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URBAN EXPLORATION AND SUBURBAN & INDUSTRIAL DECAY

A Photo Narrative

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The purpose of this photo narrative will be to take the topic of Urban Exploration, including both topics of industrial and suburban decay, and relate it to both my own personal experiences within and outside of this course and, the materials presented in class as they relate to the topic. I am choosing to do so because of my own personal connection with photography and the topic of haunted landscapes itself. To me, the act of photography itself as an art is one that I found I had a knack for. Additionally, I have found my own peace and tranquility through undertaking urban exploration over the 7 years I have been practicing it. As Romany WG alludes to in Week 1’s reading of Beauty in Decay, we’ve all needed to break out from time to time to contemplate life. Further, as he also mentions, “That’s why UE has a glimmer of simple genius to it. You don’t need to spend money on renting a bijou hideaway in the Alps just to “Get away from it all”. Hell, you don’t even need to go to the countryside. Your moment of peace, outside of the everyday world and far from the thundering of life towards death, is only a NO ENTRY sign away…” This quote immediately spoke to me upon reading it because I have experienced this exact feeling.

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Through the woods, down a hill and along the shore of the Thames River once stood an old, abandoned, 1800’s boathouse. It was at this location that nothing else exists and even though you’re technically in the middle of the City, the City tends to disappear and quiet down and all that’s left is the haunting memory that remains and the thoughts in your head.

The photo above is of The Cedars. The Cedars was built around the 1800’s and was situated just on the Thames River in London Ontario, like many homes around this time. The difference here is that the owners weren’t farmers or agricultural workers but rather, fitness club owners. Due to its proximity on the river, canoeing was a highly popular pastime along the Thames River. Additionally, there was lawn bowling, free-weights, and more. The house had been owned by the same family for many years, all the way until the mid 2000’s. It was around this time that Drewlo Holdings, a popular developer in the London scene bought the land. At this time, the original family had moved out and a new one had moved in. If you were to enter this house, you would see that on the 2nd floor is a makeshift dog kennel, used for breeding mastiff dogs. Why am I starting with this house? I would like to think that this is the house that started it all – my first urban exploration adventure. I found it funny how I had lived in Oakridge my whole life up to this point (14) but had never discovered it. I remember this experience like it was yesterday – I walked down the long winding driveway, past the DO NOT TRESPASS sign, throwing caution to the wind. I arrived at the base at the house and felt noticed two things. An eerie, almost haunting silence and the scale of the building itself. It may not be immediately noticeable, but when standing at the base, it’s large. I returned to this house at least over 50 times between 2014 and 2017 before it burned down. It is where I largely

developed my skill and passion for urban exploration and photography.

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Urban exploration is the research, documentation, escape, exploration, and mapping of forbidden spaces that include maintenance or service areas, utility tunnels, abandoned buildings, such as mental institutions, and basically any place where the everyday public are not supposed to be (Douglas, 2021). This quote represents other facets of urban exploration that I practice and enjoy – the research and documentation of the adventure. I like to think this is a photo shot in 2018 that accurately represents the topic of urban exploration – a mysterious structure in the middle of seemingly nowhere that seems to have a mysterious aura surrounding it. What is this building? why is it abandoned? It is an interesting architecture style, where is it derived from? Why is the metal roofing green and the brick yellow (probably London’s iconic yellow brick here)? These are just some of the questions of many that I ask myself when exploring and preparing for an exploration. At the same time, when I’m done exploring a location for the first time, I often throw myself into research, in the hopes I can answer these questions. In the case of this house, all I know is that the owner, a farmer, and immigrant from Germany, passed away at London Health Sciences Centre. From what I know, his family was in the United States at the time. At the time of this photo, the house was a time capsule – packed to the brim with random objects, records, printing presses, and home furniture. 
The last time I was there, everything was cleared out completely with the front foyer of the house being removed completely for heritage preservation.

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Cooley Highschool, Detroit. A famous example of “white flight” in Detroit and both suburban and even possibly, industrial decay. In the 1920’s, the school was growing at a rate faster than ever. Upon opening in 1928, the school had already surpassed 1,500 students in attendance but by the 1960’s, only 1% of the school’s demographic was black (DetroitUrbex, n.d.) Where things started to go south for Cooley Highschool was in 1968 when black attendance reached 56%. This resulted in what’s known as white flight: where an economically empowered and socially mobile black middle class left the inner city for neighborhoods that until a few years’ prior had been closed off to them. White families, fearing integration began leaving for the suburbs in droves, leading to a decrease in enrollment (DetroitUrbex, n.d.). It is directly because of this that Cooley eventually had to close it’s doors for good – leaving behind an architecturally magnificent “Urban Explorative Wonder”. This was shot on one of my first major “urban exploration shoots” when I took a photo tour in Detroit just before COVID-19 shook the world. Note the absolutely beautiful architecture – this was typical for high schools in Detroit at this time.

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“The urban explorer could be described as an architecture enthusiast of sorts. In an abandoned building, the narratives of decay, entropy and the encroachment of nature contrast with the intended narrative of the architect. This results in a kind of spatial poetry. (RomanyWG, 2012).”

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As time went on after starting my urban exploration career, I began seeking more and more spots to explore, and at the same time began becoming complacent with what was around me. I was seeking more – the “holy grail” for urban explorers. Large structures, hospitals, facilities, massive urban decay. Essentially, I’m looking for Chernobyl in Ukraine. But until I can go to Ukraine, Ontario will have to do. I found this spot on the way to shooting Inglis Falls in Owen Sound in 2018. I was stunned – it was an abandoned hospital. I quickly went home online after doing a preliminary shoot to determine what I had found. What I had found was that this was one of the many hospitals involved in a multi-million-dollar court settlement between the Ontario government and thousands of residents who were “treated” at these “Ontario Hospitals”. With its cafeteria unique architecture pictured above, the Midwestern Regional Centre was a hospital originally intended for children with developmental disabilities (Wellington Advisor, n.d.). One doesn’t have to do much more than a google search of the name of the hospital to know what court cases I am referring to – I won’t go into detail here. Some noteworthy background on this site includes it going through a few phases.

It started out as a children’s hospital but closed to reopen as a Village Green Retirement Community. It would later be discovered that the owners of this facility were going through some shady business, so it ultimately closed. Then, in the mid 2000’s, Cham Sham Temple of Bliss overtook the facility and began renovation. They would later open a newer, more expensive facility in the Oshawa region and leave this site to decay (Talking Walls Photography, 2020). As of right now, it is currently undergoing construction to become a new retirement community (Wellington Advisor, 2021).

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Pictured above is the London Psychiatric Hospital, a cornerstone of London’s history. Not known to many Londoners, the hospital was one of the first major psychiatric hospitals in the province and was site of the ground-breaking treatment of moral therapy introduced by the first superintendents Dr. Henrys Landor and Dr. R Maurice Bucke (Western University, n.d.). As stated in Beauty in Decay under Industrial Evolution, industrial ruins signify the failure of industrial production within an area. They tell us a story about work, about society and about the social pressures we are involved in globally (RomanyWG, 2012). This can all be attributed to almost each example I’ve given today – Detroit with it’s loss of the automotive industry as well as loss of residents in large educational facilities, the Midwestern Regional Children’s Centre with the introduction of deinstitutionalization in Ontario, the London Psychiatric Hospital due in part to deinstitutionalization and the erection of modern facilities with better ethical practices, and finally pictured above, ABC Border Processing Centre. From what I can tell, since there is very little online about this, it was where trucks crossing the border into Ontario from Windsor would stop for routine checks. Operation must have ceased in part to modern standards.


Ultimately, this is where I am at today – still finding tranquility in things as they decay. Still researching and trying to understand the meaning behind suburban and industrial decay within SW Ontario and other places. The only major difference over the past 7 years in my experience is better equipment and a better eye for urban development and decay.

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