# Leeds Int pool nocturnal explore



## phill.d (Jul 27, 2008)

I'll post a few pics of the leeds International pool I got from a night visit. The place is pretty good at night, the power supply still functions for certain services in the building. The lights seem to be on a timer, if you suss out the pattern you can get some good results. the random lights switching on and off cover any light painting activity too. The place is worth a look for the servive and boiler room areas below. Mazes of tunnel and passages galore if you can find your way around. I learned from a previous visit that access to the roof is via one lift only. There are no stairs up there. We tried the lift to see if it still worked. My mate put one foot in it and it dropped 6 inches. That was enough to abort that idea.
on with the piccies. 











You can see several lights already working away in the pool. Nice to cover any torches up.




WOW!!
Suss out the light pattern and you can get some good shots. I warmed up the accumulator sculpture with a bit of torch work.














A friendly Northern welcome lol 














We went down to try out some light painting in the massive boiler and pump rooms.
























The poor old clown discarded down there looks a bit sinister by torch light. Anyway I felt a bit sorry for him and brought him home lol.



















I've a load of shots including the roof and full history of the place here
http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=265602590&blogID=361721416
There's also the story behind the architect poulson who caused a major political scandal.
Thanks for looking


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## pdtnc (Jul 27, 2008)

looking good there....


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## Earth Worm Jim (Jul 27, 2008)

Groovy.


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## natalion (Jul 27, 2008)

Wow looks really cool!

Great shots with the torch =]


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## cinestep (Jul 27, 2008)

Very neat work. Thank you for a great post.


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## ks781 (Jul 28, 2008)

nice work mate! I went there tonight hoping the indoor lights would be on and they were all off, very very annoying, got a few nice shots but I've been in the day so it almost felt like a waste of time without the lighting! Tried to find the switches but they all seemed to be non functional :/

edit - just read about the timers. I was there around 11pm at night, I suppose its all just pot luck....they were on in the day time!!


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## missfish (Jul 28, 2008)

niiiiiice light work there


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## BigLoada (Jul 28, 2008)

Thats a pretty funky building. And wow phill, uber cool lightpainting in the boiler room. You keep getting better all the time mate


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## phill.d (Jul 28, 2008)

Thanks for all the comments guys. The place is well funky yes.
I've been in a few times now. The night time (if you suss out the Saturday night fever disco lights) really does make a difference. The service areas are great. There's a load of pics of the place circulating on the net. I.M.O it's best to get this place done soon if anyone wants it. I can see the local rag picking up on it's trashed condition and the place getting shut up as tight as a ducks ass!


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## fire*fly (Jul 30, 2008)

Oooh I love pools, great pictures It looks like it was a good pool in its day


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## phill.d (Jul 30, 2008)

Thanks Firefly. The pool is certainly an impressive structure.
To be honest the pool has always been hard work to maintain. it suffered badly from concrete defects. When it opened it had to be shut a further 6 months for repair work. The pool was intended to be to Olympic standards. Apparently it measured one inch too short and never lived up to full expectations. The story goes that when the tiles were added it was 1'' too small. The councils 'official' reason was that it was part of a planned cost cutting measure lol 

believe what you like there! 

My mate has been in after these shots were taken. He says there are no lights functioning at all now. Even the hum in the boiler room has stopped. I don't know what's happened there then.


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## ultrix (Jul 30, 2008)

The pool is now being visited by security staff from Leeds city council.
Tonight Awwrisp and I called in at the pool, after an unsuccessful visit to the Odeon in Bradford. We hadn't even got in the place before the security guard turned up, in a car marked like a police car but without the blue lights. He must have seen us from across the carpark, but we legged it back to our car while he was parking up around the corner. We watched and he didn't stay long, not more than 10 minutes, just long enough to walk around the building and check the locks.

Also, we can confirm that the lights in the main pool were switched off.


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## phill.d (Jul 31, 2008)

Thanks for the update Ultrix. I kind of guessed the clamp down would happen. The place is explored on a daily basis. Kids get in and use it as a skate board park. I guess that's the reason for the lights cut too.


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## tarboat (Jul 31, 2008)

Great work documenting this place and quality photography too.


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## nighthawk (Jul 31, 2008)

*sorry to hear*

Sorry to hear you didnt get in Ultrix. I went in on Monday night. I pulled up in the car park and saw one of those council security cars parked up so I drove around leeds for 30 mins and came back and they were gone. 
We then got in no problems but my explore buddy heard "smack heads" banging on the frount doors whilst me and another explorer were in the boiler room.


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## thompski (Jul 31, 2008)

Those are some cracking pictures phill.d, really seems a photogenic place with all those strong geometric angles (I think thats the right terminology).

Shame its become a bit more difficult to access, its definately something i'd love to see first hand!


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## boxerheaven (Jul 31, 2008)

nice pics glad you rescued the clown !! looks totally trashed now shame


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## phill.d (Jul 31, 2008)

From what i can see the security seems to be a recent random patrol. I think Ultrix just timed it bad. There are boat loads of pics on flickr with kids climbing out of windows 30' up. Skateboading and bike riding in the pool. There's even one picture titled.' Breaking into the pool' and showing were they got in. I guess this hasn't helped us guys!


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## ultrix (Jul 31, 2008)

phill.d said:


> From what i can see the security seems to be a recent random patrol. I think Ultrix just timed it bad. There are boat loads of pics on flickr with kids climbing out of windows 30' up. Skateboading and bike riding in the pool. There's even one picture titled.' Breaking into the pool' and showing were they got in. I guess this hasn't helped us guys!



I would agree with you that it was just bad timing last night, Awwrisp and I said that to each other while we sat in the car watching the security guard walking around rattling gates etc. We weren't disappointed, since the visit to the pool was a last minute decision made while we were on the way home from Bradford and we didn't intend to stay long anyway.


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## phill.d (Jul 31, 2008)

Was it last night you went Ultrix? i know 2 guys who got in much later. They did hear a lot of noise in the pool area, there were 2 guys with bags on the big stairs. They were'n't explorers by the look of it. I think the place is getting frequented by smack heads. There were noises when we were in but couldn't see were they were.


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## Virusman26 (Jul 31, 2008)

Looks utterly amazing with all that light work! I could well imagine that place to be pretty fecking scary at night tho. Lots of switching lights, and worrying noises echoing in the pool area! Cool photo's, nice job!


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## ultrix (Jul 31, 2008)

phill.d said:


> Was it last night you went Ultrix? i know 2 guys who got in much later. They did hear a lot of noise in the pool area, there were 2 guys with bags on the big stairs. They were'n't explorers by the look of it. I think the place is getting frequented by smack heads. There were noises when we were in but couldn't see were they were.



We got there after 9pm last night (Wednesday evening). We didn't get inside. We didn't get anywhere near the main pool. We didn't even get on to the big stairs. We were travelling light, we didn't have bags with us, just torches. I can believe that there have been smack heads in there, but I never saw any needles. One thing that I couldn't understand, from our previous visit, was the half litre coke bottles with chunks of bread in them and tubes taped to the outside, fouind under the diving boards. Any ideas?
We also heard noises, from downstairs, on our earlier visit, but retreated upstairs when we heard heavy breathing.


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## phill.d (Aug 1, 2008)

There seems to be homeless around there. It was in the paper how there using the sheltered over hang to doss down in. I think there getting in. There has been someone in on all 3 occasions we've been in. We've never seen them tho. Worringly half the lights in the basement still work. We were in there the last time and they turned off on there own. I wouldn't do this place solo that's for sure ;-0


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## freebird (Aug 2, 2008)

It was definately too dodgy with just sqwasher and I that night. Didn't even get one shot in there due to the noises. There was definately noises of moving around in there somewhere and we didn't want to come face to face with them and possibly lose our new camera gear! We tried to be super stealthy but kept giving ourselves away treading on and tripping over stuff! LOL.

Sorry Phill great report and really good pics!


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## GaryDave (Aug 2, 2008)

> was the half litre coke bottles with chunks of bread in them and tubes taped to the outside



Sounds like a homeless mans means of 'keeping' bread. Excellent report, and it's interesting to read about all these noises you guys are hearing and getting spooked. Wonder if the other people in there are just as spooked as you were!?


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## phill.d (Aug 2, 2008)

freebird said:


> It was definately too dodgy with just sqwasher and I that night. Didn't even get one shot in there due to the noises. There was definately noises of moving around in there somewhere and we didn't want to come face to face with them and possibly lose our new camera gear! We tried to be super stealthy but kept giving ourselves away treading on and tripping over stuff! LOL.
> 
> Sorry Phill great report and really good pics!



Well glad you got in ok Frrebird. Bugger about the shots tho. Over the last few weeks the place has got that sinister feel your right. I guess at least if you see something then you know your enemy. At one time there were noises from 3 sections of the building. We were in for 4 hours and never saw a soul. The dam lights turned off on us 3 times as well. I wouldn't go in again that's for sure


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## sqwasher (Aug 2, 2008)

Great pics as ever Phill, the boiler room shots are ACE! Some of the lights being on must of been really weird too! Shame we never even got one pic! lol.


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## phill.d (Aug 2, 2008)

sqwasher said:


> Great pics as ever Phill, the boiler room shots are ACE! Some of the lights being on must of been really weird too! Shame we never even got one pic! lol.



Bugger about the shots mate! I think the whole place has become a little too dodgy these days. The thing with the lights. Half were on in the basement on all 3 visits. Untill the last visit they plunged us into darkness on there own. Someone said earlier they could hear a child crying in the pool as well. There was nothing in there when they looked. Boy it's a creepy place! i aint going again :icon_evil


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## freebird (Aug 4, 2008)

Creepy very very creepy. I would still go again only if it was daylight though! :laugh:


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## duckandcover (Aug 5, 2008)

The pics look amazing its a shame that the place has been "chaved up"


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## noodles88 (Mar 20, 2009)

Fantastic photographs  Am at uni in leeds and was wondering what it had in offer in terms of derelict buildings! Seems we have a few hidden away....think il have to get my explorer head on soon!


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