Five Ways Tower

(External photo credit: Google Streetview)

 

Today I'm going up this tower!

Long time readers will know, I fucking love rooftopping. I've been doing it in Shrewsbury since 2010, and it served as the gateway drug into wider urbex. But I've always wanted to do more rooftopping in some of the cities too. I follow a load of rooftoppers on Instagram, and I'm always blown away by the views from the top of skyscrapers. The rules are different in the city, of course. In Shrewsbury I utilise drain pipes, fire exits, TV aerials, and whatever other thing can be a ladder that day. Sometimes it's just an actual ladder. Whereas in the city, rooftopping tends to be more of an internal job. Often it involves sneaking up buildings that are very much still in use, which adds an element of stealth.

 

Rooftopping combines an appreciation of the urban landscape with creative problem solving, and rewards us with a terrific view and one hell of a rush. It's a form of escapism, and an authentic adventure. Many ground-based urbexers dislike rooftopping, and will actively try to shit on it, but on closer inspection they tend to be the types who either can't climb, or lack the will to be stealthy, preferring to argue with security and police for youtube views, and as such they are incapable of getting onto a rooftop because it usually requires effort that counteracts their nature. There are those who dislike rooftopping for innocent reasons, like they simply aren't interested in the sport, in much the same way I'm not interested in football for no particular reason other than it simply doesn't appeal to me, but these people don't tend to shit on other people for doing it, because their lack of interest doesn't come from a place of insecurity.

Having said that, Five Ways Tower seems to be some sort of middle ground between rooftoppers and urbexers. To the local rooftoppers, it's old news. They've all done it. But because the building itself is derelict, it attracts the regular urbex types too.

 

 

The means of entry is in a constant state of flux. Entry points are frequently boarded up only for more to appear a few weeks later. It's been a year since we came here, so I'm not revealing any massive secrets when I say this, but in our case there was no ground floor access and we had to get creative, climbing the exterior of the carpark next to it, and then standing on a ledge and reaching for a broken window. The ledge was slathered in slippery goop, and glass shards, meaning it was difficult to stand on without sliding. To one side of me was a drop to the top of the carpark, mere feet, and to the other side of me was a plummet to my death on ground level. And have I mentioned I have dyspraxia? My physical co-ordination and balance are pretty naff. Luckily I was here with my friend Niall, who is quite patient with that sort of thing. 

Howthefuckever, we both expressed frustration at the ledge beneath the window being slathered in slippery goop, because that's how accidents happen! I mean I know we're not technically meant to be here, but someone had intentionally made the means of entry heaps more dangerous than it already was, when they could have just boarded up the window. Nobody's gonna stand on that ledge if the window wasn't wide open! If you don't want people going in, deter them, don't try to kill them!

Although a dead body lying at the bottom would deter people... 

And unfortunately being dyspraxic, I did cut my hand and get a nice big gash next to my left pinkie, which has left a scar.

I actually have loads of scars on my hands from this hobby. If I ever get my palms read, the palm reader will say "You will die doing something stupid," before they even look at my natural palm lines.

Luckily my injury occurred on the way down, so it wasn't detrimental to the adventure, but I sure did bleed! My hand was like a fountain! So if anyone came here last year and saw loads of blood splatters on the top of the carpark area, that's mine! Feel free to clone me from it. The human race, quite frankly, isn't as miffed as it could be, and more of me would do the trick.

 

 

We didn't spend much time on the interior of the tower, but you can take my word for it that it pretty much just looked exactly like the pictures I have shown. I doubt there's many people who want to look at 23 more pictures almost exactly like these. 

 

Years ago this would have been full of office workers, but in the two decades since its closure, it's been cleared out, and has been a bit of a magnet for vandals and arsonists.

And let me tell you, 23 floors is a hell of a lot of stairs. Fortunately the view would make it worthwhile.

 

 Here's floor eighteen. But we don't work for the BBC. We're aiming higher than eighteen!

 

The stairs to the roof from the top floor had actually been removed, meaning we had to scramble up vents and pipes and stuff. But here we are. Check out this view! It's phenomenal! No matter what anyone says, rooftops are amazing. The sense of escapism is difficult to describe, but it's like all the real-world problems are left on ground level. The rat race is down there, not up here. It's very peaceful.

 

 

It sure was strange being able to see into the hotel across the road. I didn't really look at what was going on, seeing as I really have no interest in spying on people. But either way, since my images are all long exposures, anyone in those rooms would need to be motionless in order for them to show up on camera in any discernible detail. 

The 23-storey building is apparently 240 feet tall, and that makes it something of a record for me. I'm sure this is all peanuts for city rooftoppers, but it's not a competition. Prior to this, the highest point I'd reached was Shrewsburys market clocktower, and according to their website, that's only 200 feet tall.

 

That market is slightly older, dating back to the 1960s, whereas this tower dates back to 1979. However its name can be traced as far back as 1565, when the area was the meeting point of five roads to different towns. Initially the offices were used by the DSS, which was the 1980s equivalent of the DWP. I'm not sure if it kept that use throughout its time as an active office block. I'm not even sure what the DWP would do with such a large building. Perhaps some of it was used as a call centre or something.

 

 

The building was vacated in 2005 for one of the most intriguing reasons I've ever come across. The people who worked here kept on becoming inexplicably ill, and this eventually led to the building getting diagnosed with "Sick Building Syndrome."

I hadn't actually heard of this before. At first glance it seems almost supernatural, like the building is cursed or something. But Sick Building Syndrome actually has scientific origins, generally occurring when the conditions of a building are detrimental to the health of those within it. The cause is usually stuff like improper airflow, poor lighting conditions, naff ventilation, shitty heating, or a combination of these things. All together it contributes to headaches, fatigue, eye and throat irritation, nausea and dizziness, but it's also a bitch to fix because it's the buildings layout that is at fault.

And really, workplace sickness must have been happening a hell of a lot for the building to be investigated. I mean, we all know how corporations work. They really don't care. You could be lying in a hospital bed dying of cancer, and they'll be on the phone saying "Does this mean you're not coming in this week?" with a tone that suggests it's super rude of you to get cancer. They will sooner punish people for having sick days before the possibility that it could be the buildings fault would ever cross their mind. So I would love to see those sickness records, and I would love to know if there were any unfair dismissals as a result of absences, and if those people made any claims once the building was diagnosed. 

I doubt I ever will, but I am curious.

 

 

What's interesting is that while we were in here, Niall did feel unusually fatigued. I was fine, but I work in healthcare so I've probably got a natural immunity to a work environment that violates my human rights. Niall was strangely fine once we were outside again. He even commented on how strange it was, before we'd even looked up what Sick Building Syndrome was.

 

 

And that's it for Five Ways Tower.

Several hotels have expressed interest but it's far too expensive to refurbish it to modern standards. Even the elevator shafts are too small for wheelchair access. Consequently it's just rotting away, with plans to demolish it on the horizon. Every rooftopper in the west midlands has probably gone up here, and have been doing so for years, so its destruction will be the end of an era. And that's really why urbex is so important. Photos of the view are instantly recognisable to anyone who has been up here, but someday they will be historic shots, and in spite of all the efforts to secure the premises, people will be glad they were taken. 

Access difficulty for the tower really depends on the day. I've recently seen posts by people who really aren't capable of making the silly hand-gashing scramble that I made, so I assume there is ground floor access again. Some people say that there's security, and that it's the main entrance that is watched, so finding a more creative way in is advised anyway, but I can't confirm. 

But that's it for today! It's a bit different to my normal posts, but as everyone knows I fucking love rooftops, and when we made this journey I was feeling pretty shit. Sitting up here and taking in the view was very calming and therapeutic. I experienced an indescribable level of serenity... right up until I gashed my hand on the way down and had to run to the shops for bandages.

We managed to squeeze a bit more rooftopping in before the night was over... but that's another story.

 

 My next blogs will be a wedding venue and then a really nice nursing home. I'll be honest, I haven't actually looked at my photos from them yet, but both buildings had really nice architecture. In the meantime, if you like the blogs and you want a chance of getting regular updates, follow me on Instagram, Threads, Facebook, Reddit, and Twitter which still just barely exists.

Thanks for reading!