But both titles have a hint of cheekiness that I love.
It was the more recent explores of Camelot and Calcott Hall that involved fast talking, sneaking and avoidance of security that made me realise how much I miss my old rooftopping days. The stealth element doesn't usually have such a large role in your typical abandoned houses out in the countryside that I have been focusing on. However, when one is scaling buildings in a town with a thriving night life, being seen can cut an adventure short.
Since obtaining a decent camera I've been eager to revisit the rooftops, especially since so many of my older rooftop photos are from 2010 through to 2012, most of which you can find in the earlier posts of this blog. But in my photo collection there are no recent photos of Shrewsbury from the rooftops. So I decided to compile some of my recent rooftop activity on one blog post and link you back to the older posts as we go.
Let's start at the eyesore of Shrewsbury, Princess House. Home of the hub of human misery that is the Job Centre. Original article here!
And I have to say this: Wow! I've obviously gone to the page itself to get a URL for the link there, and I'm quite blown away by how far the picture quality has come since those days. These are proud times.
Remember, click a picture to see it big.
Princess House is a very tricky building to scale. (No, I'm not going to tell you how. Rest assured, it requires no excessive force or vandalism.) This place remains one of my favourite vantage points, with a tasty view of the square, and the bottom of Pride Hill where the spire of the rooftop maze and the flag tower can just be seen.
And here we have a lovely view of the Music Hall, and the Market Hall tower, with St Chads looming in the distance. This was the rooftop where I did my first ever panorama, showing St Marys, St Alkmunds and St Juliens church. (By the way, I'd love to be able to turn St Juliens into a link to a previous blog post too. The view from the top must be spectacular and I know some of my readers have been up there. So if anyone can slip in a good word and get me access I will love them forever.) But back to the panorama! It's not the most focused shot of all time but I love it. Click to see it big!
Curiously, the eagle statue that has been on top of Princess House for years was missing. It's either been removed by the staff of the building or by a rooftopping thief. It was there earlier this year though so it is a recent absence. It's sad to see the statue not there anymore.
Anyway, moving on, I mentioned a flag tower, didn't I? It's been one of the hardest rooftops to get to for five years now, and it seems that its accessibility is at an end. These are sad times, but not unpredictable and as such I was able to make the most of it in its final days. You can read the original article here.
The flag tower, up until 2012, still had the rope attached to it for a flag, although evidence suggests my rooftopping posse of old, nor Tree Surgeon my current explorer buddy, are not the only humans to have come up here. What evidence is that??? Well it's covered in signatures. And some of them are dated decades ago, while others are a lot more recent, although I'm sure some of the dates are bluffing.The ones that are genuinely decades old are a lot more faded.
Nice view of Pride Hill too, and of the market hall with the clocktower.
With rooftop access down a large chunk of Shoplatch, I also got a close up of the market hall as well as a view down Mardol.
While I don't know the origins of the bizarre street called Mardol, which you can see in the above photo stretching off into the distance, the street I'm currently on, Shoplatch, derives from Schutts Place, which was in reference to the Schutte Family, who lived in the building that eventually became the Hole in the Wall. Centuries ago the Schutte family were called the Schitte family, due to their profession of waste disposal. So technically you might say Shoplatch derives from Shit Place, but it is far from true of the actual place! This is perhaps my favourite rooftop spot in the whole town!
Meanwhile from the Hole in the Wall, the furthest point one can get down before coming to the impassable Draytons Passage, one can get this view of St Chads, and just see the Maplin roof sticking up there in the corner.
Moving on to the rooftops of Barker Street... where's that? It's the one that connects Claremont Road to Welsh Bridge. These are tricky rooftops to get to, but so worth it. The last time any photos were taken, Claremont Church was still under reconstruction, and you can see that article here.
This particular rooftop is a real adventure to get to. Unobvious means of access, and quite the tricky little workout. On my most recent visit here I almost gave up, due to being so out of shape since the days I climbed buildings on a more regular basis. But I persevered. And as such we have a lovely view of Rowleys Mansion, and the carpark next to it.
Beneath this car park, I have reason to believe there may be tunnels. It's actually a real area of interest.
Claremont Church itself is something of an eyesore on the exterior but inside it's now a real nice cafe though, and it's the one that holds the mental health meet up on the first weekend of every month that I mentioned on my last article. It sure is strange drinking nice coffee and meeting nice people in a building I once explored when it was derelict.
On this rooftop, which I admit I never noticed from ground level until I first made it up here around 2011, is this eagle statue.
Apparently this was the Eagle Star Building, and it was built in 1940, and finished in 1946, making it fairly young in architectural terms, especially in Shrewsbury! The building was made with a Neo-Tudor appearance so that it would fit in with the rest of the town... Something the architects of more modern buildings here totally failed to do. Before its construction, the location was used in the 1920s by WH Smiths, and before that in the 1900s by Boots. As of 1946 the building was used by Eagle Star Insurance, and while I don't know when it ceased being used by them, the Eagle Star Insurance Company itself was bought out by BAT industries in 1984. It is now owned by Zurich Financial Services, although they aren't doing anything with it. The building on the other hand is now an estate agents.
And that concludes todays post of some of my most recent rooftop shots of Shrewsbury! Finally, after so much time exploring rural Shropshire and gallivanting off to Lancashire, "Shrewsbury From Where You Are Not" lives up to the title.
Lastly, I've reinstalled the donate button at the top of the blog. Just so you know, I live in the town centre, and work for minimum wage. In the past my readers donations got me a camera which revolutionised the content of this blog, and now I want to give Shrewsbury From Where You Are Not another push. All donations to the blog will go entirely to the blog. A gorilla-pod is a fairly affordable item on the agenda. That's a teeny tripod with bendy legs that will be great for wrapping around scaffolding and other rooftop bits, since dragging an actual tripod up onto the rooftops is very tricky, and I sort of borrowed it from a friend years ago who probably wants it back by now. Also on the agenda are printing costs since a few people have asked about having large print outs of my pictures, but in the long term I'm also thinking of getting a Go Pro so that I can show you guys the rooftops from my perspective, and my aspirations and goals go way beyond that. I want to travel the world. I want to blog about the abandoned places I see so much of online but have yet to visit.
If you can spare money for the blog fund, I'll really appreciate it. Although I respect it if you can't. It's a lot to ask. But it worked for the camera, and if one doesn't try then ones chances of success will always be zero.
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Thanks for reading. Stay Awesome!
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