Question - Finding new locations yourself

[Landsil]

Hi,
I'm new and have a question that may be worth putting into manual for new joiners.

It's clearly explained why new people can't just ask for list of locations, makes sense why no one will tell them. I also agree that public list of locations is not a great idea.

So how do I find location to visit?
When I was in Poland I already knew a lot of places, simply because I spend years living there and randomly wondering around the forest.
I "guess" people leaving in smaller towns have similar benefit plus it's kinda easy to spot old wind mill in the open.
But having moved to London I'm kinda lost, plus in such a dense city locations seem to be better taken care of.
I'm personally inept geographically so when someone gives a name of city or small part of London technically within M25 I probably don't realise it's close, that's on me.

Things I've tried so far.
3D view of google maps for big locations I find interesting. (actually found one next to Thames but demolishing is finishing about now)
General internet searches for websites complaining information and investigating if locations mentioned are still open. Turns out everything is both same and out of date.
Found some actually good website for parts for UK that are far away.
Search options on this and similar forums, actually reasonable info especially if you recognise cities around you. London is small when compared to UK so makes sense there isn't a lot of places.
I had a fast look around yt but wellll, you know what's there...
There are some closed groups but those require for eg. posting history to get access too (eg. UK Ubex Discord), makes sense but doesn't help new people.

With Covid around I can't go anywhere anyway so it's not like I'm in hurry
But I'm curious about your thoughts and opinions.

 

[pirate]

Walking,driving,general bumbling

I like mines so for me its

old literature,newspaper articles,local archives and libraries
Then finding places on old maps and comparing to new
Then more walking driving and general bumbling.

 

[bernold]

Google maps, local news (e.g X factory is closing down), filings for companies going out of business, etc.

If you search for obvious things like "abandoned factory" on google, you'll just end up on the tour bus to places everyone else has been (and likely wrecked).

You'd be better off searching for things like ".... gone bust" "jobs lost" "decommisioned" etc.

Also just start doing research around topics that you're interested in. If you're interersted in big industry then learn about the major players, see who went out of buisiness and when, what companies look like they might go under soon, etc. Through google research alone I've found plenty of potentially epic looking things recently that (to my knowledge) nobody has done yet.

 

[HughieD]

A really good resource is the National Library of Scotland digital map archive.

 

[Scoobysrt]

Most places are on here so the search box is your friend.
If you want to find a new location the best thing is honestly just get out and about.
A trip on the train or the bus you see a lot of things you miss driving, getting out driving around or even just a walk around and you will see things boarded up or shutting down or local newspapers will say that somewhere is shutting down, keep an eye on somthing you found somewhere and check it out on Google maps and places like that.

 

[HughieD]

A trip on the train or the bus you see a lot of things you miss driving

That is so true...

 

[MotionlessMike]

That big list of places Yorrick used to post is pretty tidy:

Architects websites
Architectural news websites
Arrse (Army rumours forum)
basejumper . Com (a nice 2 way relationship – we both feed each other info at times)
Bing maps
Building company websites
Buildings at risk register
Charities Commission
Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Companies house
Crown Estates
Demolition company websites
Derp /Subbrit /flickr/ photobucket/deviant art (etc. etc. )
e-goat (RAF rumours forum)
Ebay - maps, plans, deeds, historical paperwork, post cards, etc.
English Heritage (and it's Scottish/Welsh equivalents)
English Nature
Estate agents
Freedom of Information act requests
geograph (org .uk)
Good old leg work/looking around
Google
Google earth
Graffiti forums (I'll not list them, but there are a few out there)
Keeping your ears open (found a cracking explore from an overheard conversation in a hospital lift once)
Keeping your eyes open
Letterboxing websites/forums
Local archaeological societies
Local authority planning applications
Local Fire service websites (where have the local chavs been trying to torch?)
Local historical societies
Local knowledge (ask around)
Local library
Local museum
Local papers
Local Police website (where have they been to catch pikeys?)
Local TV news
National library
National Trust
navy-net (Navy rumours forum)
Ordinance survey maps (new)
Ordinance survey maps (old)
Photo library collections (Frith etc.)
police999 . com
policeoracle . com
The National archives
ukpoliceonline .co . uk
What do they know? website
Where' s the path? website

 

[Speed]

You've got to play the long game now, its all about what might close soon rather than what has closed most of the time. The days of reliably driving around spotting derelict buildings has pretty much gone. Sure keep your eyes open for whats going on in the news and in person and you might get lucky but i find if you want to be doing fresh stuff regularly you've got to be thinking ahead of whats actually explorable now and more about what might be soon kind of thing.

 

[mookster]

Very much echo what Speed said. Nowadays you can get lucky and stumble across someplace but it's becoming more and more difficult. You've got to get to know what's in your local (ish) area and keep your finger on the pulse of what's happening, looking ahead and keeping tabs on places you know will be a 'thing' in the near future. Especially in these times of the pandemic when all sorts of stuff could be going to the wall in the near future.

That being said I do still like scouring areas on Google maps if I know I'm going to be in a certain area for work or whatever, I've found a bunch of cool stuff through random map spots - however for every decent thing there will be at least a dozen which are nothing.