Tales of the Urban Explorer: A&E Distribution Warehouse

Our last success in Sheffield was off the back of Canon Brewery which was a dismal failure, having been sealed before we managed to get our feet in the door. The brewery is now marked for when I return to the city of steel later this year.

Almost next door was this graffiti strewn wasteland. It was never going to be an issue getting into the grounds of A&E Distribution Warehouse, which entailed a wall jump and little else.

A&E Transport was a Sheffield-based distribution service, originally formed in the early 1980s as a family-run business. Things turned bad and they went out of business.

The old warehouse and surrounding buildings quickly fell into ruin as they became a haven for anti-social behaviour, spray painters, and vandalism. It is currently up for rent at around £68,000 per year, but as of 2020, there are no takers.

This was another location that I could not get that great cover shot for, as nothing in its own right was striking enough.

We appeared to be alone while scouting these graffiti-laden arctic trucks complete with popped tyres.

I have to give the owners credit, shovelling tons of crap and shit up to the door is one way to keep people out.

I could see the paint boys had been having their way around here, lots of it nice and fresh.

Walking further in we spotted some comfortable chairs laid out and wondered what we were missing. A bloke was shuffling around down there too; he's just in the picture.

Assuming he was not alone and uncaring if they were gangsters doing a crack deal, we walked toward them intrigued.

The further we got in, the more graffiti we saw.

The sofa's looked relatively comfortable even though someone may have been tortured on the white one looking at the red splatters. The way it was set out looked like lines of coke could have been laid down.

At this point, we spotted a couple of dudes in the act of spraying. They didn't seem to give a shit whether we were there or not and did not flinch or leggit.

We didn't take any shots or coverage as we didn't want to spook them. They seemed cool, we chatted and both gave me a business card (which I have subsequently lost).

One of them mentioned some art he had done within the large building that appeared sealed. He also gave us the latest intel on how to get in.

…'there's a hole you need to climb through.. it's a bit of a drop on the other side'…

We said our goodbyes and spotted the hole within minutes.

Sliding down a mud-encrusted iron sheet was far from fun and I was stretching to reach the bottom while trying not to slide too quickly.

Your hands don't do so well when sliding down slippery surfaces I could see getting out was going to be even better.

Inside I could see that space was at a premium and just about every spot was taken up with graffiti.

Some of these dudes are made up of pure greed taking up three spots.

This snake creature was described by one of the artists we chatted to, while it's not bad I have seen much better.

Besides lots of graffiti, the warehouse was very devoid of anything.

Unless you count used spray cans.

Lots of them and some burnt. If there are too many what else can one do besides have a super combustible fire? Burning the warehouse down may come as a consequence.

I looked for some of the familiar styles spotted while at Hepworth Refractories. This one looked familiar.

Otherwise, most of them seemed like those signature types.

You have to expect at least one cock, wherever you go.

Getting out did not present as big a problem as I expected, I just needed a shove from @dizzydiscovery. This infuses the motto I generally use.

Worry about getting out when that time comes. It's rarely as difficult as you might think and fuck the consequences.

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