dirtyfilthy's experience @ Islington freezing works
Deep inside the belly of the beast
PLZ READ : parts of the meatworks are still in current use by other food industries. Location has 24/7 on-site security with regular patrols, difficulty rating should be considered at least EXPERIENCED .
Islington freezing works was built in 1890 by the Christchurch Meat Company Ltd. and then operated continuously for nearly one hundred years until it was finally closed down in 1988. Since then parts of the complex have been rented out for use by other companies, while the rest of the site lies empty, untenanted but very much maintained .
Mission #1
We made our way inside the complex, headed through an arch and then quickly found ourselves on the platform of a small railway station. Back in the day trains could pull right into the freezing works to be loaded up to the brim with delicious cuts of meat, heading via rail to port and then by container boat to the hungry shores of England.
There didn’t seem to be any people about, but the place definitely had an active feel. The building next door was fairly clean and hummed with life – fresh new white signage—and the smokeo chairs of absent workers were still arranged neatly near the train station. The whole place is pretty clean actually, a little bit of graffiti but mostly in mint condition. Wandered around the outside of the building, looking for an entrance and trying to keep out of sight. Many of the entrances to the building are secured with padlocks, and also some interior doors, but very many are not. Finding our way through a series of non-functional freezer units we came across a large room full with random pieces of equipment and rolls of scrap cabling. Unfortunately a dead end but we eventually got into part of the main complex via the second story. Another series of refrigeration units, but also a stairwell granting access to other levels. There are multiple stairwells in this building, and you need to use most of them to reach everywhere.
We spent about three hours exploring this one building. I can’t really remember what we saw in what order, so I’ll just relate some of the notable finds.
An enormous corporate library containing decades of payroll records, computer printouts, medical manuals on the “new science” of bacteriology, the results of random tests for contamination and disease, etc etc etc.
Ammonia alarms. Kinda scary that ammonia requires it’s own alarm but hey.
A huge showerblock plus locker room for the use of the freezing workers. The handbasins were all operated by foot pedals, presumably to prevent the spread of germs from too many hands on tap.
The stairwell exits were locked at the ground floor, so to get the bottom level we had to make our way down a shiny aluminium slide previously only used for cuts of beef. The corridor we came out in had two obvious exits, one back where we came from at the train station and the other one to another rail platform on the other side of the building. We milled about at this new train station for a bit then discovered some old wooden doors near knee level leading under the building. It was a crawl to get in but then we were on a staircase leading to an old-school walkable tunnel. The tunnel only ran about twenty metres before it opened out into the foundations of the meatworks. Looks almost like the whole site is jacked up on pillars, and you could see the brick remains of the original 1890 foundations underneath.
Made it back to the surface and were just about to leave when Tangy saw a security guard walk right past him. Fortunately he was looking the other way otherwise we definitely would have been caught for sure. We kept a low profile for a good five minutes, then made a hasty exit. It’s easy to get complacent. Become a bit arrogant and feel like you own the place. You most emphatically do not.
Mission #2
Realising we had only got to see a tiny fraction of the site on our last mission we decided we just had to go back. Once again, past the fence, through the train station and then into another part of the compound. This place is a total maze. Pretty much every building is connected to every other, they have made some effort to secure many routes but, honestly, it seems simply hopeless, an impossible task given the sheer number of doors and possible paths through the labyrinth. Often there is no direct route between any two points, you may have to backtrack, go up, around, then down a level to get to where you’re heading.
On this run we managed to cover a far greater area than last time, and even managed to almost get seen, again, despite being extra vigilant after last missions security guard scare. Not a patrol this time, some random worker. Luckily we saw him well before the reverse happened and he saw us. It really brought home to me the fact that Islington is a LIVE SITE and thus NOT TO BE FUCKED WITH .
Points of interest:
MASSIVE meat slide Two derelict cars parked on the third floor Crazy meathook rails just above head height. An entire flock of pigeons nesting in one part of the building
In two trips (spanning over seven hours in total) we probably only managed to see about 50% of the site, if that. Never got into any of the killing/gutting areas, so there’s still heaps of this place left for the ballsy explorer to discover.
Random Photo
Uploaded by rob
All the pics from both missions are up now.
looks fat as man will have to come for a mish once my gammy leg is better
You got a pretty sweet eye for composition, dude. Nice pics.
chur bo!
Spent a good hour wandering around this place during the night and couldn’t find a single door that wasn’t locked or padlocked shut. Where on earth did you guys find an unsecured door? Loads of vehicles around the place though half them seem to be abandoned.
keep looking dude, they’re definitely there and theres a number of em ;)
alot of people seem to use this place for keeping their truck/boat/old fire engine :) i’d be more inclined to view most of the vehicles as being in storage as opposed to abandoned – the place is really quite active during the day with people coming and going.