For the Love of Cranes
It’s become easy to look back at exploring over the years with rose-tinted glasses. Whether that’s reminiscing over epic long lost sites such as Pyestock, goons ruining favourite locations, or the more general sense of it’s just not the same anymore. In many cases, it’s nowhere near as easy either. For me, both these things are most acutely felt when I go to Manchester city centre. My first few years in the exploring scene from 2012-2016 were spent either underground or high above it, with very little in between. Our nights, sometimes several per week were spent prowling the city, looking for holes, glitches in the system that we could take advantage of.
Most nights in Manchester (two or three a week sometimes when I worked in the city) were spent trying to get on roofs. Going for the hotels early doors or tailgating residents into their fancy apartment blocks. Then later on after dark, or sometimes just when there was no luck with any roofs, onto a crane.
Here follows a somewhat personal look back on this particularly enjoyable few years of my time spent urban exploring. The photos are not many or great, so I’ve included some friend’s photos too. Sometimes I didn’t have a camera, it was always more about the experience of being up there, surveying the city on high, having a laugh with your mates and loving the moment. Here’s a handful of the most memorable climbs…
One St Peter’s Square, September 2013
The night had started well, I met up with agour, anon, Skudge and jbl.bass (Rest In Peace) and went down Victoria Arches, drank whiskey in the Mitre hotel, then climbed some scaffolding up to the roof of Sevendale House. It was getting late, and someone suggested the new building site at St Peter’s square. Some might remember the Dutch Pancake House that used to be here before the old 1970’s block it was housed in was flattened in 2012, to make way for the new One St Peter’s Square building. Someone said something along the lines of “Fuck the building, we should climb the crane”, so off we went. I was nervous. I loved heights but had never climbed a crane and knew it would be challenging.
The first issue was getting on to the damn thing, the gap between the concrete floor and the crane seemed impossibly wide for my short legs and I was soon left behind. Once I found the courage to throw myself over the gap, I made short work of the ladders and soon passed Skudge catching his breath. This isn’t so bad, it’s pretty easy I thought to myself too soon. The crane then popped out above the top floor of the building and everything changed. I looked down, my head wobbled, I suddenly felt very exposed and had to summon a lot of willpower to carry on and focus on nothing but the ladder in front of me. Once at the top 90 metres up, my arms and legs had turned to jelly and all I could do was sit down and acclimatise to the weird, heady feeling of exposure, fear and excitement. After rolling a cigarette I found the courage to stand up, Jake held my hand and we walked over to the counterweight. My photo is terrible, I had a crappy bridge camera and no tripod, so I’ve included agour’s much better shot here.
A poor effort on my old bridge camera
Agour’s much better shot
Holiday Inn Express, September 2013
No sooner had I climbed the first crane I was thinking about the next one. In 2013 there were only a few to choose from in Manchester. I met up with Olly and Millhouse. After walking around one site several times and being shooed away by the security guard, we headed to the Northern Quarter and the next target which turned out to have a single camera watching the gate. After squeezing through a hatch, we were straight up and this time I was much more confident. Unfortunately, that confidence was not reflected by my ex-boyfriend who hated the idea of me climbing cranes. I think this was the night I showed him the photos and it didn’t go down well. Effectively the beginning of the end for us.
Spot the wild Millhouse
Photo by Millhouse
About 7 months later this site got a big security upgrade someone sold some photos of themselves dangling at dawn to the Manchester Evening News. Builders who worked on-site tagging were each other in the article comments on Facebook.
Liverpool University Hospital, December 2013
After a late dinner, Anon picked me up on Christmas day at about 10pm and off we went to meet Suboffender and TomH in Liverpool. After a fail at the sorting office and success getting on the Royal Insurance Building, we headed over to the University Hospital site where a huge new building was going up. We had no trouble rolling under the front gate and strolling over to the crane, enjoying a good couple of hours on it before getting down at about 4.30am. As we were climbing down a security guard spotted us then disappeared. As we reached the bottom in a hurry, he came around the corner to helpfully tell us “the bizzies are on their way”. Time to run.
Merry Christmas
Suboffender’s photo
Finnieston Crane, December 2013
After Millhouse had put me and TomH to shame climbing the science tower in Glasgow, we headed over to the iconic Finnieston Titan crane nearby. Getting over the crazy fence was slightly difficult but getting up was too easy. These cranes are so big they have staircases instead of ladders and a huge control room inside a shed at the top. I also found out on this trip that my grandfather once had a job painting the Titan “cran” at Greenock.
Photos by Millhouse
Hotel Football, January 2014
I enjoyed a hat-trick with this crane climbing it three times, always in freezing conditions. Getting on-site was a lot of fun being right next to Old Trafford. Great view though!
Bloody cold
Millhouse’s photo
Kings Reach Tower, March 2014
My first trip to London exploring and my first properly high roof. We took the stairs up 30 odd storeys and discovered at the top the only way to get on the crane was by crossing a plank of wood between the scaffolding and crane platform. Lovely. The rest of the trip was utter fail so catching the sunset up here and watching London light up made the trip worthwhile.
Paris, March 2014
This night turned into a bit of a mare when I left my tripod in the hostel. While waiting to borrow Suboffender or Millhouse’s I fell asleep on the crane. By the time I got my hands on a tripod, a stiff breeze had picked up. I managed two shots before “Guys guys the police are down there”. Oh dear. I packed my stuff away in a huff and was the last to climb down. The police checked our passports then let us go with the warning “You come here, you do this again, we take your passports.” So we went to get drunk in a play park like responsible adults.
Me, asleep. Photo by TomH
Cambridge Street, May 2015
This huge crane took me a couple of visits eyeing the site up before I got up there with TomH. Access was a bit mental, crossing a loop of the River Medlock by crawling across an old bridge girder and jumping down huge piles of bricks. Security was on site so once on the crane we climbed quickly and quietly. About 2 thirds of the way up I had to stop for a breather and let Tom go past me.
Paris, August 2015
After a night on the cocktails at a favourite Parisian brasserie, me and TomH spent the rest of the night taking in the sights and street beers of Notre Dame then headed to a crane near the hotel. Climbing a crane in shorts and t-shirt in 28 degrees at 3am was amazing.
TomH’s photo
New Bridge Street, October 2015
In 2014 I watched this crane being built from my desk on the 10th floor of the Peninsula Building in the Green Quarter of Manchester. After 5 or 6 days it had topped out and I met up with Tweek and Millhouse after work to give it a crack. We wasted no time crossing the empty site and heading up. What we hadn’t bargained on was security turning up and calling the police. We had just about set up our tripods when they shone a huge torch up at us and told us to get down on a megaphone. So down we got for a bit of friendly banter.
Fortunately, a year later I had a more successful jaunt up this crane with Adders and Olly. The building had topped out by this point and there was a better way through the site. However, right at the top of the crane, the hatch was locked leaving a tiny gap that took a while to squeeze through. Getting off-site was a palaver. First getting back through the gap in the hatch, then Olly stood on my hand crushing my fingers between some re-bar and a concrete block. Yeah that hurt.
Geneva, December 2015
The highlight of this solo trip to Geneva was climbing a crane covered in Christmas lights. I went to a bar to kill some time and calm my nerves but with no cider available I ended up having wine, not a great start. Afterwards, I found a shop with some more palatable alcohol and set off on my mission. Getting on-site and up the crane was straightforward, but the last hatch was locked tight and I didn’t fancy the climb around. There was a flat base I could climb up to for some half decent photos though.
Barcelona, January 2016
Me, Adders and Suboffender headed out to start our evening by finding something high to drink a beer on. This site was a walk on with zero security and a complete mess. I smashed my knee off the ladder climbing down this crane, a few years earlier this would have been something I walked off but an hour later it still hurt. My poor knees tortured by years of crawling through caves.
Former BBC Manchester Site, May 2016
Me and Skudge had been out having an unsuccessful night trying some old and new stuff in town when we ended up on Oxford Road at the old BBC site. The site was still fairly new and it took some walking to figure out how to get on without being seen. As we got to the crane it started raining and I remember the ladders being slippy. Thankfully the rain eased off enough to get some photos.
I went back to the old BBC site with Moose on Christmas Day in 2017, we got over to the crane and climbed up a cherry picker that had handily been put over the hoarding around the crane. On top of the cherry picker was a piece of plasterboard which I stepped on. No sooner had I done this I realised something was wrong but too late, Max stepped onto the pressure pad next to me and a site alarm started blaring out. The site office was in full view of the crane and we did well to get out of there so quickly.
Stockport, June 2016
I once had a dream about there being a crane in my garden, and it almost came true when a tower crane appeared in Stockport for the first time since I had lived there. This proved a tough little crane to get up with the hatches locked tight and mesh around the whole thing to stop climbing around the outside. I squeezed through somehow and thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple of hours taking in my home town from a different angle.
Cantabria, August 2016
This rusty old crane in the middle of the Cantabrian mountains with UserScott was something a bit different. It was pitch black and deathly quiet, with no other buildings for at least a mile. We had to negotiate a field with inquisitive horses and a scrap heap full of unseen holes to get near the crane. Staying quiet was incredibly difficult. We almost bailed when a dog started barking and the crane was covered grease and rust. In the end, it was worthwhile to persevere and experience a tower crane in the middle of nowhere, seemingly for no reason.
Paris, August 2016
After another night on the cocktails at the brasserie and a few roof beers on the F1 hotel, me, Suboffender, GnarleyBuddy, TomH & JohnnyP headed to the tower crane we could see within walking distance. This was another gorgeous Parisian night, 30oC and not a breath of wind. I was sat on the end of the counterweight having a smoke with JohnnyP, swinging our legs, sipping beers and chatting away, when the crane suddenly jerked into life! Suboffender and GnarleyBuddy were having great fun swinging it around and trying to pick things up. Awesome night.
Clippers Quay, October 2016
It’s quiet around here, the most difficult part of this crane was getting over the high hoarding which was now a feature of almost every site and crane. A jump from some concrete pillars resulted in smashing my chin off the top of the hoarding. That was the last crane I climbed, and although it’s sad to end the report with this one, it wasn’t fun. No mates, no cans, no ciggies, a sore chin with nothing to laugh about. None of the things that made climbing cranes so great.
Conclusion?
After failing at the old BBC site with Moose, sitting across the road rolling a fag at 3.30am on Boxing Day watching the security guard flicking his torch around looking for us, I realised the game was getting up. The last 4 or 5 cranes I’d looked at climbing had multiple cameras and sensors, hench hoarding and even vibration fences on some sites. I climbed 21 cranes in total, some more than once, but none for 4 years now. I can’t see me climbing many more if any with how difficult they are now.
Rest in Peace, Jake Robinson
It’s become easy to look back at exploring over the years with rose-tinted glasses. Whether that’s reminiscing over epic long lost sites such as Pyestock, goons ruining favourite locations, or the more general sense of it’s just not the same anymore. In many cases, it’s nowhere near as easy either. For me, both these things are most acutely felt when I go to Manchester city centre. My first few years in the exploring scene from 2012-2016 were spent either underground or high above it, with very little in between. Our nights, sometimes several per week were spent prowling the city, looking for holes, glitches in the system that we could take advantage of.
Most nights in Manchester (two or three a week sometimes when I worked in the city) were spent trying to get on roofs. Going for the hotels early doors or tailgating residents into their fancy apartment blocks. Then later on after dark, or sometimes just when there was no luck with any roofs, onto a crane.
Here follows a somewhat personal look back on this particularly enjoyable few years of my time spent urban exploring. The photos are not many or great, so I’ve included some friend’s photos too. Sometimes I didn’t have a camera, it was always more about the experience of being up there, surveying the city on high, having a laugh with your mates and loving the moment. Here’s a handful of the most memorable climbs…
One St Peter’s Square, September 2013
The night had started well, I met up with agour, anon, Skudge and jbl.bass (Rest In Peace) and went down Victoria Arches, drank whiskey in the Mitre hotel, then climbed some scaffolding up to the roof of Sevendale House. It was getting late, and someone suggested the new building site at St Peter’s square. Some might remember the Dutch Pancake House that used to be here before the old 1970’s block it was housed in was flattened in 2012, to make way for the new One St Peter’s Square building. Someone said something along the lines of “Fuck the building, we should climb the crane”, so off we went. I was nervous. I loved heights but had never climbed a crane and knew it would be challenging.
The first issue was getting on to the damn thing, the gap between the concrete floor and the crane seemed impossibly wide for my short legs and I was soon left behind. Once I found the courage to throw myself over the gap, I made short work of the ladders and soon passed Skudge catching his breath. This isn’t so bad, it’s pretty easy I thought to myself too soon. The crane then popped out above the top floor of the building and everything changed. I looked down, my head wobbled, I suddenly felt very exposed and had to summon a lot of willpower to carry on and focus on nothing but the ladder in front of me. Once at the top 90 metres up, my arms and legs had turned to jelly and all I could do was sit down and acclimatise to the weird, heady feeling of exposure, fear and excitement. After rolling a cigarette I found the courage to stand up, Jake held my hand and we walked over to the counterweight. My photo is terrible, I had a crappy bridge camera and no tripod, so I’ve included agour’s much better shot here.
A poor effort on my old bridge camera
Agour’s much better shot
Holiday Inn Express, September 2013
No sooner had I climbed the first crane I was thinking about the next one. In 2013 there were only a few to choose from in Manchester. I met up with Olly and Millhouse. After walking around one site several times and being shooed away by the security guard, we headed to the Northern Quarter and the next target which turned out to have a single camera watching the gate. After squeezing through a hatch, we were straight up and this time I was much more confident. Unfortunately, that confidence was not reflected by my ex-boyfriend who hated the idea of me climbing cranes. I think this was the night I showed him the photos and it didn’t go down well. Effectively the beginning of the end for us.
Spot the wild Millhouse
Photo by Millhouse
About 7 months later this site got a big security upgrade someone sold some photos of themselves dangling at dawn to the Manchester Evening News. Builders who worked on-site tagging were each other in the article comments on Facebook.
Liverpool University Hospital, December 2013
After a late dinner, Anon picked me up on Christmas day at about 10pm and off we went to meet Suboffender and TomH in Liverpool. After a fail at the sorting office and success getting on the Royal Insurance Building, we headed over to the University Hospital site where a huge new building was going up. We had no trouble rolling under the front gate and strolling over to the crane, enjoying a good couple of hours on it before getting down at about 4.30am. As we were climbing down a security guard spotted us then disappeared. As we reached the bottom in a hurry, he came around the corner to helpfully tell us “the bizzies are on their way”. Time to run.
Merry Christmas
Suboffender’s photo
Finnieston Crane, December 2013
After Millhouse had put me and TomH to shame climbing the science tower in Glasgow, we headed over to the iconic Finnieston Titan crane nearby. Getting over the crazy fence was slightly difficult but getting up was too easy. These cranes are so big they have staircases instead of ladders and a huge control room inside a shed at the top. I also found out on this trip that my grandfather once had a job painting the Titan “cran” at Greenock.
Photos by Millhouse
Hotel Football, January 2014
I enjoyed a hat-trick with this crane climbing it three times, always in freezing conditions. Getting on-site was a lot of fun being right next to Old Trafford. Great view though!
Bloody cold
Millhouse’s photo
Kings Reach Tower, March 2014
My first trip to London exploring and my first properly high roof. We took the stairs up 30 odd storeys and discovered at the top the only way to get on the crane was by crossing a plank of wood between the scaffolding and crane platform. Lovely. The rest of the trip was utter fail so catching the sunset up here and watching London light up made the trip worthwhile.
Paris, March 2014
This night turned into a bit of a mare when I left my tripod in the hostel. While waiting to borrow Suboffender or Millhouse’s I fell asleep on the crane. By the time I got my hands on a tripod, a stiff breeze had picked up. I managed two shots before “Guys guys the police are down there”. Oh dear. I packed my stuff away in a huff and was the last to climb down. The police checked our passports then let us go with the warning “You come here, you do this again, we take your passports.” So we went to get drunk in a play park like responsible adults.
Me, asleep. Photo by TomH
Cambridge Street, May 2015
This huge crane took me a couple of visits eyeing the site up before I got up there with TomH. Access was a bit mental, crossing a loop of the River Medlock by crawling across an old bridge girder and jumping down huge piles of bricks. Security was on site so once on the crane we climbed quickly and quietly. About 2 thirds of the way up I had to stop for a breather and let Tom go past me.
Paris, August 2015
After a night on the cocktails at a favourite Parisian brasserie, me and TomH spent the rest of the night taking in the sights and street beers of Notre Dame then headed to a crane near the hotel. Climbing a crane in shorts and t-shirt in 28 degrees at 3am was amazing.
TomH’s photo
New Bridge Street, October 2015
In 2014 I watched this crane being built from my desk on the 10th floor of the Peninsula Building in the Green Quarter of Manchester. After 5 or 6 days it had topped out and I met up with Tweek and Millhouse after work to give it a crack. We wasted no time crossing the empty site and heading up. What we hadn’t bargained on was security turning up and calling the police. We had just about set up our tripods when they shone a huge torch up at us and told us to get down on a megaphone. So down we got for a bit of friendly banter.
Fortunately, a year later I had a more successful jaunt up this crane with Adders and Olly. The building had topped out by this point and there was a better way through the site. However, right at the top of the crane, the hatch was locked leaving a tiny gap that took a while to squeeze through. Getting off-site was a palaver. First getting back through the gap in the hatch, then Olly stood on my hand crushing my fingers between some re-bar and a concrete block. Yeah that hurt.
Geneva, December 2015
The highlight of this solo trip to Geneva was climbing a crane covered in Christmas lights. I went to a bar to kill some time and calm my nerves but with no cider available I ended up having wine, not a great start. Afterwards, I found a shop with some more palatable alcohol and set off on my mission. Getting on-site and up the crane was straightforward, but the last hatch was locked tight and I didn’t fancy the climb around. There was a flat base I could climb up to for some half decent photos though.
Barcelona, January 2016
Me, Adders and Suboffender headed out to start our evening by finding something high to drink a beer on. This site was a walk on with zero security and a complete mess. I smashed my knee off the ladder climbing down this crane, a few years earlier this would have been something I walked off but an hour later it still hurt. My poor knees tortured by years of crawling through caves.
Former BBC Manchester Site, May 2016
Me and Skudge had been out having an unsuccessful night trying some old and new stuff in town when we ended up on Oxford Road at the old BBC site. The site was still fairly new and it took some walking to figure out how to get on without being seen. As we got to the crane it started raining and I remember the ladders being slippy. Thankfully the rain eased off enough to get some photos.
I went back to the old BBC site with Moose on Christmas Day in 2017, we got over to the crane and climbed up a cherry picker that had handily been put over the hoarding around the crane. On top of the cherry picker was a piece of plasterboard which I stepped on. No sooner had I done this I realised something was wrong but too late, Max stepped onto the pressure pad next to me and a site alarm started blaring out. The site office was in full view of the crane and we did well to get out of there so quickly.
Stockport, June 2016
I once had a dream about there being a crane in my garden, and it almost came true when a tower crane appeared in Stockport for the first time since I had lived there. This proved a tough little crane to get up with the hatches locked tight and mesh around the whole thing to stop climbing around the outside. I squeezed through somehow and thoroughly enjoyed spending a couple of hours taking in my home town from a different angle.
Cantabria, August 2016
This rusty old crane in the middle of the Cantabrian mountains with UserScott was something a bit different. It was pitch black and deathly quiet, with no other buildings for at least a mile. We had to negotiate a field with inquisitive horses and a scrap heap full of unseen holes to get near the crane. Staying quiet was incredibly difficult. We almost bailed when a dog started barking and the crane was covered grease and rust. In the end, it was worthwhile to persevere and experience a tower crane in the middle of nowhere, seemingly for no reason.
Paris, August 2016
After another night on the cocktails at the brasserie and a few roof beers on the F1 hotel, me, Suboffender, GnarleyBuddy, TomH & JohnnyP headed to the tower crane we could see within walking distance. This was another gorgeous Parisian night, 30oC and not a breath of wind. I was sat on the end of the counterweight having a smoke with JohnnyP, swinging our legs, sipping beers and chatting away, when the crane suddenly jerked into life! Suboffender and GnarleyBuddy were having great fun swinging it around and trying to pick things up. Awesome night.
Clippers Quay, October 2016
It’s quiet around here, the most difficult part of this crane was getting over the high hoarding which was now a feature of almost every site and crane. A jump from some concrete pillars resulted in smashing my chin off the top of the hoarding. That was the last crane I climbed, and although it’s sad to end the report with this one, it wasn’t fun. No mates, no cans, no ciggies, a sore chin with nothing to laugh about. None of the things that made climbing cranes so great.
Conclusion?
After failing at the old BBC site with Moose, sitting across the road rolling a fag at 3.30am on Boxing Day watching the security guard flicking his torch around looking for us, I realised the game was getting up. The last 4 or 5 cranes I’d looked at climbing had multiple cameras and sensors, hench hoarding and even vibration fences on some sites. I climbed 21 cranes in total, some more than once, but none for 4 years now. I can’t see me climbing many more if any with how difficult they are now.
Rest in Peace, Jake Robinson
