I don't want to bore everyone with the same history of the building as the others have done such a stellar job, so i'll just try and give a run down of the explore.
I had been reccying this site for some time now, and for a good while it seemed like a non-runner. Even asking the gate security for either permission or someone to contact came to no avail.
With some luck, the lads at Lilly had been monitoring the thread in Leads and Rumors and were such gents as to get the proper approvals to lay on an open day for us.
I use the term open day rather than tour as that's exactly what it was. On arrival, we were sat down and given an overview of the history of the site and the chance to ask any questions we had. It was then up to us, that within reason (roofs locked, tunnels mostly flooded), we were able to visit and shoot whatever we liked.
They were also kind enough to provide many anecdotal stories from their time on site as we visited the various areas which was truly very interesting and time well spent.
We spent over 5 hours on site, and here are my results so far:
This is in the clean room area. All air is filtered and pressurized. To keep things clean only one door would open at a time, and if there was ever a drop in pressure *ALL* medicines in the area had to be ditched.
Banks of HEPA filters for the clean rooms
Where the packing lines were. One line would stretch the length of the room and could be entirely sealed off depending on the product being made. This was one of the earliest facilities to be designed to have product go from end to end without being touched by human hands.
Some of the offices. These had just had some major investment in refurbishment, snagging wasn't even complete when they pulled the plug on the site. These were never moved in to.
Area of offices which were populated. Note the attention to the building style with the light pillars.
Canteen area
Moving into the lab area...
The "worst kept secret" amongst the staff. Located in the attic.
One last shot of this awesome building
Huge thanks have to go out to the guys at Lilly for pushing to get this approved and giving up their evening for it (especially as I had been eyeing this site up for so long), and to the lads from here who as said elsewhere, acted like ambassadors for Urbex.
The rest of my set can be found on Flickr
I had been reccying this site for some time now, and for a good while it seemed like a non-runner. Even asking the gate security for either permission or someone to contact came to no avail.
With some luck, the lads at Lilly had been monitoring the thread in Leads and Rumors and were such gents as to get the proper approvals to lay on an open day for us.
I use the term open day rather than tour as that's exactly what it was. On arrival, we were sat down and given an overview of the history of the site and the chance to ask any questions we had. It was then up to us, that within reason (roofs locked, tunnels mostly flooded), we were able to visit and shoot whatever we liked.
They were also kind enough to provide many anecdotal stories from their time on site as we visited the various areas which was truly very interesting and time well spent.
We spent over 5 hours on site, and here are my results so far:
This is in the clean room area. All air is filtered and pressurized. To keep things clean only one door would open at a time, and if there was ever a drop in pressure *ALL* medicines in the area had to be ditched.
Banks of HEPA filters for the clean rooms
Where the packing lines were. One line would stretch the length of the room and could be entirely sealed off depending on the product being made. This was one of the earliest facilities to be designed to have product go from end to end without being touched by human hands.
Some of the offices. These had just had some major investment in refurbishment, snagging wasn't even complete when they pulled the plug on the site. These were never moved in to.
Area of offices which were populated. Note the attention to the building style with the light pillars.
Canteen area
Moving into the lab area...
The "worst kept secret" amongst the staff. Located in the attic.
One last shot of this awesome building
Huge thanks have to go out to the guys at Lilly for pushing to get this approved and giving up their evening for it (especially as I had been eyeing this site up for so long), and to the lads from here who as said elsewhere, acted like ambassadors for Urbex.
The rest of my set can be found on Flickr
