely uninteresting, consisting of a concrete shell at this point with materials stacked on each floor waiting to be installed in the newly refurbished building. The stairs however, seemed unending. At this point the security team must have all been asleep as we hadn’t seen or heard from them at all so, feeling safe at 15 floors up, we took a breather. A refreshing sip of Mountian Dew was all that was needed to spur me up the remaining flights of stairs. On the top floor landing there was a ladder and a closed hatch between us and the roof that was swiftly opened, and finally we were back out in the night air.
The cool summer night felt pleasant after the 34 storey hike yet we wasted no time in taking our photographs. At this point there was a scaffold tent on the roof, adding another 6 meters or so on the top. The view from this point was really special. 360 degrees of London’s skyline. On this particular night there seemed to be a supercar meet so the calm night hum was frequently interrupted by the rev of a Lamborghini or the like. Not so impressive when they're just sat in traffic.
There was a platform built parallel to the tower that on every other floor had a temporary gantry leading to it. Except the roof. I wanted to get across and take a shot looking across the skyline from here so I decided to navigate my way over. From the edge of Centre Point tower there were two scaffold poles secured to the adjoining tower; one at shoulder height and one at foot level. I took hold of the bar and began to shimmy across. Now there is a school of thought that, when at height, you shouldn’t look down; this in practice is near impossible. With nothing between me and the ground except from 34 floors of air the sweaty hands ensued and the heart rate increased. Once I reached the other side I was feeling sick to my stomach, I had to clamber over a k-guard fence to get onto this platform. With one leg either side of the k-guard and my weight balanced 50:50, I noticed an inch of play in the fencing, it was swaying side to side and I was unable to reach the floor of the platform. I quickly abandoned this tower structure and scarpered back to Centre Point tower where I had to sit down and brace myself for the vomit. Which thankfully didn’t arrive.
After this ordeal it was time for us to leave, and the way down is always much nicer than going up. Still no sign of the security we bounded over the site hoarding and off into the streets of London.
Thanks to Charlie and Cut.and.cover
Until Next Time
