Kuoni was founded in 1906 by the entrepreneur Alfred Kuoni in Zurich, Switzerland.
Over time, Kuoni grew to be the biggest travel company in Switzerland.
Kuoni then became the leading longhaul tour operator in the British market.
In 1966, Peter Diethelm established the Kuoni UK tour operation. During 1970, Kuoni introduced the country's first charter flight to the Far East.
In 1974, the company took over Houlders World Holidays and relocated its tour operation to new headquarters in Dorking, Surrey.
In 2018 Kuoni's headquarters, located by the Deepdene Trail (that's right, literally next door to Deepdene's Southern Railway underground telephone exchange and traffic control centre ) finally made a move from their tired looking headquarters into new ones located on Station road, Dorking.
Right after the buildings were finally emptied of it's just over 200 staff...and they trickled them out very gradually...there was a small window of time to go visit relatively untroubled.
I missed that window of time and surprisingly fast builders started reno work with the aim to turn the buildings into housing.
With it being a very active building site it was soon absolutely plagued by security systems and security guards.
I spent over a year trying to figure out patterns and habits and shit...no interest in being caught in this Brexit climate as I am French and hold no criminal record and intend to keep it this way!
Anyway, it became very clear that the only way to get in (these pretty boring, uneventful buildings) was gonna be the 'cat and mouse game' way with security.
So on Tuesday night I went 'fuck it, let's go'. I had with me the most talented Parkour athlete, silent, fast, agile, strong. Yeah, I'm a girl, kinda felt pretty neat to have him by my side.
We circled about all the fences to try and decide what would be the most discreet way in. We could hear security guards on two sides of the buildings. I wanted to go through the back exit but it was neared the guards so we decided to get in right through the front entrance fences, where there is shit loads of light and no way to hide much...lol...well...it went surprisingly well and once in we ran and melted into the shadows and continued progressing from building to building.
We walked past the main reception area. Lights are on and you can tell security spends a fair bit of time hanging around in there, but at that moment in time they were just a bit deeper in the building and far too busy chatting to listen up to anything...
Lame security if you ask me...I mean we were quiet and fast but I'm pretty sure we appeared on every single cam they have about the site...multiple times!
Anyway, we found a way into main reception, a couple of jumps and we were in and rushed through to the stairs to make our way to the rooftops.
Lots of ducking down as twice there were security guards circulating in the opposite building doing a round achingly near where we were.
We made great use of the rooftops
I seriously wonder how we went un-noticed...haha
Right so, the photos are shit because I did not expect to get in and it was a spur of the moment so my Nikond500 was asleep at home whilst my iphone was taking the shittiest shots I ever took. Sorry about that, might have to go back to try and do better
Ah, yes, the pictures are dark because obviously it was not at all possible to use torches
Over time, Kuoni grew to be the biggest travel company in Switzerland.
Kuoni then became the leading longhaul tour operator in the British market.
In 1966, Peter Diethelm established the Kuoni UK tour operation. During 1970, Kuoni introduced the country's first charter flight to the Far East.
In 1974, the company took over Houlders World Holidays and relocated its tour operation to new headquarters in Dorking, Surrey.
In 2018 Kuoni's headquarters, located by the Deepdene Trail (that's right, literally next door to Deepdene's Southern Railway underground telephone exchange and traffic control centre ) finally made a move from their tired looking headquarters into new ones located on Station road, Dorking.
Right after the buildings were finally emptied of it's just over 200 staff...and they trickled them out very gradually...there was a small window of time to go visit relatively untroubled.
I missed that window of time and surprisingly fast builders started reno work with the aim to turn the buildings into housing.
With it being a very active building site it was soon absolutely plagued by security systems and security guards.
I spent over a year trying to figure out patterns and habits and shit...no interest in being caught in this Brexit climate as I am French and hold no criminal record and intend to keep it this way!
Anyway, it became very clear that the only way to get in (these pretty boring, uneventful buildings) was gonna be the 'cat and mouse game' way with security.
So on Tuesday night I went 'fuck it, let's go'. I had with me the most talented Parkour athlete, silent, fast, agile, strong. Yeah, I'm a girl, kinda felt pretty neat to have him by my side.
We circled about all the fences to try and decide what would be the most discreet way in. We could hear security guards on two sides of the buildings. I wanted to go through the back exit but it was neared the guards so we decided to get in right through the front entrance fences, where there is shit loads of light and no way to hide much...lol...well...it went surprisingly well and once in we ran and melted into the shadows and continued progressing from building to building.
We walked past the main reception area. Lights are on and you can tell security spends a fair bit of time hanging around in there, but at that moment in time they were just a bit deeper in the building and far too busy chatting to listen up to anything...
Lame security if you ask me...I mean we were quiet and fast but I'm pretty sure we appeared on every single cam they have about the site...multiple times!
Anyway, we found a way into main reception, a couple of jumps and we were in and rushed through to the stairs to make our way to the rooftops.
Lots of ducking down as twice there were security guards circulating in the opposite building doing a round achingly near where we were.
We made great use of the rooftops
I seriously wonder how we went un-noticed...hahaRight so, the photos are shit because I did not expect to get in and it was a spur of the moment so my Nikond500 was asleep at home whilst my iphone was taking the shittiest shots I ever took. Sorry about that, might have to go back to try and do better
Ah, yes, the pictures are dark because obviously it was not at all possible to use torches
