Well recently all that came to an end.
Before I show you my latest photos, understand that I do not vandalize, I do not steal, I do not climb on your houses and I do not force entry.
In this instance, I exploited an opening to get a view of the town that I love. You see, there is an alleyway on Clairemont Street, and that alleyway is very frequently locked, much like the means of access to the Ask Rooftop Maze.
Except one day it was left open.
Exploring the alleyway, I came across a folded up stairway, no doubt capable of being lowered to the floor in the event of a fire. There's one in the Ask Rooftop Maze alleyway too, which usually comes down under my weight when I reach up and grab it. On this particular stairway, that approach did not work. It was fixed quite firmly in place. I was left with no other choice. To proceed upwards, I had to pull myself up onto the stairway, by squeezing my body between the individual steps. It was quite the squeeze and as it had been a while it took more than one attempt as I was horrifically out of practice.
Once at the top of the stairs, a simple ladder took me the rest of the way, and the view made it all worth while. Click a picture to see it big.
Aside from street view, there is much to see behind the scenes of this part of Shrewsbury...
This is the back yard of the Town Friar, messy but with so much potential, and also possibly concealing an old alleyway, judging by those parallel walls in such an enclosed space. I decided to find the answer with a map of Shrewsbury my fellow explorer got me, which depicts Shrewsbury as it was in 1880. What I found was interesting. These diagonal parallel walls existed as they do now, behind a building, and led from the back of the building, turned 90 degrees and led onto the adjacent road, Mardol.
There were a further six alleyways on Clairemont Street, including the one I used, which is the only one that remains. Interestingly two of these ran alongside Argos, and the area around Clairemont Church was a burial ground, now paved over. And on the corner, across from Soy, was the now demolished Mermaid Inn.
But I digress... Behind Clairemont Street is a whole little network of pathways and rooftops.
Above is the wall that would take me onto the roof of Argos. It would have been possible to drop down from Argos but not get back up, and as we didn't know of an alternative way down if we couldn't get back up to Argos, we never took the drop.
I'll close on this relaxing picture. A lone chair and table outside a building, a milk bottle by the side. It looks somewhat relaxing, a nice chilled area in Shrewsbury. Whoever sits there can do so knowing that they are virtually impossible to reach by conventional standards.
It must be quite a sweet chillout spot.
