The incident sparked an ongoing court case alleging damage to government property and aggravating vehicle taking. Three months later an unassociated group of explorers was arrested after accidently derailing a small electric train on a one-off joyride on London's mail rail, a 23-mile underground network that carried post until 2003. Otter says: "The police pretty quickly realised our intentions and let us go with a caution." Their laptops, cameras and hard drives were confiscated. The explorers were put in cells and interviewed. "But because of the wedding we ended up with detectives much higher up." "Normally we would have been dished off to the graffiti squad," Otter says. After infiltrating 200 sites across the city over 10 years and getting away with it, they were busted. They were interrupted by a shout: "Get on the ground!"ĬCTV operators had alerted British transport police, who had issued a terror alert. When the battery on their camera went flat, they got ready to leave. Like their other trips – to the roof of St Paul's cathedral, the London Olympic Stadium, Battersea power station – they were careful to leave things as they found them graffiti is taboo for urban explorers. And then, like hikers who'd reached the best view from the mountain, they saw the forest-green tiles of the platform edge.įor the next four hours they photographed the ticket halls, deserted walkways and antique lift system. But as one explorer, Otter, wrote on his website, Silent UK: "At any moment the track on which we stood could have gone live, its guest of honour a 40mph mass of iron and steel singing our last goodbyes."įrom Holborn they noticed the rails turn rusty and saw piles of flyers collecting at the tunnel's edges. Their expedition was between 2am and 3am, when only maintenance trains are in use. Officers searched lampposts and traffic lights for hidden bombs 35 sniffer dogs scoured for traces of explosives armed commandos trained to counter gun attacks and squads of police monitored the internet for potential plots.Īnd below the city, four members of the London Consolidation Crew exploration collective were running on the tracks. Above ground, one of the biggest security operations in the history of the Metropolitan police was swinging into action at an estimated cost of £20m. To avoid a regular tube service, the explorers chose Easter Monday – four days before the wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
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