Tales of the Urban Explorer: Dewsbury Union Offices

This was one of mine; I knew some other explorers had recently been in ‘Dewsbury Union Offices' but had my reservations. It had been all over that stuck-up website '28 Days Later' where the new generation of explorers gets banned for wielding a mask.

I do wonder if ALL members got banned during the COVID period. Wear a mask = get banned permanently.

I occasionally visit the most anal Urban Exploration dedicated site in the UK where you need to be related to any of the moderators to avoid being slandered in the comments section for anything slightly inappropriate, but it's progressively getting worse, content-wise.

…'of course, @lpff is banned from '28 Days Later' I mean, just look at that mask.., those menacing eyes, it's overpowering, completely unacceptable, and would frighten small children…'

... so getting back to ‘Dewsbury Union Offices’…

The front door of ‘Dewsbury Union Offices’. Official buildings from a century ago, more than often had their name stamped into the stonework.

Town centre government-style buildings never seem to let me in. They tend to require huge dangerous climbs to second-floor windows which are beyond me.

Still, we were on some kind of roll that day, and being a Sunday presented no parking issues and quieter streets.

@lpff informed us that he was going to split after this one, in hindsight a misjudgment as we managed THREE more after 'Dewsbury Union Offices', including a decent Time Capsule supplied by that terrible masked man himself.

Straddling around the side of this ancient-looking building, we needed to climb a wall and drop down to a back alley.

Something was happening on the other side of a huge solid fence, people were talking loudly. I for one was glad said fence was massive, thick, and hole-less. Otherwise, we could have been rumbled.

'Shhhhh…', I motioned to the others and pointed in the direction of the mammoth fence. They both took the warning and made toward a dodgy-looking broken window.

It was doable but a little high and I wasn't sure if our clothes were going to make it unscathed.

Trying to make as little noise as possible while listening to Aunt Marge argue with Uncle Albert about 'drinking too much in the pub' and 'you're a lazy bastard who sits like a cabbage in front of the telly when not in the pub', we scraped through the old metal window hosting a few jagged shards of glass.

After a few awkward minutes, and soft swearing, we were all safely inside and entered what looked like a morgue.

Add a few coffins, a little smoke, and a couple of human corpses and it would have been perfect. There was even what looked like dried blood on the far wall.

On the sparse shelves, we found some marriage forms that looked like they were printed in the same year that the act was created.

Perjury? I am sure there are plenty of bigamists floating around the UK. The English Bigamy Act of 1604 still stands.

I had a nagging doubt that the basement was going to be locked and that we were not going to see anything else from 'Dewsbury Union Offices'.

This was not the first window we had tried, the other being a single boiler room, and an agitated @andiotexplores who was the wiriest of us all had been voted to 'go and have a look' only to return with bleak news.

My fears vanished as we mounted the stairs leaving the 'coffin room' behind and entered the main offices.

It was bare but at least the banister was still attached to the stairs.

I still don't quite know how ferns manage to grow indoors. The inside was damp, and cold but not leaking.

On this occasion, we were going to ignore the signs and go anywhere we pleased.

A few holes in the floor and someone had nicked the fireplace.

So this was a registrar office. Now it’s closed you need to go and marry at the local church instead.

Very nice old stairs, with a touch of green, added to the pool of piss next to what looks like another fireplace that's been nicked.

This was becoming a recurring theme at ‘Dewsbury Union Offices’.

I was hoping for a few more government secrets but had to opt for climbing the stairs in search of more green walls and decaying wallpaper.

A perfectly nice vintage old room with arched windows. Why the need to close it?

A little love and refurbishment as well as some mould remover would make it lovely again.

Even jars of fresh flowers blossomed in an oasis of stale urine.

There was little chance of a bomb scare while inside. I confess not to reading all the rules and the congregation point information.

While grand, there was little to look at or read besides the old-style arches and décor.

Maybe this is where the ‘pisser’ originated from?

Custom-made windows are etched with the crown and are probably decades old.

The front door was barred and sealed. Getting out of 'Dewsbury Union Offices' was to be the same gruelling ordeal as getting in.

@anidiotexplores managed to snag some of his clothing on exiting, and amid the extreme profanity, it was a blessing that Albert had gone to the pub, with Marge heckling him in tow.

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