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Report - - RF Brookes, Leicester, June 2017 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - RF Brookes, Leicester, June 2017

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Young Strzes

28DL Member
28DL Member
Hey all,

New member here, I hope you enjoy my first report; RF Brookes.

RF Brookes is an industrial bakery which produced pizzas and pies for many companies, most notably the food giant Marks & Spencer. The bakery hosted around 720 employees, ranging from office, kitchen, processing and delivery staff.

In June of 2011, the company took a huge loss when the contract they had with Marks and Spencer was dissolved. RF Brookes was then sold to a different owner. After a year, the company made two big redundancies, leaving them with half of the original workforce. In the following year the company would dissolve the rest of the remaining work force, and in July of 2013 the factory was closed permanently.

Recently, in April of 2017, explosions were heard at the plant from residents nearby. It was reported that a fire had started in the gatehouse of the site, caused by arsonists. Unfortunately the gatehouse was almost completely destroyed, however the exterior still sits at the entrance to the site.

Apologies for the bad quality, these were taken on my phone. I hope you will enjoy the few photos I took, I will try to identify the rooms the best I can.

.

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- The old carpark from which we entered, leading to southern entrance of the building.

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- Awarding bodies and certification, including an award from Marks & Spencer.

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- The stairway leading to the first floor offices. (Notice there are no doors to the ground floor of the building)

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- The first office room we entered at the top of the stairway, looking out over the courtyard.

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- The adjacent room, with various whiteboards outlining plans and procedures, most likely for the close.

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- Corridors connecting the building, a torch was essential as the majority of the corridors were in darkness due to the lack of windows.

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- Another office room, this one containing a cabinet full of landline phones, most likely used for customer services or marketing.

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- This room was much bigger than most of the others, with a pile of office chairs in the centre of the room, suggesting it was most likely used for meetings.

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- This room was completely dark, right in the centre of the building. Looking at some of the equipment, I think it's fair to assume this was most likely a network centre.

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- This wall in the corridor was covered in what looked to be health and safety training certificates for a large amount of the employees.

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- A kitchen area, with small storage rooms and coolers, including a dumbwaiter in the corner leading to the ground floor.

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- A canteen area, leading from a smaller kitchen used for staff. The canteen was very bare, although it did have some pay phones and boothes in the corner.

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- Coming to the end of the offices, we entered into a changing room, fitted with showers and cubicles. This led into a small room, which then led down a flight of stairs to the storage, packing and delivery area.

NOTE - The following part of the building was in complete darkness, and therefore I don't have many photos as my phone camera struggles getting decent photos in this light.

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- This was the largest area, most likely used for storage, the whole area being around 40m by 150m. A lone office chair sat in the centre of the area, spooky.

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- Most of the ground floor looked like this, large corridors leading to cooler rooms used to store food waiting to be delivered.

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- One of the bathrooms on the ground floor, which was pitch black in darkness and completely untouched other than a cracked mirror behind me.

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- The delivery bays, used to load and distribute foods. This one was used for poultry.

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- Finally, an image snapped through the front gate as we left, giving an idea to how big the factory was.

As for security, there is none on the site itself, however the industrial estate where it is located does have security. A few cameras laid around the exterior of the building with threats of 24 hour monitoring, although we have had no trouble.

That is all for now, I hope you enjoyed this report, thank you all for taking the time to read, and if you have any suggestion for how I should improve for next time (other than getting a decent camera) then please feel free to message me!

Thanks all,
Young Strzes.
 
Last edited:

Yorrick

A fellow of infinite jest
28DL Full Member
First time I've seen this so well done. Not bad for a first report, shame you didn't get the warehouse.

Look forward to seeing some more from Leicester.
 

Punk

Punkus Explorus
28DL Full Member
Nice one :thumb
Decent first report, nice snaps. Looks in fairly good condition.
Another explorer from Leicester ;)
 

elhomer12

Maglite size T-rex, It's time for urbex!
28DL Full Member
There has definitely been security at this site recently, so maybe you just got lucky with them not being there :p Within the past couple of months I've been around snooping twice somebody was there both times. The last time they were leaving as I came around the corner and stopped to watch me until I made it look like I was lost looking at my phone :D

Good effort though, none of this video crap that everyones up to these days
 

Landie_Man

"Landie" or Harry
Regular User
Good effort though, none of this video crap that everyones up to these days

Ive been thinking about this a lot lately. Not many people make a proper report anymore with some words about the day, history and photos.

When I first started here I learnt from the School of Hard Knocks many times! Having reports put into The Recycle Bin or The Epic Fail Bin or even The Fetid Pit of Despair.

Too many rushed videos now. Nothing like a proper report.
 

Draycos

28DL Member
28DL Member
I use to work here years ago I live in London now but if I visit Leicester again I will walk around there I remember every room in those pics and seeing it like that is sad I have fond memories of working with some brilliant people who made even the crap shift a breeze I don’t know what’s become of it now but if I ever get to walk those halls again it would be surreal
 
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