Tales of the Urban Explorer: Carnegie Library

The sky was getting darker and we feared rain. This is not a good situation for Urban Explorers but foreboding skies can be used advantageously, so long as all that annoying wetness stays up there.

Carnegie Library is situated on a bustling junction and I had to be patient to get my shots, with no vehicles in my images. That sadly was never going to happen.

This is one exploration I have avoided as I feared 'failure' would be the result as it is rarely seen anywhere on social media.

I knew it to be somewhat derpy but I remember seeing images online such as a fantastic swirling staircase adorned with glittering jewels from another time.

…’priceless glittering jewels from another time eh? some would-be thieves had gone in there and likely nicked them’…

The Carnegie Library in Shipley was once one of the grandest buildings in the town and dates back to 1905.

When the new Shipley library was opened in 1985, the building closed. It was sold to private owners in 2006 and has since been left in a state of neglect.

After standing empty for many years the building, on the busy junction of Leeds Road and Carr Lane, is now a shadow of its former self, and has a variety of foliage growing from its crumbling shell.
Source

We eyed up the building noting broken windows and even more so the height we would need to be at to climb inside them.

There was always only going to be one way into Carnegie Library and we were going to take full advantage of the situation, hoping the nefarious door-smashers were not still in there.

Dark and I mean dark. Without strong lighting, anyone entering through here would be subject to total blindness. It seemed there were tunnels in the basement, and we meandered through a mini-maze before being forced to crawl through his gap to progress.

“You know, I think some bastard took a piss here on the way out as a deterrent for the next lot of explorers”, I said to @anidiotexplores who was already disappearing into the distant gloom.

Sorry jeans, I gestured silently without a trace of sincerity.

A set of stairs came into my vision and I hoped the tunnel section was ending. I am not a fucking dwarf and hole-crawling through piss is not my idea of fun.

Ascending to the top, I was thrown into the familiar sights of extreme derpiness, combined with several stale mattresses belonging to the homeless.

I knew this was going to be a shit-hole, but could I find anything besides a discarded fire extinguisher and a deluxe leather mattress covered in rubble and pigeon turd?

Inside was a broken Edwardian toilet, if that sounds majestic well let's say I am sparing you all from what I had to see.

In the distance I spotted the highlight, that fantastic visually draw-dropping staircase, except it was looking much more forlorn than what was expected.

Some dead trees and bushes had managed to get in the way, how I don’t know as I spotted no compromise in the roof directly above.

If this was the crowd-puller then pulling my own dick might be more enjoyable; the decay was severe and made worse with what I would guess at past arseholes pulling off the decorative pieces simply for kicks.

This is one of the many occasions that one does not hold on to the banister for support, despite the stairs being clogged with encrusted mud and dirt.

The top of the stairs; it’s preferable if you don’t look down. My vertigo fortunately is not at that delicate level.

…'walking up stairs like these is more like walking up a slippery slope. Sometimes you need to take a run-up to get to the top'…

The top floor of Carnegie Library was hardly improving. Gone were the rows and aisles ladled with musty old books, the occasional one sporting a heavily use copy of 'Knave' between the covers.

The upper roof had seen some rain damage destroying part of the false roof, with green-encrusted timbers scattered everywhere.

The surface appeared stable regardless, at least in the visible areas.

For a moment I thought it was an old PC, but power supplies never looked like that. Is it a heating device of some type?

The door is marked ‘R’, but what of the rest? I can’t think of what used to be in there.

An over-turned fridge or freezer. What kind of library was this?

The remains of the bannister, jewels removed long ago, stolen and sold at the closest pawn shop.

At the far end of the top floor was another set of descending steps in worse condition than the original set.

Housing makeshift ladders, fallen beams from above, bannister ends and much more underfoot shit I figured this was one descent to veto.

Disappointed with the lack of visuals we made our way back to the ‘fabulous staircase’ noting the vertical floral wallpaper.

This library contained some strange coverings; maybe they had papered over this lilac and turquoise paper previously and this was some by-product from the 60's hippy era?

The front door of Carnegie Library; it’s not been opened in years, possibly decades.

We exited trying to avoid the piss in the tunnels with futility. On our exit, two boys of possibly ten or eleven eyed us dubiously from a distance.

"If you're thinking of going in, make sure you can see in the dark, or forget it”, I yelled across the road.

They continued to stare without uttering a word; where’s your bloody sense of adventure?

My younger self would be heading in WITHOUT the lights.

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