In the late 1800s, the present day area of West Earls Court was mainly a waste ground and sports ground. The first amateur boxing match was held here in 1867, under Queensbury rules. The 2nd FA Cup was held here as well, in 1873, and won by Wanderers for the second time. It was also home to athletic events, with a number of World Records being set, including Marshall Brooks splendid High Jump in 1876 of 6ft 2.5" (the current world record is over 8ft btw!).

In 1887, entrepreneur John Robinson Whitley saw the potential of having waste ground and the newly opened Earls Court and West Brompton rail stations, and built a showground here. The first show was 'The American Exhibition' involving Buffalo Bill Cody. The shows didn't make money, and by 1893 Imre Kiralfy stepped in with his popular Empire of India exhibitions, of which the Monarch of the times, Queen Victoria paid many visits.

The current Earls Court exhibition centre, now known as Earls Court One (EC1), was constructed in 1937. It was designed to be the largest structure in Europe by volume, at 40,000m2 and was designed by C.Howard Crane. Crane had built numerous movie theatres and halls in Detroit, until moving to the UK in the Great Depression when work dried up. The first exhibition to be held was the Earls Court Motor Show, followed by the Commercial Vehicle Show. Built into the floor, is a 60x30m pool, used for the annual boat show. A need to have more exhibition space, meant the construction of a second hall, imaginatively called Earls Court Two (EC2), this was completed in 1981 over the top of London Underground's Lille Bridge Engineering workshop and Depot.

The venue didn't just hold exhibitions, for 50 years it held the Royal Tournament, a display by the UK armed forces. Pretty much all of Britain's best bands played here, most famously Pink Floyd staged their 'The Wall' concert here in August 1980 and again in June 1981. I was lucky enough to see Pink Floyd here in October 1994, (sans Roger Waters) on the Division Bell Tour. The Rolling Stones, Queen, Elton John, David Bowie, Led Zeppelin, and erm, Celine Dion and the Spice Girls. David Gilmour of Pink Floyd played as a special guest of the last ever concert here. Bombay Bicycle Club played on 13th December 2014. The venue was also used for Award ceremonies, such as the Brit Awards and Crufts dog show.

In July 2013, Mayor of London Boris Johnson approved the redevelopment of the site by Capital & Counties Properties (CapCo). The loss of a large exhibition space in West London would lead to the loss of an annual £1billion of income and jobs. As is typical of modern London, the area is to have 8000 Luxury Flats built. Most of these will be unaffordable to those in London, instead bought by wealthy overseas interests and investment firms. Further contributing to the removal of the soul of London. At the time of writing, Fabric, one of the last well known nightclubs in London has closed. Most clubs were replaced with luxury apartments.

A shot from the road of the two exhibition halls. Scaffolding creeping up like ivy. At ground level under EC2, one can see one half on the left which is the car park, and the other half being sidings for Lille Bridge Depot. The car park is only half the length of the space under EC2, the rest are where trains are worked on in Lille Bridge Depot.

Entrance was fairly straight forward, mostly waiting for cars to disappear and checking for people in windows. I accessed EC2 from the car park below. Food and drink outlets line the hall.

With most of the contents of the food outlets removed, there was little hinderance to getting up to the apex of the roof. The drop below a little daunting.

The full moon lights up West London, with the slightly Orwellian Empress State building framing the right hand side.

Looking over to the EC1 building with it's tent like roof top.

Delivery doors to EC2, inside EC1. These would have been the backstage area if a concert was held.

The feeding zone in EC1

Up a level to the first floor, underneath the rafters.

On the first floor balcony, flags still hang from the ceiling.

Looking down onto the arena floor. Amazingly a pool is able to be created here. If a concert was held, the artists would be at the far end.

Art Deco features litter the 1930s building. Here an area off the first floor areas.

Stairs between floors.

Looking out a window, a view of Earls Court Tube Station, a major interchange in West London.

Climbing up to the first roof of EC1, demolition well under way here. The Empress building in the background.

Ascending further into the tent like roof of EC1 would involve going onto the structure of wires and walkways seen below. This was not easy with my healthy awkwardness around heights.

Climbing over and around various safety barriers, I got to the centre of the roof, and admired the huge drop below.

Safely back on terre firma, This would have been the backstage area if a concert were held. The band performing on a stage on the other side of the pillars.

The colourful art deco main entrance to EC1.

On entering the main entrance of EC1, a single escalator provides transport to the exhibition hall levels.

To the side of the main hall/arena, is this smaller hall.

I spotted it on first entering the site, but it looked like Lille Bridge Depot had a way in. Knowing that Depots are like Fort Knox, with all sorts of security devices rumoured to exist. I didn't fancy it in the dark. On returning as dawn was about to break, I could see that this was a siding for Lille Bridge Depot. The brick wall with a balcony jutting out on the left, is the end of the car park on this side. There then exists a passage way along the wall, lined with the palisade fence. Above the tracks the huge steel girders that support EC1 above.

I walked along the sidings, continually looking for security devices, but didn't see any. I crossed the palisade fence with razor wire on the left, and the narrow mesh fence with barbed wire. However I could hear workers in the lit up area on the right. So i didn't look for ways to circumvent the mesh fence on the right. Note the third rail on the tracks, these belong to London Overground, and not London Underground (which uses 4 rails). Behind the camera is West Brompton station, in front Olympia Station, the only large exhibition space left in West London.

I continued slowly along the siding, nervously looking on every surface for cameras or infrared trips. The trail lights on the right are from a train, service had started.

As I got to the top of the siding, I found the siding must be disused, as it was blocked off with mere heras fencing. Easily passing the heras, I crept amongst the concrete pillars. I never thought I'd be able to get into a depot. I spotted lots of cctv cluster towers ahead. You can just see one on the far right by the fence. So i decided not to go any further.

I managed to get out without problem, and wandered off down side streets. Looking back for what would be the last time to see EC2. I'd stood by the little shed like structure on the roof.

Since this explore, the exhibition centres have been flattened.