Seeming as this is the first post on this blog, I see no better way to start than with London’s first skyscraper and how, with an endless amount of luck, we spent the evening on top of such a legendary spot, Tower 42. The building is composed of two roof sections, the lower much wider area – primarily window cleaners, and the taller more central part, which housed much more of the internal rooftop architecture. the building was previously nicknamed the Natwest Tower, as it originally homed the bank’s international offices and was built to match the bank’s logo, which can be seen at both the upper and lower levels of the roof.
Approaching the building, nerves were high, in the lift Eskilite told me that my collar was out of place, given our younger age we already stood out. We quickly checked ourselves before reaching our destined floor. A well thought out story convinced the staff, and, before we knew it, we were in the stairs It almost didn’t feel real. Often it’s easy to get dizzy walking up stairs, especially from lower floors, but the building’s awkward layout exaggerated this, combined with the high nerves I almost felt sick. The higher we got the higher the nerves rose.
Eventually, we reached a door. It stood open with a sign ‘refurbish in process’ we smiled. With some luck, we poked our heads around the corner and spotted another door, only a floor above us. This second door also stood open and we couldn’t believe our luck. We quickly walked up the stairs and through the next door, it was clear before we even entered from all the noise that we were in the mech room. The mech room was unlike no other I had ever seen, the several floors high and the tight maze was a gamble. But, before we had a chance to find our way through, we heard voices. We were confused and turned back, making a retreat to the initial first door where we waited.
It was as we were going down the stairs that we clocked a camera hidden in a corner, and our nerves grew. We decided to switch to a different staircase to buy some time and decide on our next move. We resided in this opposing stairwell for a bit – the layout was very different, a lot of chairs and furniture, potentially a back entrance to a restaurant? We regathered our thoughts and it was clear that the staircase we had just entered was not an option. We recalled the youtube video we had watched years ago and how they climbed out a small window we had passed while going between doors. We agreed this would be an ideal route and we would attempt the climb us.
Thoughts regathered, we made a move. The first door remained open and we headed over to the window, only to find a lock with a 100 decibel alarm attached. We quickly decided this was no option especially given the close proximity of the workers, and we were also captured on camera. In a spur of the moment decision, we decided we would just try our luck with the mech room and hope no one would see us. As we charged through, we heard voices all around us. We made it almost all the way to the top before we noticed someone working ahead. We found a semi-dark corner hidden behind an AC unit and decided to wait, we all folded in together where we sat for the next hour and a half.
We wanted to make sunset but, given the proximity of the nearby skyscrapers and the fact that we could clearly see workers from our hiding space, we decided to wait a little longer. We decided to make our move just after sunset and we found the roof-hatch, a combination lock lay on it… open… We wasted no time climbing up and we couldn’t believe our eyes as we walked around the roof. It took a minute for it all to sink in, and we still couldn’t quite believe our luck. All round hugs were quickly followed by capturing blue hour and the last of the sunset before we finally chilled out and sat back, still unable to believe our accomplishment.
Although not the tallest (183 metres), it’s these historic buildings that hold the most value for explorers. Stood upon the first skyscraper in the city, it’s hard to imagine the once clear views of the city, especially as the recently constructed 22 Bishopsgate completely blocks out of a good portion of the view South East. However this building is culturally important in London’s exploring history, it is one of the original youtube videos that went viral several years prior, pushing exploring into the medias eye. To revisit so long later turned many heads, but with much less success.
The photos from this roof are some of my favourite I’ve ever taken – it seemed impossible to take a bad photo up here but I had yet to take one that stood out. This was up until I found some awkwardly positioned window cleaning equipment overhanging the roof. Instantly I knew the shot I wanted to take and just how horrible it would be – I asked my friends to position themselves below and I began the awkward climb up. I lay there, balancing on the beams which where narrower then myself. It was impossible to see what I was shooting, I just had to trust myself. I struggled to breathe at one point, the mere thought that one slight move could see a dark end was constantly on my mind. But, somehow, I managed to talk myself through it and produce a photo which still makes me smile to this very day. Little would I know this frame would fund my legal battle many years later.
This marked the end of our shooting and we decided it was time to leave, a little unsure of how. We placed the open lock back on the hatch and began our venture through the mech room. We had thought, given the later hours, the mech room would be empty but we were wrong. We quickly retreated to our previous hiding spot but the realisation doomed on us, we couldn’t hide forever… We decided we would just have to charge through again, given our previous success we felt confident as we began our descent through the mech room. However, our luck was a little shorter this time and we quickly ran into workers. Surprisingly, they did not question us at all, instead they started making weird grunting noises behind us. We walked in a line down the narrow stairs, the explorers and the workers. The noises continued, we tried not to laugh and one of us joined in, next thing you know we all join in. Honestly, the funniest experience ever. Finally the stairs ended and we got to a door. Being at the front, I notice there’s a mag lock and a key card needed to leave. I turn back and ask my friends, we all pretend that we’ve lost the card we were given before asking the workers. Without questioning, they hand us theirs and the door opens. We are in the line for the restaurant… We pretend that we know what we’re doing, say good bye to the workers and head towards the lift down. The lift down felt like pure euphoria we laughed endlessly we couldn’t believe our luck one bit…
