In the world of exploring abandoned places, there is nothing quite as thrilling as venturing deep underground into a deserted mine. It takes a special type of explorer who goes beyond the abandoned factories, asylums, hospitals and mansions, where you can find traces of recent visitors – vandals and their […]
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The Last Relics of Imperial Russia
All over Russia, in the distant corners of the vast country, lie the ruins and remnants of an older way of life; grand, ornate churches, whose spires and onion shaped domes soar over the rural landscape; small family cottages, often beautifully painted in bright reds, oranges and greens, and decorated […]
Clärchen’s Ballhaus
For this edition of Bar of the Week, we’re stepping back in search of the old Weimar Berlin: a lost city that for a brief moment between the two World Wars, was the most decadent and dazzling of all the cities in Europe. Berlin “had a jewel-like sparkle, especially at […]
The Secret History of Abercrombie & Fitch
On the corner of Fifth Avenue and east 56th Street in Manhattan, is the flagship store for Abercrombie & Fitch, the colossal corporate clothing company that outfits millions of teens with their distinctive A&F logo. “A casual, classic, All-American lifestyle brand, synonymous with quality,” runs their own PR, for a […]
The Observation Bar on the RMS Queen Mary
One of the most elegant places to enjoy a cocktail must be the sophisticated bar aboard a grand old steam liner . Whilst the Golden Age of the steamers might be long gone, there is still a place where you can sip a Sazerac amidst the stylish surroundings of an […]
The Places Left Behind
We’ve spent countless hours tracking down and exploring abandoned places; from asylums, prisons and Victorian houses, to Cold War missile bases and derelict mansions from the Gilded Age. By and large, most of these places have been stripped bare, leaving only a decaying shell of a building which once teemed […]
The Crow’s Nest – World War II’s Secret Bar
In downtown St. John’s, Newfoundland, there is an old warehouse overlooking the harbour, that looks as anonymous as all the other brick buildings surrounding it. At least until you look at the roof. For protruding out of the flat roof, is what appears to be a rather unusual looking aerial. […]
Time to Enroll at Oddball University!
Autumn is fast approaching, and with it the beginning of a new school term. Whilst Oxford, Cambridge, Princeton and Yale all undoubtedly have their charms, there’s only one seat of higher education where you can learn all about the Room of Forgotten Souls, where to find the world’s largest Bowie […]
The Ruins of the White Lake Mansion House Hotel
Overlooking a beautiful lake in New York’s Catskills is a large crumbling ruin. Painted completely white, its peeling paint, two wrap around porches and imposing grandeur wouldn’t look out of place in a Louisiana plantation. The vast lawns that stretch down to the lakeside are over grown, and it lies […]
How Robert Peary Discovered an Arctic Island That Didn’t Exist
In the archives of the American Geographical Society is a map of the Arctic Ocean dating from over a century ago that has a peculiar secret. For just north of Greenland, at roughly 100’ longitude west of Greenwich, it shows an island called Crocker Land, annotated ‘Seen By Peary, 1906’. […]