Entry to the site was at dawn. A rip off mini cab journey done, we were in straight away and making our way to the building. One very slight hitch our recce's didn't pick up was another fence further in, but this was helpfully "holed"... and so we went to our chosen window. Equipment readied in less than a minute, up we went.
None of us are great climbers, so there was a kind of leap of faith as made our way up the last few feet and hauled ourselves in. Once we were all assembled we had the much needed smoke break and sorted our kit out. Out came the tripod, camera, something to drink... and our self congratulation on not bumping into security.
Then it was up... steadily working our way to avoid the holes, and on into the bigger "newer" part of the mills.
In all we did about six hours, trying to make sure we saw everything. The "Open Room" was both spectacular and dizzying. One of the group did crawl out to the ledge for photos down - I couldn't even look.
The final ascent to the roof wasn't too worrying thankfully. All fully walled so even I was mostly OK, ladders all very solid. After a week of shitty weather, we were utterly blessed with the clearest blue sky. From the top we could see *everything*... out to Crystal Palace, as well as the City and of course Canary Wharf. I'd guess we had 15 maybe 20 mile visibility.
After awhile, we thought we'd probably been a bit to "exposed" on the roof... not so much about security, but more joe public phoning in about terrorists near the airport, so we decided to head down rather than tempt a 'discussion' with the pointy end of SO19.
Despite advice "don't do this as your first one"... we were quite attached to doing this particular building. We had some good advice though. Correction: Essential Advice. Without that we would have been staring at the outside and then going home. You know who you are, and we thank you alot. Without whom... and all that.
Full Photo Set
Selected pics now follow...
On our way up at dawn:
Holiday Book in the torched office. Staff names are written on the left, then a makeshift calendar grid is filled in on the right. The surnames demonstrate London's long tradition of an immigrant workface.
The final entry in the "Spraying" book is July 1986, two years before Jean Michelle Jarre's Destination Docklands concert which used Millennium and the surrounding Mills, now demolished, as the backdrop for the projections, lasers and fireworks.
The sun streamed into the south side of the building.
The "open room"... swirly stomach time for me.
A control panel for D Silo.
From the roof... clear enough to see the Crystal Palace transmitter.
The light was great... inside and out.
Lots of holes. This room was the patchiest... but there are holes on most floors, so going multiple stories.
None of us are great climbers, so there was a kind of leap of faith as made our way up the last few feet and hauled ourselves in. Once we were all assembled we had the much needed smoke break and sorted our kit out. Out came the tripod, camera, something to drink... and our self congratulation on not bumping into security.
Then it was up... steadily working our way to avoid the holes, and on into the bigger "newer" part of the mills.
In all we did about six hours, trying to make sure we saw everything. The "Open Room" was both spectacular and dizzying. One of the group did crawl out to the ledge for photos down - I couldn't even look.
The final ascent to the roof wasn't too worrying thankfully. All fully walled so even I was mostly OK, ladders all very solid. After a week of shitty weather, we were utterly blessed with the clearest blue sky. From the top we could see *everything*... out to Crystal Palace, as well as the City and of course Canary Wharf. I'd guess we had 15 maybe 20 mile visibility.
After awhile, we thought we'd probably been a bit to "exposed" on the roof... not so much about security, but more joe public phoning in about terrorists near the airport, so we decided to head down rather than tempt a 'discussion' with the pointy end of SO19.
Despite advice "don't do this as your first one"... we were quite attached to doing this particular building. We had some good advice though. Correction: Essential Advice. Without that we would have been staring at the outside and then going home. You know who you are, and we thank you alot. Without whom... and all that.
Full Photo Set
Selected pics now follow...
On our way up at dawn:
Holiday Book in the torched office. Staff names are written on the left, then a makeshift calendar grid is filled in on the right. The surnames demonstrate London's long tradition of an immigrant workface.
The final entry in the "Spraying" book is July 1986, two years before Jean Michelle Jarre's Destination Docklands concert which used Millennium and the surrounding Mills, now demolished, as the backdrop for the projections, lasers and fireworks.
The sun streamed into the south side of the building.
The "open room"... swirly stomach time for me.
A control panel for D Silo.
From the roof... clear enough to see the Crystal Palace transmitter.
The light was great... inside and out.
Lots of holes. This room was the patchiest... but there are holes on most floors, so going multiple stories.
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