# Underground Oil Storage Facility - Nov '11



## UrbanX (Nov 19, 2011)

Part of an epic road trip down to the seaside in Dover. 

Entry acess was blatant. We had to do it in front of a LOT of people, se we just had to do it the only way we knew: with confidence, and like we owned the place! 







Visited with Nelly, Skeleton Key, Ian, Wevsky, Ginge, Space invader, Trogladyte, Mrs Trogladyte, and probably a couple more, sorry if I’ve forgotten you it was a whirlwind day. 





I’ve not managed to find much info on the place, but as it’s called ‘oil mills’ one can only assume that’s what it originally stored. 





This is the only paragraph of decipherable history that I found: 
These tunnels have served many different purposes over time, undoubtedly as air raid shelters during both World Wars and for storage. Today the lower tunnels are still in use for storage and workshop space, whereas the upper level has not been used for some considerable time.






Being underground it was obviously pitch black, although where we entered there was a open doorway which streamed in blindingly bright light. 






The rooms were huge! 





This was my fave shot of the day. It’s a 20 Sec exposure at ISO 200. It was lit with a powerful torch light painting the room, as well as 2 pops of flash in from of me. 





As much fun as it was down there a lot of it does look quite samey, so I just chilled, and messed about with multiplicity shots:










Couple more bits and bobs on my website, vids etc. that weren't really relevant / appropriate here.


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## Foxylady (Nov 20, 2011)

Beautiful pics, UrbX. Don't think I've seen this one before. Nice one.


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## lilli (Nov 20, 2011)

The oil mills are a cool place  after the dodgy entry you are home free .... good pics


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## UrbanX (Nov 20, 2011)

lilli said:


> The oil mills are a cool place  after the dodgy entry you are home free .... good pics



lol, until the dodgy exit! 

Although, there is something about 8 guys emerging from a dodgy hole in Dover, that makes one want to put on a dodgy eastern european accent and ask the locals if you're in Britain yet...


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## Foxylady (Nov 20, 2011)

UrbanX said:


> ...there is something about 8 guys emerging from a dodgy hole in Dover, that makes one want to put on a dodgy eastern european accent and ask the locals if you're in Britain yet...



Spacibo!!!


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## nelly (Nov 20, 2011)

Nice set of pics there matey 



UrbanX said:


> lol, until the dodgy exit!
> 
> Although, there is something about 8 guys emerging from a dodgy hole in Dover, that makes one want to put on a dodgy eastern european accent and ask the locals if you're in Britain yet...



Now that would have been fun 

I believe that the official name for the place was Oil Mills West and I seem to remember our tour master (Wevsky) explaining that they were originally used to store the whale oil when the ships docked in Dover, although this maybe bollocks knowing Wevsky as I do!!

Many thanks for not mentioning my SAS style roll/splat after tripping over a rusty pipe that somebody had carelessly left poking out of the floor, I still bear the scars!! Pfft!!! Health and safety????


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## kevsy21 (Nov 20, 2011)

Great pics and report,looks an interesting place.


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## PaulPowers (Nov 20, 2011)

Awesome pics, I need to get my arse down south at some point


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## Madaxe (Nov 20, 2011)

Great looking place.
Lovely photos as always UX.


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## night crawler (Nov 20, 2011)

Amazing piece of engineering well worth the trouble of visiting.


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## TeeJF (Nov 20, 2011)

Nice! Reminds me a bit of the underground fuel dump on Hoy in Orkney.

Can I ask a technical question about light painting please? I can only get a maximum exposure time of 8 seconds on my camera. If I set it to 400 asa and use a good quality dive torch we have which is very bright what sort of size rooms should I be able to paint?


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## UrbanX (Nov 21, 2011)

TeeJF said:


> Nice! Reminds me a bit of the underground fuel dump on Hoy in Orkney.
> 
> Can I ask a technical question about light painting please? I can only get a maximum exposure time of 8 seconds on my camera. If I set it to 400 asa and use a good quality dive torch we have which is very bright what sort of size rooms should I be able to paint?



Cheers! 
I imagine you'd be able to do most rooms with that. Youll struggle only with larger ballrooms / halls etc. You'll really only be limited by the amount of wall you can cover with your beam in 8 seconds. The room above really is massive and is in pitch darkness!


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## UEP-Wales (Nov 21, 2011)

Amazing photos as always UrbX!


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## sqwasher (Nov 22, 2011)

Cracking set of photies of a very intriging place!


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