It’s been about a year since I last did a rooftop. I told myself I’d hit a few during the summer months while the weather was good and the breeze was warm. Well here we are in September and I didn’t even manage to attempt a single one, that was, until I was chatting with Nobby and Markymark one evening and we decided to do something about that! Plans were put together and we found ourselves trundling up to London, our exploring playground one September afternoon. We arrived in good time and found we had a few hours to kill so thought we’d have a try at a good old favourite of ours only to make a bit of a swift entry and exit. It wasn’t happening today! We had a quick breather, dusted ourselves off and immersed ourselves in the hustle and bustle of the city.
A short while later we found ourselves approaching our towering goal for the evening. Rising 20 floors above the city, skyscraper “B” is still under construction but externally nearing completion. At this stage finding a way inside is usually tricky but with a little inside info and some stealthy vertical agility, we found ourselves creeping right above the security cabin. Every step was delicately placed to avoid alerting the guard to our presence and giving our position away. We navigated ourselves to the top floor and were suddenly halted when we arrived there. Fresh wet footprints lay immediately before us on a wooden ramp, water still trickling down the ramp from their placement. These had been laid just moments before we arrived, our timing was lucky! We followed the prints to an elevator , the guard obviously comes up here to do security checks so we were on high alert. We made our way up another couple of levels on sub-floors and saw what we’d come to enjoy. The city of London at twilight. For such a bustling city, a rooftop is a surprisingly tranquil place. Above all the mayhem below, all we could hear was the breeze, the occasional loud car or motorbike and the Thames party boats blaring out hideous pop to it’s inebriated clientele. From up here, cars are like toys, people like ants and at night, you don’t really feel that uneasy sense of vertigo that you get during the daytime.
We set up our cameras and made good use of the time while the sun was setting, we were even treated to a firework display from somewhere along the bank of the thames. A short while later, friend and fellow explorer LiamCH came and joined us to enjoy the views, it was great to catch up and wander the streets for a while after our descent.
A week later and I hadn’t had enough of this rooftop so we went back for more. This time with two Rob’s. Entry wasn’t so easy this time, the guards were active and we had to wait patiently for our window of opportunity. Our moment arrived and we were in! We headed straight up the crane this time. I wasn’t satisfied with a couple of my shots from last week so retook them. There was a certain amount of low level cloud licking the top of The Shard which didn’t do us any favours but we made the most of it. I re-took the shots I wanted and then proceeded to scale the crane even higher than last time to get these last few shots.
