August 2010

After a tiring Saturday night of checking out various possible explores with PE, and also doing the Kingsway tram tunnels. I was keen to have an easy Sunday. After a routine trip to Tesco for a weekly shop, I was keen to check up on the status at Olympia. As I approached, I could see something was wrong. All the scaff along the front of the building was gone. "Cripes!" I thought to myself, however as I got closer, there was still a bit left. "Phew!" I thought. However, I realised I needed to work quickly. So dumped the shopping, hopped into a phone booth for a quick change into 'Explorerman' or tramp man more appropriately based on the dress code I was adhering to.

I parked suitably far enough away, and after a quick check on the dome cam situation, I scaled the scaff quickly to the top and out of site of joe public for now. The roof was a good as I thought, with lots of weird oddities to look into which make rooftopping enjoyable to me. The Grand Hall.

A 45 degree turn, and I was faced with the smaller of the exhibition hall roofs.

It was then a stroll past the great windows of the main hall. I was somewhat nervous as to my visibility to the rooms below the glass, but all was good.

I opted to go to the far side of the Grand Hall, as there were less chances to be seen by anyone working at the site. There were also two large cctv cameras overlooking the roofs that might have caught me on the nearest side. I got to the steps that go up over the glass roof and arch to the crest of the roof. The view was great from the top, as I'd imagined. Looking down the South facing ladder to the smaller hall.

A shuffle round, and a look out west to Hammersmith.

I then walked off down the roof to the Eastern end, and shot a fisheye of the Olympic train station below. You can see the bulge of Notting Hill, just to the left of centre. The faint Trellick Tower marking the Western base. I moved back a bit and lay in the sun, listening to the tunes coming from the Notting Hill Carnival, clearly audible here. I longed for a beer or crafty spliff.

A door entrance to the roof marked the perfect spot for a self portrait, with a Southerly perspective beyond. To the left of my head is the even bigger Earls Court Exhibition Halls.

Lovely ironwork detail on the Western end of the Grand Hall.

Looking down the Southern side of the Grand Hall, with huge air con pipes abounding. It wasn't until I looked along here, that I realised that the steps i'd climbed moved up and down a rail here.

And with that, I climbed down and headed home to try to chillax before the horrors of work the following day.

As with a lot of places in London, Olympia has been heavily reconstructed with lots of work going on in 2023, the results yet to be seen.