London II - 20 Fenchurch Street TC

The next morning we got woken up by some cyclists shouting as they passed our car. Maybe we should have parked off the road, but it was too late now, 3 hours of recovery it was gonna be. Whilst packing the sleeping bags away and stretching our legs that had been crammed between seats and bags all night, we discussed possible destinations for the day.

As it turned out, Gillette factory was secured a lot better than we expected. Crawling on various lower roofs, dodging cameras and PIR's, we saw the potential access point too late. Two guards were roaming around, they clearly knew we were here. As we were only really interested in the tower and didn't fancy wasting any more time, we called it off and instead drove back into town to head underneath London's roads and follow the river fleet. 

I had seen many pictures from there before, junctions, chambers, gates, all of them making me jealous of London's sewer system when compared to the drains I had been to in Manchester. I don't know whether we took a wrong turn at some point down there, but after a good 2 hours of struggling to stay upright, trying not to slip and breathing in the most disgusting smell I have ever encountered, all we had seen was one overflow and miles of bricked pipe. 

Its at times like these, that you start questioning the exploring side of things and wish you had a tourist guide with you. With tweek wanting to get back to fresh air, fishbrain and myself convinced ourselves at every manhole that it was only gonna be another 5 minutes to the good bits. So on we went, only to realise 20 minutes later that we were wrong again. This got repeated a few times, until we finally popped up below someones recycling bin. Retracing our steps, we "wadered" through the busy roads of London back to the car. 

Our final destination was the tower crane on the 20 Fenchurch Street building site, at the time just short of 36 floors. 

To quote tweek: "The building with more up top" Now that slogan is just too inviting!

By fishbrain

 

The climb up was long and hard. Especially the first quarter had to be climbed fast, our adventure was lit by 4 gigantic lights. Once up though the view was amazing. My last successful crane climb dates a good year back, too long! No rooftop can beat the view and feeling you get from the top of cranes. A full 360° view of the city, and shear drops all around you....