![]() Urban explorers are often the first to acknowledge the danger of their chosen practice and one such explorer Richard Shepherd told the BBC that he never explored alone. His skeleton was discovered 11 years later. However The Scotsman reports that urban exploration was taking place as far back as 1793 when Philibert Aspairt, a hospital porter, is believed to have "got lost in the limestone quarries beneath Paris supposedly while searching for some ancient bottles of chartreuse". It is generally accepted that the term 'urban exploration' was coined in 1996 by Canadian explorer Jeff Chapman. Photography plays a large role in the popularity of the hobby but historical documentation has also become a factor as urban landscapes change ever more quickly over time. Urban exploration or Urbex, as it has become known, is the exploration of man-made structures often abandoned or hidden from the general public. However, the author Will Self has defended urban exploration, writing in the Evening Standard: "I personally believe place-hackers are performing a valuable service by reminding us that the city should, in principle, belong to its citizens, and should mostly – if not entirely – be accessible to them." What is Urban exploration? ![]() Though he was eventually spared a jail sentence, Garrett's arrest highlighted the continuing battle between urban explorers and the state over the validity and legality of their chosen hobby.Ĭritics describe the practice as "naive, fetishistic, self-heroising and, well, criminal", reports The Guardian. ![]() Last year the UK's most famous urban explorer Dr Bradley Garrett – who found fame after scaling the Shard during its construction in 2012 - went on trial for conspiring to commit criminal damage following a number of visits to disused London Underground tube stations as part of his research for a PhD in geography at Oxford University. As austerity has taken hold in the UK, urban decay has become more prominent, with abandoned factories, amusement parks and other man-made structures increasingly common across the country.Īt the same time a desire to explore and document the history of urban areas has led to a rise in the popularity of 'urban exploration' and 'place hacking'.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |