Archives

Concrete and heart in the Chicago of the North.

A eulogy for one of my favourite works of architecture.

Exploring a hidden folly in rural Wiltshire.

An abandoned railway depot at Fetești-Gară, Romania.

A meditation on storm drains and nostalgia.

The story of the three “Chernobyl divers.”

Mountains and plains, red earth and clouds.

This derelict transport depot is now home to almost a thousand abandoned buses.

Exploring the connection between Winnipeg, Chernobyl, and a 1970s Soviet sci-fi novel.

A project to document the monuments that remain in the evacuated regions of Ukraine and Belarus.

Post-Soviet urban identity in flux.

Inside the abandoned underground radar base at RAF Wartling.

“The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there.”

Industrial decay in the City of a Hundred Spires.

This sleepy Baltic town produced more than 100,000 tonnes of uranium for the Soviets.

Meet Petro: the lone revolutionary still squatting the home of President Yanukovych six years later.

Cold War relics.

A tour of Yugoslavia's top-secret 'Object 505.'

"Beyond these gates the land groans."

An ancient citadel lies abandoned in the mountainous heart of Iran.

When Bulgarian architects high on Le Corbusier run out of money halfway through building utopia.

Monuments, tanks and ghost towns.

Three nights in Canada's most haunted hotel room.

Sun, sea & Soviet architecture in the unrecognised Republic of Abkhazia.

The Caribbean Pripyat.

Gas masks, glitter and ghosts.

Propaganda, genocide, and the politics of memory.

Laguna Vere in Tbilisi, Georgia, was once the premier aquatic sports centre in the Caucasus.

A meditation on Brutalism, the occult & J. G. Ballard.

The Modernist towers, high-rises and extraordinary Brutalist blocks of 'New Belgrade.'

The abandoned former home of Ante Pavelić – the man they called the ‘Butcher of the Balkans.’

A weekend in the bizarre new Burmese capital.

An introduction to the totalitarian architecture of Tirana, Albania.

Fact and fantasy collide at the Penang War Museum in Malaysia.

Getting lost in the Soviet architecture of a Belarusian Winter Wonderland.

The abandoned Yugoslav monument where toads go to die.

One afternoon, five abandoned Yugoslav-era hotels.

Exploring the tunnels, drains, lost places & underground rivers of the Ukrainian capital.

Sun gods, mystery cults, ancient initiations... this bizarre festival is older than you might think.

Hammer, sickle, square and compass.

Digital psychogeography & the gamification of dark tourism.

Drinking beer with the victims of ISIS at an autonomous commune in Ljubljana.

The risks and rewards of trespass in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

A month-long monument hunt, and what I learned along the way.

Meeting the survivors of the longest siege in modern military history.

A visit to the abandoned Nikšić House of Revolution.

The abandoned island that Dubrovnik wants to forget.

Concrete and daiquiris on a tour of Havana's big, bold, brutalist beauties.

A glimpse at the ridiculously photogenic revolution happening in Macedonia right this minute.

Contemplating 'disaster tourism' inside Reactors 5 & 6 of the Chernobyl Power Plant.

The unofficial tour of a London icon.

Myth and misadventure on a hiking trip to Burabay National Park.

Now left abandoned for 15 years, this secret city once guarded a key Soviet radar facility.

Visiting battlefields, monuments & political flashpoints, 15 years after the end of the Kosovo War.

Alligators and urban exploration on my first trip to the US of A.

Exploring the abandoned prison where a Romanian dictator once languished in solitary confinement.

Exploring the story of Cuba... as told by its battlefields, monuments & museums.

Visiting Buddhist monasteries in the remote grasslands of the Tibetan Amdo region.

An allegorical journey through the mountains and mine shafts of North Wales.

The physical legacy of the Czechoslovak Communist Party.

A unique pilgrimage site, which survived centuries of oppression under Imperial and Soviet rule.

Peeling back the layers of history at an abandoned Soviet military school in Latvia.

Underground tourism amongst the ruins of the Byzantine capital.

The ultimate conspiracy theory tour – starring Boadicea, Jack the Ripper and Pharaoh Ramesses II.

An illustrated guide to urban exploration in the Russian capital.

Why the Dominican Republic, Singapore and the Bahamas are my least favourite places in the world.

A tour through the remnants of the former largest fighter base in Europe.

Rust, grime and a few surprises inside a 19th century Serbian sugar mill.

Poltergeists, ritual murder & a live-in succubus – the 1000-year-old pub with a ghostly reputation

Deep beneath a Crimean mountain lurks a derelict nuclear facility that died with the Cold War.

Because no one throws a street party like the Communist Party.

I went looking for Haitian vodou… but amongst the rituals and refugees of the Grand Cemetery, I fo

A tale of ropes, waders and security run-ins, on one wild night in the Northern Capital.

From the former ghetto to an abandoned synagogue at the heart of Europe’s largest Jewish cemetery.

What Turkish cemeteries tell us about Florence Nightingale, Freemasonry and the Ottoman Caliphate.

A detailed look at six religious ruins, scattered across Romania, Bulgaria, Kosovo and the UK.

The thousand-ton folly of a Latvian eccentric, who claimed to know the secrets of the pyramids.

Cosplay and metaphysics, on a visit to Hong Kong's most ironic urban ruin.

After a reported crocodile sighting in Bristol, I ventured down into the sewers for a closer look.

Arriving in Cuba alone, with no money and no plan, was more fun than you might expect.

A 15th century Czech chapel decorated with more than 40,000 human skeletons.

Ghost towns, radiation & the ethics of ruin lust.

The last tattered remnants of the Cuban nuclear program.

A beautifully preserved Victorian ice well, hidden for more than a century beneath central London.

It doesn't get any more off-the-grid than urban exploration in a country that doesn't exist.

London as you’ve never seen it before: exploring the hidden infrastructure of the British capital.

Take a tour through a once-secret, Soviet nuclear submarine base – at Balaklava, on the Crimean Pe

Discover the gruesome history of the abandoned Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, Australia.

The abandoned sports hall in Bulgaria that's rumoured to be an unused Olympic venue.

A trip to London's Royal Docks, to explore a decayed skeleton of the industrial revolution: Millenni

A tour of China's "Ghost City": urban exploration in Ordos, the largest ghost town on the planet.

Take a tour of China's "Ghost City": Ordos in Inner Mongolia.

Nothing but a dirty old rust bucket of Romanian train-wreck porn.

The 'Maze Drain': one of Melbourne's largest underground waterways & home to hordes of venomous spid

A winter visit to a scrapyard, transformed into beautiful & bizarre shapes by the drifting snow.

Exploring the Godstone Main Series Mine: a firestone quarry beneath Surrey, England.

A cheeky little tale of urban exploration around the abandoned apartments of Causeway Bay.

Exploring the history & symbology of the Ilinden Spomenik in Krusevo, Macedonia.

A visit to the Confucius Temple and the Cemetery of the Greatest Sage in Qufu, China.

A tour of an abandoned Soviet Circus: forgotten rings & headless clowns in the former USSR.

Rooftopping in Pristina, during the 2013 Kosovo Elections.

An inside look at the 2013 Kosovo Elections - and why you should choose Pristina as your next holida

Exploring the world’s largest network of underground tunnels.

An attempt to recreate the famous mystery novel goes wrong – leaving us at the mercy of the kangar

How I ended up getting stoned with an officer from the DPRK’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

Last remnants of the USSR: the unrecognised Soviet Socialist Republic of Transnistria.

A museum tour of Silahtarağa Power Station, Turkey's first coal-burning electric power plant.

A visit to the Marc Bolan Rock Shrine in London, dedicated to the deceased frontman of T. Rex.

A visit to Qingdao International Beer Festival, complete with gunfights, edible insects, and… beer

London’s Brompton Cemetery is the 6th of the ‘Magnificent Seven’, a series of Victorian burial

A behind-the-scenes account of the 2013 Korean Crisis, and the North Korean perspective on current t

A visit to London Below, and the subterranean waterways of the Lost River Effra.

The Auschwitz Concentration Camp & Auschwitz II-Birkenau Extermination Camp, at Oświęcim, Poland.

Braving the spiders, sweat and pigeon shit to explore the infrastructure of a historic Australian br

Exploring unfinished communist-era train tunnels beneath the hills of Bulgaria.

Take a guided tour into the bowels of Buddhist Hell, at the Wang Saen Suk Hell Garden in Thailand.

Cape Kaliakra is a beautiful peninsula near Balchik, Bulgaria, which hides a bloody history.

The Yorkshire Brewery is a crumbling Victorian tower, once the tallest building in Melbourne, Austra

Located in Qingdao, China, the restaurant ‘Sichuan Outside Sichuan’ serves Szechuan Cuisine fit

Searching for a network of German military tunnels, hidden beneath Zhongshan Park in Qingdao, China.

Australia’s Old Melbourne Gaol is notorious for its death masks, gallows & connection with outlaw

North Korea’s Pyongyang Metro is the world’s most secretive subway. This report visits 5 metro s

China's Wonderland - an abandoned Disney-style amusement park near Beijing.

The Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) is the world’s most militarized border. This is a tour from No

Climbing to the roof of a 60-storey hotel, for a better view of the spectacular Hong Kong skyline.

The ANZAC Drain in Melbourne, Australia, is home to ‘The Chamber’ - meeting place of the Cave Cl

Investigating supernatural goings-on at the abandoned Larundel Mental Asylum in Melbourne, Australia

The abandoned Sava Ganchev factory: artistic graffiti & a dungeon full of gas masks.

The Temples of Ayutthaya, Thailand, tell the fascinating history of ancient Siam and its mysterious

Beneath the streets of Beijing, China, lies an underground city designed to house 6,000,000 people.

The Leordeni 10 Fort is one of the 18 abandoned Fortifications of Bucharest, Romania.

Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, is a futuristic city of symbols - with rumoured links to Freemasonry,

Abandoned train station in the Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria. Ticket halls, tracks & rusted cranes.

Kaesong is the ancient capital of the Koryo Dynasty, and one of North Korea’s most popular cultura

Forgotten German military tunnels under Mount Fu just outside Qingdao, China.

A visit to Romania’s Bran Castle - aka ‘Dracula’s Castle’ - and a look at the real ‘Vlad t

Urban exploration in Bangkok’s 50-storey, abandoned ‘ghost tower’.

A visit to a Soviet Young Pioneer children’s camp lying forgotten in a forest near Moscow.

A lazy Sunday morning on the rooftops of a Bulgarian shopping centre.

Planned as the world’s tallest hotel, the unfinished Ryugyong towers over Pyongyang, North Korea.

A visit to Thailand’s Bridge on the River Kwai & JEATH War Museum - riding the Thai-Burma Death Ra

Chasing Cold War ghosts in a forest near Moscow, Russia. Abandoned satellite arrays & radar dishes.

This vast complex was once designed to be the largest hospital & burns centre in Kiev, Ukraine.

A Cold War bunker beneath the Park-Monument of the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship in Varna, Bulgaria.

A doomed descent into the cave known as St Vincent’s Well – Bristol, UK.

Systo Palty is an annual trance & world music festival held near Saint Petersburg.

A guided tour of Pyongyang, the capital of North Korea. Old-fashioned hospitality in the communist D

Beneath Kiev, Ukraine, there lies a complex network of Soviet storm drains, tunnels & mines.

Climbing up the abandoned tower of an unfinished skyscraper in Kiev, Ukraine.

In the Balkan Mountains of Bulgaria, this socialist school lies abandoned & haunted by the past.

This abandoned Soviet Glass Factory in the mountains of Bulgaria is a monument to failed industry.

The burned-out ruins of a once grand town house in Bulgaria.

A snowy 2012 visit to the Buzludzha Memorial House in Bulgaria.

In a remote corner of the Balkan Mountains, there stands a forgotten village with no name. At an alt

Winter-time infiltration of the closed-down bars & restaurants along Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast.

The Monument to the Bulgarian-Soviet Friendship, sometimes simply referred to as the Russian Monumen

This abandoned restaurant hangs from the cliffs above Bulgaria's Black Sea coast.

Pobiti Kamani is a unique geological phenomenon which has perhaps no parallel to be found anywhere i

On Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, there lies a popular resort town known as Golden Sands. This modern

Exploring the derelict remains of a creamery and bottling plant in Southwest England.

High up in the Bulgarian Balkans, this abandoned orphanage dates back to the communist era.

Urban Exploration: an abandoned mental hospital & asylum in Southwest England.