Since I'm on a roll with posting in the last hour or so I thought I'd add a site I looked at a couple of years ago but never got around to posting here, the place is demolished now as far as I'm aware but it was a good look around at the time! Certainly the rear of the site was part gone when we visited and when i last drove past it last year I think most of the rest is gone now too.
History (From what I could find online) :
Originally built for the pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, the site provided a range of clean manufacturing, laboratory facilities, storage and administrative space. The site also boasted the longest corridor in the United Kingdom!
The Parke-Davis building has a deceptive air of simplicity, but within the plain brick envelopes of the building there is a wide range of highly specialised facilities with differing functional and environmental requirements.
The program comprises of several individual buildings that are positioned to suit their functional relationships; those concerned with the manufacturing processes being located in the centre of the site.
These manufacturing units are steel framed and windowless. In contrast the research and administrative buildings are of reinforced concrete and fully glazed. To achieve overall unity both types of building are clad in grey brickwork with the structural steel tresses expressed externally by pressed metal fascia.
In an interesting note, someone I work with used to service machines at this site many moons ago & I will see if he can tell me any more about this place when I am back in next week.
The explore:
So after being picked up in Bristol by some amigos from the city I grew up in we set off on a trip to Pontypool to see if we could see this place & British Nylon Spinners. We didn't make it into the Spinners, but did have a decent couple of hours mooch around here before a trip up a hill to see a folly and then some pubs. As i remember access was relatively easy but we chose to go around the back of the site and under a fence instead of over the main gate due to the fact it was on a main road & we were unsure if there was security on site at the time.
We missed out on a few buildings but managed to see most of what was left & found our way up onto the roof after finding a ladder and climbing onto the gantrys running around the side of the main warehouse. Certainly not a safe looking roof mind but we didn't venture far from the doorway out there!
The size of the main warehouse internally is something that's hard to convey with words or pictures. It was almost cathedral like inside, and I have never been to a place before or since that can match the scale of it. It really went on and on in every direction, and when you would come to an internal wall thinking it was the edge of the building, you would go through a doorway and realise it isn't even close to the edge. In the centre it was so dark you would need torches despite being a reasonably open space.
Oh and the corridor that was supposedly the UK's longest, certainly seemed to be true to me! It ran the full length of the warehouse through the middle and went on and on for what seemed like eternity, it was pitch black and the only pictures I got of it are pretty blurry so i have refrained from adding them to this post.
It was a great little trip and I was very glad we made the effort, I think it was the first proper explore my 2 mates had been on at the time and it was definitely a good place to take them to pop their metaphorical cherrys! Certainly a shame it's gone now as I would love a trip back again now!
Pictures:
View attachment
History (From what I could find online) :
Originally built for the pharmaceutical company Parke-Davis/Warner Lambert, the site provided a range of clean manufacturing, laboratory facilities, storage and administrative space. The site also boasted the longest corridor in the United Kingdom!
The Parke-Davis building has a deceptive air of simplicity, but within the plain brick envelopes of the building there is a wide range of highly specialised facilities with differing functional and environmental requirements.
The program comprises of several individual buildings that are positioned to suit their functional relationships; those concerned with the manufacturing processes being located in the centre of the site.
These manufacturing units are steel framed and windowless. In contrast the research and administrative buildings are of reinforced concrete and fully glazed. To achieve overall unity both types of building are clad in grey brickwork with the structural steel tresses expressed externally by pressed metal fascia.
In an interesting note, someone I work with used to service machines at this site many moons ago & I will see if he can tell me any more about this place when I am back in next week.
The explore:
So after being picked up in Bristol by some amigos from the city I grew up in we set off on a trip to Pontypool to see if we could see this place & British Nylon Spinners. We didn't make it into the Spinners, but did have a decent couple of hours mooch around here before a trip up a hill to see a folly and then some pubs. As i remember access was relatively easy but we chose to go around the back of the site and under a fence instead of over the main gate due to the fact it was on a main road & we were unsure if there was security on site at the time.
We missed out on a few buildings but managed to see most of what was left & found our way up onto the roof after finding a ladder and climbing onto the gantrys running around the side of the main warehouse. Certainly not a safe looking roof mind but we didn't venture far from the doorway out there!
The size of the main warehouse internally is something that's hard to convey with words or pictures. It was almost cathedral like inside, and I have never been to a place before or since that can match the scale of it. It really went on and on in every direction, and when you would come to an internal wall thinking it was the edge of the building, you would go through a doorway and realise it isn't even close to the edge. In the centre it was so dark you would need torches despite being a reasonably open space.
Oh and the corridor that was supposedly the UK's longest, certainly seemed to be true to me! It ran the full length of the warehouse through the middle and went on and on for what seemed like eternity, it was pitch black and the only pictures I got of it are pretty blurry so i have refrained from adding them to this post.
It was a great little trip and I was very glad we made the effort, I think it was the first proper explore my 2 mates had been on at the time and it was definitely a good place to take them to pop their metaphorical cherrys! Certainly a shame it's gone now as I would love a trip back again now!
Pictures:
View attachment
