"Where the fuck are you going man?", I said with a look of incredulity. If I can fault my exploring partner, it's the fact that he walks at around 15 miles per hour and gets easily distracted.
We had come for the infamous, "Trapdoor on Well Street”, a distinctively looking THREE out of TEN venue of the finest calibre and he goes marching off.
The 'other' place would materialise as Diamonds, a seedy-looking strip club that will be featured soon enough.
The trapdoor was something to drool over. I gained the information from a GoonTuber named 'Clarky' who has a gift of making the most boring-looking crap-holes interesting.
Take a look at it just for a few seconds.. take in the sounds, the atmosphere, the dictation, it's all top-notch. He could be a an Oscar winning film director.
Now the “Trapdoor on Well Street” was made significantly easier to find with the street name being prominently in the title.
This was going to be so bad that we just had to give it a visit. I don’t mind revealing the access point as the ‘Trapdoor’ owners have recently renovated the roof and it’s now been sealed.
So all you envious explorers reading this, you missed your chance at seeing the most dramatic location in the UK (according to ‘Clarky’).
Parking on double-yellow lines I hoped the traffic wardens were taking the day off. There was nowhere else to park and it was a town centre on a Sunday.
What was this shitty-looking building in the past; a Thai Boxing club? That was up the stairs and a different part of the block
Maybe an old technology company that got hit during the great recession?
If I was half-interested I could look them all up to see which are still trading. I was more interested in seeing the ‘Evil Dead’ lookalike zombie stuck under the floor if I was to believe 'Clarky'.
The roof in the right corner was the way in. With Well Street being such a deprived area the only humans seeing us enter via the roof would likely be tramps and the homeless who care not.
It wasn't too difficult as there was a handy ladder on the inside. I get the feeling disposable ladders are going to be the next big thing in the Urban Exploring community and may well come in 10 packs as a special deal.
Inside was the expected death trap scenario I have become accustomed to seeing. That ladder was quite precariously perched there, a slight slip and whoops...
Having crap all over the floor hardly helps as there could be a whopping big hole under all that just waiting to accommodate your leg.
Valves and Flow-meters tell me it was some kind of supplier for parts or equipment.
There were various papers and cards strewn about but most looked similar. 1992 is almost 30 years ago. I do prefer my UX memorabilia from the 1970s or earlier but these derps often underdeliver.
Thermo Electric Developments Ltd, which was one of the FOUR companies listed on the plaque outside.
It was mostly quite bare on the top floor and emitted the usual damp aura of a building left for years.
We needed to see the famous Trapdoor and its horrors underneath.
There's always that horror flooring in the far corner and the thought of falling down there.
Tentatively creeping down this hole that has been made from years of natural erosion we spotted the trapdoor.
Someone had ripped off the lid revealing stairs. Had the creature escaped and was watching us from a hidden passage?
Descending ever so slowly down into the depths of Well Street I waited for the inevitable.
… and there it was… an old power generator. The sense of anti-climax was so overbearing that I was on the verge of passing out.
...'where were the fucking zombies?'...
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