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Report - - Millenium Mills, London, June 2014 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Millenium Mills, London, June 2014

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Vixxie

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Described by many people as crème de la crème of industrial urban exploring, Millenium Mills with its 10 storey is indeed an impressive place to visit. Also it is a really dangerous one, it's decaying, the floors are missing in many places where the machinery had been removed. Also large part of the flooring is wooden and looks really dodgy so we tried to avoid stepping in a lots of the rooms.


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Bit of history:

The Millennium Mills is a derelict turn of 20th century flour mill in West Silvertown on the south side of the Royal Victoria Dock, between the Thames Barrier and the ExCel exhibition centre alongside the newly built Britannia village, in Newham, London, England. Described as a "decaying industrial anachronism standing defiant and alone in the surrounding subtopia", the Millennium Mills has become a well-loved icon of post-industrial Britain and has made its way into many aspects of popular culture.

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We gave this place 2 tries. First one was successful, though not by any means easy. Getting through the massive metal fencing took 3 attempts and a large amount of bruises. But getting into the area didn't equal getting inside the building.. It is really highly secured place, with most of the windows and doors on ground floors bricked and boarded. After an hour of helpless walking around and trying we were ready to call it a day when we heard a whistle from above. To our surprise there were 2 other explorers already in the building and kindly helped us find the only way in (thanks again guys!! You were great!). We met them later on taking photos and chatted for a bit.

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Exploring the place took solid hours and the real caution due to the mentioned danger. Especially the top floors seemed quite fragile and looking through the holes you could easily imagine yourself falling 10-storey down to the rock bottom.

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There are some office rooms with the documentation still there, but apparently suffered a fire as most stuff is pretty much burnt down.

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Real fun is getting to the roofs. The view is amazing and it's quite an unusual experience to have planes flying so close to you (City Airport landing lane is just next to it).

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Things went a bit scary at the end, when we couldn't find the only way out.. Because the place is so big and it's simply impossible to explore it all in one go, we kept changing the staircases and could not locate the one that initially got us there (if you ever get lost, go back to 5th floor and walk across:) We were real hungry and tired at that point and our phones died so it got a bit nervous :P

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Anyway, we tried to come back there a week later, managed to get through the fence, but our previous way in was already unaccessible again. Trying to find the alternative access we got caught by the security guard and escorted out. Guys was really cool though so no hard feelings.

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Again, credit to most of the photos go to my partner in crime Pinkman. Some are mine. And again, we only take photos with our phones so they're not as impressive as most on this website but hope you enjoy anyway :)

Thanks for reading x
 

The_Raw

Moderator
Staff member
Moderator
Nice report, like the running commentary aspect and you've done well with the pics for a camera phone in that kind of lighting. :thumb
Also heard it's a no go now, word on the street is that the locals have received letters announcing that demo will begin in July so it may not be around for very much longer....
 
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Pinkman

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
That's I-Phones for you, people knock the brand but you cannot knock the quality of the tech.
For a build in camera it can handle a lot of differing light situations, & gives good HDR & bloom when in the right setting.
This little baby comes along with me to all the Urbex trips.

Such a shame that such an iconic structure is being earmarked for demo. Me & Vixxie will have to get back there & explore the rest before it's gone.
 

Leeds(Ex)plorer

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
That's I-Phones for you, people knock the brand but you cannot knock the quality of the tech.
For a build in camera it can handle a lot of differing light situations, & gives good HDR & bloom when in the right setting.
This little baby comes along with me to all the Urbex trips.

Such a shame that such an iconic structure is being earmarked for demo. Me & Vixxie will have to get back there & explore the rest before it's gone.
I've had iPhones since the first one came out never missing a model

I got a samsung galaxy S4 company phone a few weeks back, every aspect of the camera shits on the iPhone, I for one have been converted
 

Pinkman

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Fair enough,

Each to their own, I'm merely basing my view based on the quality of the pics I have got whilst Urbexing.....which in my opinion have been pretty good so far.
There may well be a better quality model of phone out there, I'm just saying I'm happy with what I've got.
 

Vixxie

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
I got so inspired by the photos here that I am thinking to buy the proper camera next month :D
 

zombizza

Sore Knee
Regular User
To our surprise there were 2 other explorers already in the building and kindly helped us find the only way in (thanks again guys!! You were great!). We met them later on taking photos and chatted for a bit.

Happy to help!
Got some snaps of you guys wandering around aimlessly whilst i was spying on you, if you want them. I was secretly hoping to watch a comedy busting by security but then felt sorry for you.
We had trouble finding our way out as well.
Hope you put the palisade fencing etc back in place after you left :)
 

Vixxie

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Happy to help!
Got some snaps of you guys wandering around aimlessly whilst i was spying on you, if you want them. I was secretly hoping to watch a comedy busting by security but then felt sorry for you.
We had trouble finding our way out as well.
Hope you put the palisade fencing etc back in place after you left :)

I thought we would find you here on this forum :D Well, finding a way in wasn't that easy, but we didn't know you've spotted us before heheheh. It took us a while to get out of there. We did put everything back in place but when we got back there the following week, the palisade was bolted back :( But we are planning to come back anyway. Of course we want the shots :D I'll send you my email in PM. Thanks again :D
 
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Pinkman

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Yeah cheers for that once again dude,

Yes it must have been pretty amusing, at the point when you whistled up to us we were about to give up!
Getting out of that place was seriously not funny, it got a bit hair raising towards the end. All I will say is, remember the steel staircase!!
Well you live & learn I guess.
 

One Flew East

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Quote by Vixxie
I got so inspired by the photos here that I am thinking to buy the proper camera next month.

Buy the proper camera, it'll cause you both to visit and see some amazing things, trust me.
 

Vixxie

28DL Full Member
28DL Full Member
Quote by Vixxie
I got so inspired by the photos here that I am thinking to buy the proper camera next month.

Buy the proper camera, it'll cause you both to visit and see some amazing things, trust me.

I think so :) So far I was exploring places for the thrill of it and left the artistic documentation to people with more experience and passion towards photography. But when you see something particularly beautiful/interesting it's such a shame when you can't take a proper shot yourself!
 

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