Having slept in for my original planned visit to Bradford.
It was now my turn to have a go at this well known beast in the world of urban exploration.
The day didn't start of too well. Awwrisp had text me he'd had the stomach bugs all night and couldn't come (Hope your well now mate)
So there I was all kitted up and ready to go, suddenly we were faced with the prospect that we didn't know were to access the tunnel.
Not to worry!! With cool heads we headed off for a Macdonalds breakfast in Leeds and phoned Awwrisp to get an idea were we needed to be.
After about 5 minutes driving around Bradford we found the access point and were in.
The Yorkshire city of Bradford is well known as the curry capital of Britain.
In the world of urban exploration, It is also known as the drain capital of the North.
Hidden below the city streets runs the Bradford beck. Nicknamed Macro by It's subterranen travellers.
Macro is a fearsome challenge and real twisting supercharger of a drain.
It is the drain that all others are measured by.
Within the labyrinth of tunnels, 2 more systems are spawned, Academy and Pandoras box.
We were about to leave the smell of Chicken Tikka's, and Masala's behind to sample the musty stank depths of the beast Macro.
100 years of flash floods have taken there toll, ripped up and battered tunnel fabric leave pot holes, and hazards a plenty for the unwary traveller.
Hidden beneath Centenery square in Bradford is this magnificent subterranean vaulted arch room as grand as any Cathedral. There were plans to open up this section of beck with the Alsop plan to regenerate the city centre. 'The Bowl' is an ambitious project to open up the beck and create a huge pool to act as the pivotal point of the new city centre.
This drain was creating a thuderous roar we could hear from some distance away. It was coming in at a fair old continous rate.
The Bradford beck runs underground, just higher up from the old Odeon cinema, It twists and turns under centenery square before emerging near to Valley parade football ground.
Unusually for a major city, Bradford is not built on any substantial body of water. The ford from which it takes its name 'Broad-Ford' was a crossing of the stream called Bradford Beck. The beck rises in the Pennine hills to the west of the city, and is swelled by tributaries such as Horton Beck, Westbrook, Bowling Beck and Eastbrook. At the site of the original ford, just below the present Bradford Cathedral, it turns north, and flows more or less straight towards the River Aire at Shipley.
The beck's course through the city centre is entirely underground and was mostly so by the middle of the 19th century.
Chucky does urbex!
At long last we could get out of this place, daylight was once again ours after 6 long hours underground!
Having spent nearly 6 hours underground, there was no way we were traversing the tunnels the way we had come. We climbed out at the first opening of the beck, and made a hasty retreat through the centre of Bradford back to the car. At this point in time we didn't care what we looked like. Hot showers, food and coffee was the order of the day!
Bradford centenery square nicely lit on a clear Autumnal Saturday evening.
Many Bradfordians are totally unaware of the hidden watery underworld beneath there feet!
A great explore this guys! Dam hard work though.
Cheers!