Visited with True-British-Metal, and firstly i'd like to thank Stig for the help he gave me pre-visit, it certainly restored my confidence in the fact that this place was doable!
[TL : DR (Skip this part if you want)]
The history of the building in it's previously non-derelict state has been pasted from Wikipedia so many times that there seems no point in doing so again, instead I thought i'd give some more recent history.
Millenium Mills was used as a location in the 1987 film "The Last Of England" by Derek Jarman, if you want, you can watch the whole film here
The 1988 Concert "Destination Docklands" also featured Millenium Mills as a backdrop and you can see the place rather beautifully lit up at 2:53 in this video.
More recently, it was featured in "Ashes to Ashes" which you can see from 02:00 in this video, and both the Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay featured it recently in music videos with "Flourescent Adolescent" and "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" with the former featuring a rather nice Mk1 Granada in Sweeney gold!
[/TLDR]
Onto our day... TBM and I arrived around midday and watched some other explorers enter from the DLR train, who later told us that security weren't active! Shame they told us after we'd ran through the undergrowth ducking and diving like idiots in case he was on his rounds, but all in good fun!
Getting out involved hiding behind a pillar as Mr Security (who had started his rounds several hours earlier - we managed to see him driving around so were expecting the worse) shone his headlights at me, god knows how I wasn't seen in the reflection off the pillar but he did manage to seal the entry point causing some unexpected climbing to take place and for those who know me will understand; any climbing that I do usually results in disaster or injury! We then had to keep an eye out for security as we tried to leave as quickly as possible, darkness was a big help as we could see his headlights move from the mill to the D silo etc., so we knew when to run and when to hide! It was an intense moment when he was sat right in front of us particularly because he turned his headlights and engine off as if to pretend he'd left, but luckily we had our wits about us and didn't get caught.
Some photos from the day, sorry if they aren't very good I've just got a new camera and am learning with it - no external shots I'm afraid because we decided that we'd get those on the way out, which if you read the previous paragraph you'll know we weren't standing around taking photos in the dark!
Plenty of open doors with light leaks, all several stories up because the first few floors are pretty well secured.
The fire exit has the less tiresome concrete stairs, the metal ones are a bit daunting as you can see right to the basement!
A control board from another time, the whole place would probably be ran by a desktop computer now.
Well that's us told then!
One of the more popular tourist shots.
I love the little details scattered all around the mill.
The view of the 02 arena from the roof, it was much more spectacular in person.
The airplanes would fly quite low overhead every two or three minutes, the sound was unreal!
Again looking out over the river.
Our good friend Mr Security!
Heading back inwards, hardly an untouched plate of glass throughout the whole building.
Lots of industrial goodness.
Some rooms were completely stripped, contrasted by the fact that others had everything in situ.
After all those years i'm surprised this still survives.
Another small detail in the store room.
A few tools amongst many rusty bolts, there are always a few things left behind.
Really cool industrial lamp, I'd love one in my house!
As opposed to a normal bell.
Movie Props?
10 Points go to whoever can name the dinosaur/quadbike contraption!
The fan that never stopped spinning.
We didn't come accross many of these chutes, but with a lonley chair next to it I couldn't resist!
Distorted for your protection not mine...trust me!
Well I hope you've enjoyed my report, I took some time to try and write it up nicely, as always I'd really appreciate any comments or criticisms you have, it makes the time spent on these wortwhile when others take the time to have their say on what i've done.
Thanks and look out for more from me in 2012!
[TL : DR (Skip this part if you want)]
The history of the building in it's previously non-derelict state has been pasted from Wikipedia so many times that there seems no point in doing so again, instead I thought i'd give some more recent history.
Millenium Mills was used as a location in the 1987 film "The Last Of England" by Derek Jarman, if you want, you can watch the whole film here
The 1988 Concert "Destination Docklands" also featured Millenium Mills as a backdrop and you can see the place rather beautifully lit up at 2:53 in this video.
More recently, it was featured in "Ashes to Ashes" which you can see from 02:00 in this video, and both the Arctic Monkeys and Coldplay featured it recently in music videos with "Flourescent Adolescent" and "Every Teardrop is a Waterfall" with the former featuring a rather nice Mk1 Granada in Sweeney gold!
[/TLDR]
Onto our day... TBM and I arrived around midday and watched some other explorers enter from the DLR train, who later told us that security weren't active! Shame they told us after we'd ran through the undergrowth ducking and diving like idiots in case he was on his rounds, but all in good fun!
Getting out involved hiding behind a pillar as Mr Security (who had started his rounds several hours earlier - we managed to see him driving around so were expecting the worse) shone his headlights at me, god knows how I wasn't seen in the reflection off the pillar but he did manage to seal the entry point causing some unexpected climbing to take place and for those who know me will understand; any climbing that I do usually results in disaster or injury! We then had to keep an eye out for security as we tried to leave as quickly as possible, darkness was a big help as we could see his headlights move from the mill to the D silo etc., so we knew when to run and when to hide! It was an intense moment when he was sat right in front of us particularly because he turned his headlights and engine off as if to pretend he'd left, but luckily we had our wits about us and didn't get caught.Some photos from the day, sorry if they aren't very good I've just got a new camera and am learning with it - no external shots I'm afraid because we decided that we'd get those on the way out, which if you read the previous paragraph you'll know we weren't standing around taking photos in the dark!
Plenty of open doors with light leaks, all several stories up because the first few floors are pretty well secured.
The fire exit has the less tiresome concrete stairs, the metal ones are a bit daunting as you can see right to the basement!
A control board from another time, the whole place would probably be ran by a desktop computer now.
Well that's us told then!
One of the more popular tourist shots.
I love the little details scattered all around the mill.
The view of the 02 arena from the roof, it was much more spectacular in person.
The airplanes would fly quite low overhead every two or three minutes, the sound was unreal!
Again looking out over the river.
Our good friend Mr Security!
Heading back inwards, hardly an untouched plate of glass throughout the whole building.
Lots of industrial goodness.
Some rooms were completely stripped, contrasted by the fact that others had everything in situ.
After all those years i'm surprised this still survives.
Another small detail in the store room.
A few tools amongst many rusty bolts, there are always a few things left behind.
Really cool industrial lamp, I'd love one in my house!
As opposed to a normal bell.
Movie Props?
10 Points go to whoever can name the dinosaur/quadbike contraption!
The fan that never stopped spinning.
We didn't come accross many of these chutes, but with a lonley chair next to it I couldn't resist!
Distorted for your protection not mine...trust me!
Well I hope you've enjoyed my report, I took some time to try and write it up nicely, as always I'd really appreciate any comments or criticisms you have, it makes the time spent on these wortwhile when others take the time to have their say on what i've done.
Thanks and look out for more from me in 2012!
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