D
Dragon_Urbex
Guest
Guest
The Portland House offices make up part of a larger complex of former headquarters buildings, in a former country estate. Sadly, the whole site is abandoned and derelict, with all the buildings decaying slowly - however, they are guarded and if you set off sensors in the buildings, a huge great pod of MOD plod will come in after you. These offices are a very grand and imposing set, built in the mid-1980s on the site of the MERLIN reactor beside the lake and designed by Richard Gilbert Scott, who hails from a long family line of architects stretching back to the 19th century. His father Giles designed the iconic red telephone box and Liverpool's great Anglican Cathedral. These offices have had many uses over the years, ranging from headquarters for concrete company Blue Circle to a computer IT company. The building is actually really impressive, built of huge cast concrete blocks all slotted into each other like a giant jigsaw puzzle. From the outside, the building is a hulking, brooding mass but once you’re inside it is surprisingly spacious and cavernous, especially the large foyers! I don't know of anyone else who's managed to access this site before, so this could actually be a first. However, be advised: I would definitely not advise attempting to explore any building on this site, due to the police presence nearby.
The Explore:
This one had eluded me for many years prior, due to always being locked up like Fort Knox. However, there'd been film crews present recently when I went and they'd left access open - I have to add, the building is now sealed up tight for reasons which you shall later discover (foreshadowing). The exploration was rather fun. I arrived at the site and found my way inside pretty quickly, having scouted it the night before and found a way in but didn't hang around for long because I had no torch and it was getting dark, and was met with a motion sensor which I managed to avoid. The entire interior is littered with the bloody things – they’re everywhere! I had a very hard time navigating the inside to avoid them, but eventually, I set one off. And then after setting them off, I just threw caution to the wind and walked through the place as if I owned it because the damage was done by then. The interior layout was confusing as anything because stairs and passageways led off in every direction. It was hard to stay coordinated! However, after an hour and a half, I heard sirens on the roads. I didn’t think those were for me, but, they were, as ten minutes later, when I finished photographing the boiler room, I heard radio chatter. Police! I hid for a few minutes and contemplated making a break for it, but when looking down the huge underground car park tunnel, I could see torches at the far end where the stairs were… my end of the tunnel was blocked off by a grill. So, I gave myself up, only after starting to video in case they tried pulling any funny ones. Turns out, six cars and twelve officers had rocked up. So much for being understaffed, under-resourced and all that they claim! However, they were amicable and once they realised that I wasn’t a burglar (almost instantly) they were chatty and friendly. I was escorted off site and that was that. Enjoy the photographs!
1) The exterior. You can see what I mean about it being a hulking mass.
2) The main entrance foyer.
3) Looking towards the absolutely vast rear foyer.
4) Looking down into the secondary foyer.
5) The vertical concrete mullions were quite striking and impressive honest. Reminiscent of a Minecraft structure.
6) The view up from the bottom floor. It's really surprisingly huge.
7) The pretty staircase.
8) The retro 80s signage in the main corridors.
9) One of the office floors. I didn't take many snaps of these as they're all virtually the same.
10) The huge cross shaped concrete pillars throughout the place. The use of concrete is emphasised here, due to the site having been used as the headquarters for Blue Circle.
11) The boiler room - pipes leading off everywhere.
12) Overlooking the boiler room.
13) More pipe porn.
14) Yet more pipe porn, but with some nice valves.
15) Not sure what this is, maybe a pressuriser?
16) These must have been insulated pipes for carrying heating steam around.
17) Obligatory dial shot!
18) I found some nice control cabinets around this room. Honestly, it was like a small power station in here.
19) Another control display, this time spot the Mickeys...!
20) The two large boilers.
21) Circulation pumps.
22) The electricity switchboards. They still hum away.
23) Another shot of the switchboard controls.
24) Showing the large windows that light the room. The shape of the arches and also the dark, cavernous space reminds me of Erebor/The Lonely Mountain from The Hobbit film series.
25) The site is sometimes used for filming, so this must be leftover from that.
26) Same thing here, maybe a leftover prop?
At this point, I detected the rozzers... here's a screenshot from the video footage I had to show how many units turned up...! I've blanked out the guard's face as he was actually really nice and friendly. And yes, I did name the file "Crikey, It's The Rozzers".
Thanks for readin'!
The Explore:
This one had eluded me for many years prior, due to always being locked up like Fort Knox. However, there'd been film crews present recently when I went and they'd left access open - I have to add, the building is now sealed up tight for reasons which you shall later discover (foreshadowing). The exploration was rather fun. I arrived at the site and found my way inside pretty quickly, having scouted it the night before and found a way in but didn't hang around for long because I had no torch and it was getting dark, and was met with a motion sensor which I managed to avoid. The entire interior is littered with the bloody things – they’re everywhere! I had a very hard time navigating the inside to avoid them, but eventually, I set one off. And then after setting them off, I just threw caution to the wind and walked through the place as if I owned it because the damage was done by then. The interior layout was confusing as anything because stairs and passageways led off in every direction. It was hard to stay coordinated! However, after an hour and a half, I heard sirens on the roads. I didn’t think those were for me, but, they were, as ten minutes later, when I finished photographing the boiler room, I heard radio chatter. Police! I hid for a few minutes and contemplated making a break for it, but when looking down the huge underground car park tunnel, I could see torches at the far end where the stairs were… my end of the tunnel was blocked off by a grill. So, I gave myself up, only after starting to video in case they tried pulling any funny ones. Turns out, six cars and twelve officers had rocked up. So much for being understaffed, under-resourced and all that they claim! However, they were amicable and once they realised that I wasn’t a burglar (almost instantly) they were chatty and friendly. I was escorted off site and that was that. Enjoy the photographs!
1) The exterior. You can see what I mean about it being a hulking mass.
2) The main entrance foyer.
3) Looking towards the absolutely vast rear foyer.
4) Looking down into the secondary foyer.
5) The vertical concrete mullions were quite striking and impressive honest. Reminiscent of a Minecraft structure.
6) The view up from the bottom floor. It's really surprisingly huge.
7) The pretty staircase.
8) The retro 80s signage in the main corridors.
9) One of the office floors. I didn't take many snaps of these as they're all virtually the same.
10) The huge cross shaped concrete pillars throughout the place. The use of concrete is emphasised here, due to the site having been used as the headquarters for Blue Circle.
11) The boiler room - pipes leading off everywhere.
12) Overlooking the boiler room.
13) More pipe porn.
14) Yet more pipe porn, but with some nice valves.
15) Not sure what this is, maybe a pressuriser?
16) These must have been insulated pipes for carrying heating steam around.
17) Obligatory dial shot!
18) I found some nice control cabinets around this room. Honestly, it was like a small power station in here.
19) Another control display, this time spot the Mickeys...!
20) The two large boilers.
21) Circulation pumps.
22) The electricity switchboards. They still hum away.
23) Another shot of the switchboard controls.
24) Showing the large windows that light the room. The shape of the arches and also the dark, cavernous space reminds me of Erebor/The Lonely Mountain from The Hobbit film series.
25) The site is sometimes used for filming, so this must be leftover from that.
26) Same thing here, maybe a leftover prop?
At this point, I detected the rozzers... here's a screenshot from the video footage I had to show how many units turned up...! I've blanked out the guard's face as he was actually really nice and friendly. And yes, I did name the file "Crikey, It's The Rozzers".
Thanks for readin'!
