So a friend at work had been trying to get in to see paddock for some time. Before he mentioned it to me, I had never heard of it. Then I found out that it was a Sub Brit trip and there seems to be some kind of animosity between Sub Brit and other Urbexers… Sorry – not enough to stop me going along to have a look for myself.

So Mr K and I turned up this particularily blustery May morning and had to wait by the tube for Ms M’s mother and grandmother (Ms M would not be attending). We strolled off towards the bunker, through the park, stopping for coffee along the way and it was all very civil.

Mr K was lugging his camera – a beast in terms of filming equipment, but he hopes to make a short film of our day trip to be able to show the other people at work. I had my 350D tucked into my bag but hadn’t bought my tripod with us as this was to be a group tour.

We arrived at the bunker and were handed hard hats and wrist bands (which we are told not to lose on pain of many things). Some poor woman has decided that Crocs are appropriate exploring footware and is digging around for plastic bags to wrap her feet in.

When everyone is ready, we descend what feels like the standard issue millitary/governmet stair case for the time but a bit longer, and then we’re in.

We’re given the potted history of the place, right up to the houses being built over it, cracking the foundations and now requiring two pumps to keep the water at bay during our visit. We would come across these later and be a little concerned by the noises one in particular was making.

This was very much a tourist trip and the Sub Brit team did a great job of entertaining the crowds and our friends family members whilst Mr K and I tried to go about our respective projects. The bunker is huge and it was easy enough to hang back and try to take the odd interesting photo. I was kicking myself about not bringing the tripod.

We worked our way through both levels and past many a taped off door and then it was all very quickly over.

There are two days a year that Paddock is open to the public by Sub Brit but the future of the site is uncertain. Mr K and I on retreating to the pub on the way home have decided that it would be well worth making a return visit and seeing if we can get permission to make a bit more of a serious affair of the day.

For my first Sub Brit trip I can see no reason why they get such a bad PR job in the Urbex world. Ok – they are the slightly more mature members of our little society but they are passionate about what they do and present a gold mine of information and lets be honnest, they organise trips to places that we can’t just hop the fence into. Look them up!

Tig