Why Sharing Locations Is a bad idea.

During the filming of my last video 'Exploring Highgate's Abandoned Tube Station', I accidentally showed up to the scene of a crime: arson.

I was filming at this stunning location in the early hours of the afternoon on Tuesday 2nd May 2023- both me and my filming companion left the location after filming the majority of the content I wanted before deciding to leave to visit another location. We said to ourselves beforehand that we would return within the next hour or so to get some shots with the drone before heading home for the evening.

Upon our return we were greeted with smoke, blaring sirens, and blue tape blocking off the surrounding perimeter... The old platforms were surrounded with fire trucks, police cars, and TFL underground fire engines. I could not believe what I was seeing. I spoke to a police officer and asked what had happened and in confidence he told me that "Two girls and a boy set the outbuildings on fire. It was reported that there was a loud thud and then the smoke began to form." From this statement, that I currently believe I am the only one who has been told, that they either started an electrical fire or that they has set off a firework in the buildings. I do believe that I did see the culprits making their way through the woods to the platforms when we were leaving previously...

I took a walk around the premises and took as many photos of the scene as the firemen would allow, but they quickly hurried me away from the scene. Not only could we not get home that night from the new station which was evacuated, but I cannot comprehend how I'll never get to see this location in its original form again. I was feeling absolutely baffled by this, but rather joyous in the fact that I was the last ever person to explore and document what once stood at the old station.

This is exactly why explorers do not reveal locations- they are incredibly vulnerable to vandalism, and destruction.

Scrambling through the wet wooded area, that we were once so excited to explore, we were greeted with the sight of charred, black wood that stunk of fire from a mile away.

The outbuilding that once stood was nothing but a black hole in the ground now, I thought the fire had damaged both but luckily it had only mainly affected the first house. The second building stood alone now, it looked more run down than before and had minor bits of damage to the roof and walls, causing the ceiling to cave in slightly in the living room area.

We slowly crept around the house to document the changes that have occurred and made our way to the corridor with the little stairs- this time instead of admiring all of the layers of old fashioned wallpaper, I could only stare at the black rubble in front of me. The stairs had charcoal and pieces of tile scattered across them, it was rather hard to walk up them without them caving in.

Once at the top, I was stood in a blackhole, no walls, no ceiling, and no windows. only the foundations and rubble remained. While carefully treading through the char, I stumbled across an egg- not your regular bird egg, but a wooden one that had been carefully painted a bright yellow with colourful flowers in what seemed to be a lead paint. Unscathed, I found it laying there in the black abyss, the only thing that survived the fire; I have a feeling it was an original decoration within the houses when they were first built. It felt rather relieving to see something survive.

Turning the corner where the back wall used to be I was shocked to see the layout of a secret room that I had not seen there before; surprisingly this hidden gem was the only room that you could still make out amongst the rubble. It had its back wall still in place with some burnt cabinets placed in front of it- rather interestingly, it was covered in books. Although the edges were crisp the books were also still whole and useable- my favourite was the 'Your body book', it looked so old and fragile and it still had the human form pictures still boldly printed on the front.

After roaming around the fire damage, we took a look around the platforms to see if anything else had been damaged and luckily they hadn't so I got the drone out and attempted to take some shots of the graffiti and rubble. I just about managed to finish filming before we were swiftly removed from the site by the British Transport Police and were threatened to be arrested by them for filming the fire damage. I have a feeling an old lady that was closely watching us when we were escorted out called the BTP on us when I got the drone out... They did however pull up in a firetruck incase we were the arsonists returning to do some more damage.

Having to leave this spot and most likely unable to return again really upsets me. It was quiet, peaceful, and filled with colourful history.