Ten minute interview on the subject of urban exploration. Conducted at Paddock with permission of the owners. Nick Catford, of Sub-Brit organised the visit and was interviewed about the history of the bunker. Later repeated on Radio Four.

See also: Paddock | Far From The Light Of Day

Commissioned piece from the editor Angela, this three page article for this Croydon Listings Magazine was a tongue-in-cheek history of the asylum emphazing its legends and reputation. A frightener for their Halloween issue. Also featured on the front cover.

The BBC were keen to devote ten minutes to a piece about asylums but the original plan fell through (the owners of Severalls wouldn't give permission). Successfully suggested a substitute (Rauceby) and quickly found ex-staff for interviews. Was interviewed myself on the history of the asylum, being titled an "Asylum Historian".

The top ten derelict buildings feature resulted in a telephone interview about urban exploration and my corridor shot of Severalls being rated as #2.

Took The Independent urban exploring at West Park. Resulted in a full page colour feature and some now iconic pictures from award winning photographer Ben Stansall.

Mechanised, Major Tom and I took two reporters for two different foreign papers around Severalls. The result was a three page feature in the Italian La Repubblica. Pictures by Mechanised, Nicola and myself.

After a couple of telephone interviews with Oliver Stallwood, and some dubious changes thanks to a sub-editor, urban exploration hit London's free newspape.

Supplied pictures of Aldington Prison for The Sun's feature on unused prisons. One and a half page spread. References to me and urban exploration were edited out at the last minute.

I was asked to write a piece for the Construction History Society's newsletter. To my knowledge, this is the first time an article on urban exploration has appeared in an academic publication. Secondly, it was far more about the aims and limitations of urbex itself rather than a piece about asylums etc.

The spec: a piece about urbex, shot as true urbex. Lawyers in the upper echelons of the BBC gave their permission. However, it would require a very stripped down film crew: cameraman, director and presenter. Two day shoot at two locations. The result? I presented ten minutes of prime time BBC One.

Early Saturday morning, I was interviewed about urban exploration on BFBS Radio One. A quick five-ten minute chat with hosts Stephen Bumfrey and Hannah Cox ensured that all the British Forces were brought up to date with my hobby of scrambling inside derelict buildings.

Sleeve designers Thomas Featherstone and Dale Harris used the floral wallpaper from St Crispin for Treefinger's debut album Shoebox Archive. The floral motif was also used throughout the album booklet and promotional material.

Floral Pattern by Simon Cornwell
Photography by Martin Featherstone and Peter Morris
Artwork by Thomas Featherstone and Dale Harris

www.myspace.com/treefingersmk

One of my brooding shots of a corridor at Warley was used to illustrate a piece on the history of asylums in the UK.

After the destruction of Beedingwood House, I offered some quotes, background and pictures of the former house for the county newspaper. Little did I know that it would make the front page.

My first exhibition.

When launching their website, Testimony held a series of exhibitions up and down the country. The first was held in Epsom, famous for the "Epsom Cluster" of five asylums. My pictures of West Park were displayed; showing the state of the asylum today.

"With the exception of St Ebba’s, these hospitals are now all closed. Mental Health care went through a transition process towards Care in the Community services, reflecting the changing attitudes to the ways in which society provides care and support to people who experience mental health issues. Bourne Hall Museum holds an archive of documents, photographs and artefacts taken from St. Ebba’s on the closure of its psychiatric units. Testimony is working in partnership with the Museum to enable the participating artists to create new contemporary art works that responds to this archive material as well as to the Testimony archive."

Writing for the influential and serious Blueprint architectural magazine, Mark Chalmers offers one of the best researched and most thought provoking pieces about the urban exploration scene in the UK.

Blueprint Article

The British Library is a founding member of the UK Web Archiving Consortium consisting of The British Library, JISC (Joint Information Systems Committee), the National Archives, the National Library of Scotland, the National Library of Wales and the Wellcome Library. The Consortium is the national effort to archive selective representative websites from UK web space in advance of the introduction of legal deposit for digital materials. The Archive can be seen at www.webarchive.org.uk."

"The British Library would like to invite you to participate in this work by allowing us to archive your web site under the terms of the appended licence. We select sites to represent aspects of UK documentary heritage and as a result, they will remain available to researchers in the future. We aim to subsequently include the archived copy of your web site in our permanent collections."

"There are benefits to you as a web site owner in having your publication archived by the Consortium such as having a historical record of your web site. The Consortium aims to develop preservation mechanisms to keep your publication accessible as hardware and software changes over time."

urbex|uk has been selected by the British Library for inclusion in the Web Archiving Consortium. These means the site will be archived in a permanent collection and will be available for future researchers. The Web Archiving Consortium will take copies of the site from time-to-time to ensure that the additions I make in the future will be added to the archive.

One of the reasons some urban explorers give for their activities is to create a historical record by photographing buildings and places that are at risk and will otherwise be forgotten. By being archived in a national collection, urbex|uk has achieved that aim.