City. Living. Buys - Urban Exploration Tool Kit

Morning Everyone! Welcome to the first City. Living. Buys of 2013 (and the second ever, ahem). Today I wanted to make a City. Living. Buys focused more around an idea than just a single product that I want - I can only show you so many different types of maps! So todays idea is that of Urban Exploration, which is basically taking a camera and exploring the abandoned and hidden urban structures within your city - as safely as possible of course. Urban exploration has been a popular hobby for a while, but recently I noticed a rise in the number of my friends liking the "Abandoned Brisbane" urban exploration page on Facebook (click here) and it increasingly started coming up in conversation. 

So I thought before I give urban exploration a go (I am still hesitant due to its dangerous and sometimes illegal nature) I needed to make a list of my tool kit to take with me, so here it is - my first ever collage too!

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Now the slingshot is a bit of a joke because it is a super big no no to damage/take anything from where you are exploring BUT hellaslingshots are just super cool and I think everyone should indulge their inner Huckleberry Finn occasionally. But an excellent camera to document your adventure, a backpack to carry your stuff, good shoes and a bike to travel on are all necessities if you are in for some urban exploration. Personally I am still questioning whether it is a good idea, I would love to see more of the city but I am put off by the dangers and might stick to geocaching for now. What do you think, anyone have any opinions on the hobby?   

Subway to Work

Subway car offices in Shoreditch, London (Nov, 2012)

While recently travelling in England I became addicted to the program "George Clarke's Amazing Spaces" which is like a less pretentious grand designs for the conversion of small, irregular spaces into habitable homes and offices. One of the spaces featured was these subway cars which had been converted into cheap, rentable office space in the middle of London. As I was wandering around Shoreditch (mostly looking for the more famous "Box Park" nearby) I took the above photo of some cool graffiti and subway cars which turned out to be the very offices featured on amazing spaces. 

Inhabitat, again, has featured these offices with a number of pictures showing their sleek interiors (am I ever going to feature something those geniuses haven't found first?) which you can visit by clicking here. Or I have been guilty of borrowing one of their photos showing the inside of the converted car and placing it below - it was just too sleek and pretty not to have! I wish I had known at the time what I was photographing, but all the fun of visiting a new city is stumbling across the unexpected. 

The interior of "village 2" subway car from Inhabitat.com