The Explore
I am sure there are many here that smack their heads on desks and walls every time the “look at me, I'm an elite Urbexer” crew post a new Youtube or TikTok….or worse still “A small donation to my channel each month helps me to continue to bring this content to you”.
Well as expected such a video popped up, Vauxhall's recently closed Luton Factory, showing the clowns in the buildings and generally making a real nuisance of themselves. Figuring that once the right people caught sight of the video the place would be far, far harder to gain access to I reached out to BikinGlynn and suggested a visit sooner rather than later would be advisable.
As luck would have it, I had a Friday free and both of us were free on the Sunday, so we quickly formulated a plan of action, I would do a recce on the Friday and gather whatever info I could, and we would use that to attempt an exploration on the Sunday.
Friday rolled around and off I popped, having examined multiple Goon Tube videos and TikTok Tw@*&s I had already managed to ensure there were likely to be a couple of possible entry points already open as well as a couple of back up options. I parked up to check one of the backups as it was a suitable place to be without drawing any attention. This seemed like a last chance salon option with lots of open ground and likely rough ground underfoot, with this info I proceeded to walk myself around the entire perimeter of the site….it's not a small site
.
I checked off a few points to be aware of, as I rounded the corner I all but bumped into a repair main working on the fence and after playing dumb and a few pleasantries managed to garner the size of the security team on site (Always useful to know). I bid him farewell and continued my walk and notched off as useless all the points I felt may have been available. I was left with one last option….it wasn't a great option, but it was open and after speaking to BG, we decided it was the best of the options.
Roll on Sunday and with the sun just rising we rocked up, parked up and headed for our access, it was still there and like whippets…well two whippets and an overweight Pug although we went. We knew we had a walk ahead of us but were comfortable with the fact we were fully undercover and would as a result remain undetected.
We made entry to the site perimeter undetected and raced to the first building and spent the next three hours snapping away as we walked the entire site without any Secca issues. We had an easy exit planned, but sadly this proved to be locked and chained and as such we found ourselves with two choices:
As you would expect we chose option 2…who wants to admit defeat after such a well-executed exploration plan. So, we trudged all the way back through the site to our entry point and worked our way out.
I have to say planning, the company, and the site itself really pushed this to the top of my favorite explores.
The History
Vauxhall was originally founded in 1857 by Alexander Wilson, making pumps and marine engines. It was purchased by Andrew B Brown six years later and expanded its offerings to include cranes under the name Vauxhall Iron Works, forty years later the first cars rolled off the line and the company reverted to its original name, dropping the Iron Works entirely.
GM bought the company in 1925 and in 1930 a Vauxhall subsidiary, Bedford Vehicles born. Prior to its being sold, Vauxhall produced luxury vehicles like the 30-98 which was produced for eight years from 1919 and the 23-60.
GM switched the focus to mid-range cars; the Great Depression saw a switch to mass-market. GM called off a potential sale of Vauxhall and Opel in 2009 to Magna, a Canadian owned company, despite GM filing for bankruptcy, the two entities were considered essential to the parent company's future strategies.
In 2017 it was announced that GM had reached an agreement to sell Vauxhall and the European Opel brands to Groupe PSA. Groupe PSA later merged with Fiat Chrysler to form a new company, Stellantis.
Stellantis promised to do all they could to keep both the Ellesmere Port and Luton plants open, however they in November 2024 they announced the Luton plant would close, and all production would focus in Ellesmere Port on EV Van production. In less than four months Luton closed on 28th March with the loss of 1100 jobs. A factory that had provided jobs to the local community and bolstered the finances of the local economy fell silent.
Now if you made it through that, on with the photos
Thanks for looking
I am sure there are many here that smack their heads on desks and walls every time the “look at me, I'm an elite Urbexer” crew post a new Youtube or TikTok….or worse still “A small donation to my channel each month helps me to continue to bring this content to you”.
Well as expected such a video popped up, Vauxhall's recently closed Luton Factory, showing the clowns in the buildings and generally making a real nuisance of themselves. Figuring that once the right people caught sight of the video the place would be far, far harder to gain access to I reached out to BikinGlynn and suggested a visit sooner rather than later would be advisable.
As luck would have it, I had a Friday free and both of us were free on the Sunday, so we quickly formulated a plan of action, I would do a recce on the Friday and gather whatever info I could, and we would use that to attempt an exploration on the Sunday.
Friday rolled around and off I popped, having examined multiple Goon Tube videos and TikTok Tw@*&s I had already managed to ensure there were likely to be a couple of possible entry points already open as well as a couple of back up options. I parked up to check one of the backups as it was a suitable place to be without drawing any attention. This seemed like a last chance salon option with lots of open ground and likely rough ground underfoot, with this info I proceeded to walk myself around the entire perimeter of the site….it's not a small site
.I checked off a few points to be aware of, as I rounded the corner I all but bumped into a repair main working on the fence and after playing dumb and a few pleasantries managed to garner the size of the security team on site (Always useful to know). I bid him farewell and continued my walk and notched off as useless all the points I felt may have been available. I was left with one last option….it wasn't a great option, but it was open and after speaking to BG, we decided it was the best of the options.
Roll on Sunday and with the sun just rising we rocked up, parked up and headed for our access, it was still there and like whippets…well two whippets and an overweight Pug although we went. We knew we had a walk ahead of us but were comfortable with the fact we were fully undercover and would as a result remain undetected.
We made entry to the site perimeter undetected and raced to the first building and spent the next three hours snapping away as we walked the entire site without any Secca issues. We had an easy exit planned, but sadly this proved to be locked and chained and as such we found ourselves with two choices:
- Bump into the Secca, somehow and hope they would escort us from site.
- Go back the way we came in.
As you would expect we chose option 2…who wants to admit defeat after such a well-executed exploration plan. So, we trudged all the way back through the site to our entry point and worked our way out.
I have to say planning, the company, and the site itself really pushed this to the top of my favorite explores.
The History
Vauxhall was originally founded in 1857 by Alexander Wilson, making pumps and marine engines. It was purchased by Andrew B Brown six years later and expanded its offerings to include cranes under the name Vauxhall Iron Works, forty years later the first cars rolled off the line and the company reverted to its original name, dropping the Iron Works entirely.
GM bought the company in 1925 and in 1930 a Vauxhall subsidiary, Bedford Vehicles born. Prior to its being sold, Vauxhall produced luxury vehicles like the 30-98 which was produced for eight years from 1919 and the 23-60.
GM switched the focus to mid-range cars; the Great Depression saw a switch to mass-market. GM called off a potential sale of Vauxhall and Opel in 2009 to Magna, a Canadian owned company, despite GM filing for bankruptcy, the two entities were considered essential to the parent company's future strategies.
In 2017 it was announced that GM had reached an agreement to sell Vauxhall and the European Opel brands to Groupe PSA. Groupe PSA later merged with Fiat Chrysler to form a new company, Stellantis.
Stellantis promised to do all they could to keep both the Ellesmere Port and Luton plants open, however they in November 2024 they announced the Luton plant would close, and all production would focus in Ellesmere Port on EV Van production. In less than four months Luton closed on 28th March with the loss of 1100 jobs. A factory that had provided jobs to the local community and bolstered the finances of the local economy fell silent.
Now if you made it through that, on with the photos
Thanks for looking
