Explorers: j3bu, Ric, Mortal Decay, Thompski

It’s a little disconcerting being able to see through the platform which is suspending you about 100ft above the ground in the 0.8 miles walk from start to finish. Anyone who has completed the Walk Of Faith at Blackpool Tower can tell you it’s not a massively pleasant feeling looking at your feet and just a massive drop. But after about a minute I more or less forgot about the drop and was happy to bounce around the structure filling my hair with spiders, raccoons and dragons as I went. Thelwall Viaduct is ace, I could’ve spent ages just sat up there.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia.org

On the 17th Of October 1883 the observatory at the summity of Ben Nevis was first opened. It remained open for 21 years, closing in 1904 due to lack of funding. In the 105 years it has remained derelict it slowly fell apart but amazingly some of the original beams used in its construction are still littering the summit of Ben Nevis. To get to the summit is a 4,409 ft (1,344m) climb making it one of the most difficult, highest, remote and time consuming to get to.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia.org

Explorers: j3bu, bungle666, Thompski

Woah, this one was pretty ontop. Especially as the explorers that went a few days after us got a visit from the police, ah well least they got to see it.

The Midland Bank building (later to become HSBC) was designed in 1928 by Edwin Lutyens as a classic art deco building. It was constructed between 1933 and 1935. It is a Grade II listing building and is quite eccentric, surrounded on all sides by roads and featuring a central courtyard which is inaccessible except from through windows.  John Ashton Floyd provided many carving throughout. The carvings on the roof which would be unseen from street level and even from inside the building are quite spectacular.

In the mid 1990’s the midland bank was taken over by HSBC however many features of the building still remind you that you are in a midland bank. The banisters on the stairs still feature a “M.B.” motif.

On the 6th of June 2008 the King Street branch closed its doors as a bank for the very last time as HSBC relocated their Manchester branch to St Ann’s Square, it is unknown what the building will now be used for.

Further Reading:

Wikipedia.org

Explorers: j3bu, anclove

Only a baby crane. It’s building a car park. I’m afraid there’s not very much around it that’s particularly interesting so the photos are quite boring. After spending a fair bit of time up there enjoying the view and accidentally making the crane make very loud noises as the sheet metal we stood on popped and then reverberated through the other sheets, it began to snow so we decided to head down. After getting to the bottom it we didn’t have time for many photos before the snow became heavy and a risk to our cameras.