The view from Starbucks, Shrewsbury

I think this particular building in Shrewsbury is called Princess House, and it's a pretty ugly building, sat right in the middle of town next to the square. Its style is not at all like the retro architecture that Shrewsbury is known for.
But as well as Starbucks, Princess House also contains the job center so it's pretty fitting that the building should be hideous, and it can be seen hideously sticking up next to the square from some parts of the Rat Run and from the rooftop maze. But the view is quite awesome. The rooftop itself inaccessible via conventional means, requiring a real stretch of the imagination, and therefore to get up there at night time means to be undesturbed. And it's a great place to chill out when the weather is great. When the weather is foggy, the lights of Shrewsbury look amazing.

 Note- The group I explore with have a strict policy of leaving everything as it was, not vandalizing or stealing, and not exploring or violating any residential properties, nor do we force entry, merely utilize existing openings. Any entry on the blog that does detail a means of access does so under the assumption that the means of access can no longer be reached. Never would we reveal an existing opening over the internet, for fear of negative consequences against the property or people.

In the above photo is the Shrewsbury clocktower, a famous Shrewsbury landmark and a feature in many of my pictures. Meanwhile, the building covered in scaffolding is the Music Hall, and as we sat here looking at it, we couldn't help but wonder if it would be possible to gain entry... but that was an adventure for another day...

Daytime photos from the roof of Princess House-

 

Halifax- the symmetrical building is a clever illusion.

Grope lane, one of Shrewsbury's most famous alleyways, and hangout of prostitutes back in the day.

Curiously, there is a rumour of a cold war bomb shelter that was constructed under the square and accessible via the music hall. Everyone dismisses the rumour, saying that the Square's old architecture was undisturbed so how would something be constructed beneath it. Well I must make the observation, that from above, the old stone floor of the square appears to have been at least partially replaced at some point in history. Was this to excavate a small bunker leading to the music hall? My personal opinion is that this is chinese whispers, as there was a cold war bunker in the nearby Music Hall. 

I don't know the history of the statue, but he has Clive written on the base.

This ancient building in the square was once a courthouse, and if one looks closely at the gargoyles from ground level, one can see that they wear little judge wigs. What a lot of people don't realize is that the little squiggly line on the floor next to the building is actually a map, depicting the river servern looping around the town.

The bird statue is a mystery. Why is it there? To scare away other birds, probably. But it sits on the rooftop where nobody gets to see it. I once contemplated lifting the statue and placing it on the edge, so that people down below, should they look up, they could see the bird statue and appreciate yet another of Shrewsbury's small things. However when I lifted the statue, I realized that should it fall off the edge it could damage something or someone with its weight. I'd hate for that to happen.

And yet the bird statue does move on occasion around the roof when I am not there so someone obviously cares enough to move its location.

The View From Barclays

Barclays at the top of Castle Street, Shrewsbury was visible from the Rat Run, and from the roof of Burger King. It is the highest point in Shrewsbury that's accessible via ladder up the exterior. Of course, the clock tower and the churches beat it in terms of height but at the time everyone was talking about how back in the day people got stoned on the roof of Barclays.

As a result, a big metal gate and some cuddly razor wire was put in place to stop this from happening, but I figured that if once past the gate, the route was easy enough for a bunch of idiot teenagers, then it would be easy for me and my group, assuming we could get past the big metal gate and razor wire.

And let's face it, this is us I'm talking about. Of course we got round it!

 Note- The group I explore with have a strict policy of leaving everything as it was, not vandalizing or stealing, and not exploring or violating any residential properties, nor do we force entry, merely utilize existing openings.Any entry on the blog that does detail a means of access does so under the assumption that the means of access can no longer be reached. Never would we reveal an existing opening over the internet, for fear of negative consequences against the property and people.

The View- Click a picture to see it big.

 

Of course there's more... not real rooftop expansion to speak of, but a delicious mystery that was uncovered.
A doorway was discovered during the means of bypassing the big metal gate and razor wire.
The doorway was open and led to some fun looking stairs that led down into the ground in the direction of Castle Street. The resulting tunnel may even have led under Castle Street. We don't know. Either way it was open and led out for some time before getting blocked by a doorway only openable from the inside- no handle or lock were visible on the side we were on.

Now, Shrewsbury does have its myths about underground tunnels from years ago and rumour has it the Rat Run tunnels that go underground do connect to some of these, but we are currently without definitive proof. But if this tunnel leads out over under Castle Street, it just might connect to the Rat Run. But that's not the most intriguing part of this mystery.
The real mystery is in this crest that hung above the staircase-

The style doesn't match the brickwork, and the words "Established 1896" can be made out on the top,  But it's not a crest I recognise. The fact it looks like it was ripped off one wall and hung here where nobody but explorers will see it is also a mystery and one I'm open to information on if anyone wants to leave a comment.

Edit 09/07/15- One reader has suggested that this could refer to the Marshals Temperance Hotel that was established around this time by Caroline Marshal, This is the building now commonly known as the Lucroft Hotel, and is considerably further down the road than this crest. However, since it doesn't match the brickwork, and Shrewsbury seems positively riddled with secret underground entrances to hotels and pubs from religious establishments and this crest is close to St Mary's Church, which did have underground tunnels going under what is now the Yorkshire House (All collapsed and blocked off now), maybe this has something to do with that.

More pictures of the tunnel-

Truly mysterious.

Shrewsbury: The Rat Run

 Note- The group I explore with have a strict policy of leaving everything as it was, not vandalizing or stealing, and not exploring or violating any residential properties, nor do we force entry, merely utilize existing openings. Any entry on the blog that does detail a means of access does so under the assumption that the means of access can no longer be reached. Never would we reveal an existing opening over the internet, for fear of negative consequences against the property or person.

The Rat Run is nicknamed as such because of its vast expanse of explorable area that is reminiscent of a lab rat scurrying around a maze. The route covers the rooftops of Pride Hill, which are largely made up of the Darwin Shopping Center and the Pride Hill Shopping center. As such, where shopping centers are concerned, there are miles of tunnels behind the existing shops, loading bays, and underground tunnels. It has yet to be fully explored but it still makes for an epic adventure, given the struggle to get up there.
However, also a prevailing feature of shopping centers is security. There are CCTV cameras on the roof and the security are surprisingly fast getting up there. As such it is important to repeat that we do not steal, force entry, vandalize or compromise the means of access to those who cannot be trusted. Nor do we do this sort of thing with residential areas. We do it purely for the fun of exploring. Click on a picture to see it big.

Let's look at the Rat Run...

I just want to say it takes some real skill to get up here, not just physical but also mental. It's surprisingly easy to accept that you can't do something even when your body is fully capable of it, just because you're not allowed to. And yet straight away we have the means for an epic view and loads of climbing potential. We can see into areas of Shrewsbury previously hidden. The views are amazing, and the exercise is lovely. Anyone who can get up to the Rat Run feels a sense of having earned the right to be there. Here's a view of a garden, only visible from the Rat Run.

 Moving towards the road, it is possible to get a view of Castle Street, from the roof of the Chinese Express. From here, one can see as far as Barclays or down to the castle in the opposite direction. The Rat Run actually leads in the direction of Barclays, but due to security cameras, to progress, walking along the street view side is actually pretty risky. It's better to step away from the street and explore the maze of ladders and stairways.

 

And a quick stealthy scamper past security cameras awards us a lovely view of the bus station,

Also up here, we can see into the actual shopping center, looking down at the escalators.

And the rooftop isn't level so ladders also award some pretty good views.

Seventy Steps is the name of an alleyway in Shrewsbury that connects Pride Hill to the road near the bus station. When the shopping centers were built back in the 1980s, the alleyway was almost completely wrapped up and turned into a tunnel. Sadly the construction has kind of ruined the gimmick, as the alleyway literally was seventy steps but was then extended, and is now over a hundred steps long! And yet the name "Seventy Steps" remains. The alleyway did face possible closure in 2008 due to hobos and drug users, until Shropshire Council realized that all the needed to do was arrest people, add cameras and lock the gate at night. From the Rat Run, one can view the portion of Seventy Steps that is still above ground before it becomes submerged by the shopping center.

And perhaps the most daunting part of the Rat Run comes shortly after. The security cameras are out of the way by this point and assuming we get this far without being seen, we are now safely at the end of the Darwin Shopping Center. There's a nice street view (photo taken when Burger King was becoming Waitrose and Burton was becoming Cotswold.) In the photo below, the entrance to the Darwin Center can be seen and to the right, a ledge. It's pretty daunting but one must crawl along that ledge in order to advance further. At the end one can drop down onto the roof of the shop. From the ledge one can look up to Barclays (hidden in the second photograph behind a tree). So that should give a good idea of the distance already covered via rooftop. There's a small chillout spot on the roof of Carphone Warehouse with a view of Vodafone and the Dental Clinic. Nobody looks up so it's quite safe.

From here one has a choice- they can abandon the Rat Run completely via a staircase that leads to a doorway that opens on Seventy Steps (but once closed can only be opened from within) or they can drop down to a lower roof and continue on with the Rat Run. But doing so is pretty risky- beyond this carpark is the police station. So we're literally above the law but it can see us if it cares to look. Once past the car park, one is officially onto the Pride Hill Shopping center.

From here one can see that spiral staircase that one might have taken had they chosen to abandon the Rat Run. Back in the day this was apparently the way up until security put up that big door at the bottom. Simpler times, but certainly worse for the casual explorer. When everyone can get somewhere, things get trashed an vandalized. The challenge is welcome in this case.

Once on the Pride Hill Shopping center, one can once more see down through the window into the actual shop. Now this photo is pretty bad, but the lit up object in the middle of two escalators is a glass-walled elevator.

And by following the route around, one comes across shops such as Boots and places like McDonalds. The latter actually provides a nice little spot to just sit and chill- Nobody can get to you from this chillout spot assuming you're good at climbing up smooth, diagonal surfaces. And since people do not look up, it makes for a good place to just sit and watch everyone.

There are perhaps many areas of advancement beyond this- loads of ladders lead to doorways that lead down into the Pride Hill shopping center. The presence of the Razor Wire sign still tickled us though, as it was only readable from the other side of the Razor Wire. Nobody would want to climb back over because if one can read the sign, one can also see that there's nothing over the Razor Wire.

At the end of the Pride Hill rooftops, one is greeted with a pretty good view of the bottom of Pride Hill looking up, and then also down High Street, which joins Pride Hill from the Square. As such it is possible to see the tower from the Rooftop Maze, and the Flag Tower, as they stand on each corner of the High Street.

This alleyway can be jumped over to get onto the roof of Cafe Nero but Cafe Nero's roof tiles are so fragile it's like jumping onto a roof made of paper. If you ever get here, don't do it.

Rumours exist of a radiation testing lab on the roof of the Rat Run, but upon inspection this turned out to be a staffroom and photo development site for Boots. Don't trust Shrewsbury rumours.

But beyond rooftopping, what else is there? Well there is a door somewhere on the roof of the Rat Run (Not saying which one) that is kept open. Assuming you can get past security, there is a whole maze of explorable tunnels. While a lot of these are generic shopping center tunnels connecting the shops to their store rooms and with lifts to the loading bay, there are some interesting features, such as a discarded crèche underneath Pride Hill. This reception desk is curiously at the very far end of the crèche, away from any public means of access, which means that people must have either come all the way through the shopping center, down some stairs, through the crèche, just to check in at reception, or there was once another means of entry. The walls are painted, and some signatures do list the names of the artists, and signs such as The Wall Street Creche, and "Pooh Corner" on a door next to a picture of Winnie the Pooh that leads to child-sized toilets, are all displays of some sense of humour that went into making this place, but the area itself is long since forgotten.

The fire exit led onto Seventy Steps, but given the number of cameras out there we made sure not to make us of this unless we were going to depart the Rat Run swiftly. There is also the remains of a sink down here but that too is long gone.

Further tunnels are rather generic to look at. They go on for miles, twist and turn and are very maze-like. A tunnel connects Pride Hill and Darwin Shopping centers underground and rumour has it that there's another underground tunnel that connects to some of the old Shrewsbury evacuation tunnels of centuries ago. We have yet to find that. We simply scurried like rats and mapped out what we could, but given the levels of security this isn't easy. There is some fun graffiti in some places though.

There are many aspects that still tickle the imagination. Are there other long abandoned areas like the Creche? Do these tunnels really connect to the ancient tunnels of Shrewsbury myth? And what's behind the padlocked door marked No Admittance that's so secretive they need to tape cardboard to the windows?

Furthermore, why do all the lifts skip Floor 2, when there are ladders and stairs that lead to locked doors on Floor 2? What's on Floor 2???

One thing I did like that I'll leave you with is additional rooftop views that can only be obtained from within the Rat Run, but not from the generic rooftop scramble. Sure the rooftops are great for a views but by going down and re-emerging in other areas, there are even more views, and doubtlessly more left to be seen.