A discussion with Gary and Patch lead to the discovery of even more fun to be had at the B@rbican centre. They and others had been running around the tunnels for a couple of weeks, and were planning to go back. And so it was that Gringo met up with myself, Patch and Gary at a pub near Chancery Lane. I also met GE048 again, and his brother. After a few beers and catch up chats, it was off to the centre. Patch lead the way through the easiest access ever. And before we knew it, the whole gang were wandering through the twisting turning cable overloaded tunnels. I didn't realise until later that the cable i'm holding is a high voltage cable, yikes!

Green and silver pipes twist off through the maze. Someone actually designed all this!

A long straight musty section below the lower apartment blocks of the estate. Every few metres or so was a chute from above.

Gringo and I separated off from the others, as they'd done it all before, and we liked the sense of discovery that comes without knowing the layout. At one point we popped up in the middle of the ornamental lake. Past explore Lauderdale tower sits in the middle of the picture.

Looking the other way, Heron MP Tower sits unfinished, and next to it Ropemaker. Something that becomes very obvious when wandering around this estate, is the complete lack of actual occupants. I get the impression that a lot of the properties lie empty, probably as investments.

Looking across the ornamental lake beneath the walkway above. Always good to see places from a different perspective.

After meeting up with the other group, we found a room full of plans for the centre, as well as some interesting pictures of the before during and after of the construction. Then we went our separate ways. It was then that I realised that I didn't have my keys. A nightmare scenario. Embarrassingly I couldn't find my way back the way Patch had shown. Admittedly I wasn't paying attention at the time, but even still... I got the impression a metal security curtain had closed off the access area. So with little other option I did some urban camping under a bush. Not what I had in mind. However as morning came, I still couldn't find the way in. Eventually I wandered around the centre looking for another access point, and luckily found it after a few wrong turns. I found my keys in a very small, wet, stinky tunnel that I'd crawled into hoping to get to a different area, but it ended in a dead end. My keys were literally a few metres from the far end. Typical. This explains the picture taken below and why I look more shattered than normal!

A week later, and I returned during a Saturday afternoon to explore further by myself. I was after trying to find a way to gain access to Shakespeare Tower, that had eluded everyone. I managed to find a way into a different set of tunnels and was now exploring new territory under the northern section of the estate. Listed are the various blocks I would walk under.

One bit used round reinforced tunnel sections in the tube style.

I sadly didn't find the elusive access I was after, and exited. I went back into the original tunnels we'd accessed, and found a way down into a lower section that also hadn't been explored. I found myself at the back of the Library areas. As well as staff locker areas. I eventually ended up in an area full of strange grey buzzing boxes and endless pipes running around the roof and walls. From there I entered another room which lead into a large open area deep below the centre. Here there were two huge zeppelin like tanks facing each other. I was becoming worried about getting nabbed down here, and decided to get the hell out.

As i exited, I felt there was still more to explore here, and found my way up above a lift shaft, and then onto a roof near Shakespeare tower. It had a great view with a different perspective to shots from the top of the towers.

Props to Patch and Gary for showing me in initially and to the others for the usual good company. This turned out to be quite the interesting place to explore, and kept on giving.