In
the north east of England, situated besides the coast, an industrial goliath, iconic in
it’s remarkable history, sits waiting for it’s fate three quarters of the way through
it’s demise. The staggering complex is known as Redcar
Blast Furnace, standing at an intimidating 365ft and is currently abandoned after being
mothballed in 2015. It is the last survivor of a formidable era
in British Steel production, still bearing all of the powerful machinery used to generate
iron in a dangerous fashion. In today’s Urbandoned video, we infiltrated
the site with hopes of reaching the summit of the structure without capture. Although we wouldn’t know it yet, this would
be one of our favourite explorations we have ever fulfilled. Join us as we cover the entirety of the blast
furnace to see what remains. Alistair: Thank you. Alex: Thank you very much. Alistair: What is that you’re reading? Alex: This is actually Issue #1 of the Urbandoned
magazine. Alistair: Ohh - what’s inside it? Alex: It’s got a lot of behind the scenes
stories of the YouTube channel Urbandoned’s explores. It’s very interesting! Alistair: Hmm, so I guess you would say it’s
quite immersive? Alex: It’s very immersive. It also features a guest article from one
of their friends. Alistair: Ahh. Would you recommend it to people watching? Alex: I’d definitely recommend it to people
watching. Alistair: And where can they get it? Alex: You can get it on the Urbandoned website,
on the store. http://UrbandonedTeam.com. Alistair: Ohh - is it available any time soon? Alex: It’s actually releasing today, I believe. This is a pre-released version that I managed
to get my hands on. Alistair: Hmm, isn’t that good? For an exclusive insight into the location
shown in today’s video, the lead article features all the details we chose not to include
in this episode. The magazine is now available to purchase
on our website at a limited number! It was daybreak. You join us as we make our way from the depths
of the facility up towards it’s peak. So far, we had travelled a long way to reach
this point and with the promises of a seaside sunrise awaiting above, there was still work
to be done to make it a reality. Step after step, we eventually arrived at
one of the highest levels of the furnace, surrounding us, an industrial wasteland, some
sections active and others disused. The sun was breaking on the horizon casting
a picturesque, orange glow onto the landscape. Alistair: This is absolutely crazy! Here, you can see the coke works and various
gas towers. The whole area is industry and you get the
best view of it from here. I think we’re going to save the top top
for later, but I’m definitely going to do it. I’m not sure about the others yet. Oh my god! At heights of 110m, equal to St Paul’s Cathedral,
the towering mesh of machines and connectors is a visible staple on the skyline for the
locals of the nearby Redcar town. This crane looks quite modern or in good condition
for something that is left restricted at the top of this blast furnace. The paint scheme seems pretty intact. There goes a patrol. We’re just hoping at this point that we
don’t get seen. This place is genuinely amazing, though… We could have spent forever at the summit
of the blast furnace, despite the high winds and visibility from below, feeling that the
spellbinding views of the alternate, unique industrial structures being covered and revealed
by clouds was compensation. However, knowing that the main machinery lied
downwards, we inevitably had to start descending. Alistair: We’re making our way down, slowly
and steadily, because the staircase is pretty dangerous. You’re scared of heights so this is not
your forte. Theo: Yeah, it’s not my thing at all. Alistair: I mean, look at this! Theo: This, in particular. Alistair: We’ve got a patrol car over there. Might cross that later. Alistair: The whole roof has been removed
on that building. That was the first one we came into. Theo: It’s weird. They’ve definitely done some work here,
because some of these stairs are new, compared to some of the ones that are a lot more rusty. Alistair: Yeah, I wonder how long ago it was. Theo: There’s also been a survey on the
building, because yellow marks on the floor are marking dangerous areas. Alistair: It’s all just making it’s way
down with these massive pipes that seem to travel off in every direction. Theo: It’s been decaying for so long that
even foliage has started to grow up here. Alistair: It’s quite amazing! Everywhere you look is industry and especially
close-up, all of this is for the blast furnace really and for the production of steel. Theo: It’s so strange being outside, but
almost inside at the same time and being level with the chimney, that high, straight ahead
of us. Alistair: Yeah, some of these sorts of industrial
places are amazing - the way that they are built. It looks so out of the ordinary, but it’s
all done for one purpose. Theo: We are a little clueless on parts of
the building, but we are having a look through on our phones as we go. I’m sure we’ll have something about the
process, as well. Theo: So, we’re heading downstairs again. There is so many layers to this structure
and each one, although they seem repetitive, plays an individual part in the process. Alistair: I think we’re finally going to
be going inside for the first time. Theo: Yeah, it will make a nice change. This looks really complicated. Theo: Each valve has their own reference number. Alistair: First, I thought this was burnt
out, but that’s just the effects of steel in the production process - almost chars everything. These buildings often look dilapidated and
destroyed, but they are very structurally sound. The only time they are not is when the metal
gets a bit rusty. Even though the state of the furnace appears
impossible to understand, the process is really quite simple. Like most buildings of this nature we have
seen in the past, it works with a vertical, downwards process. At Redcar, coke would be continuously supplied
from nearby ovens via the long conveyor belt protruding from the top, whilst a hot blast
of air is blown into the lower portion, therefore, the chemical reaction occurs as the material
falls through the huge pipes, resulting in molten iron at the base. This site alone could produce a whopping 10,000
tonnes in one day. Alistair: The sun has finally come out. Everything’s glowing! I wanted to see what these huge pipes are
with spherical tops, because I’m not too sure. Obviously, I’ll find out what they were,
but they are very big - go all the way down to the ground. Alistair: There’s a network of pipes. There’s writing on these - I think - measurements,
maybe done by workers when there was no paper available. I think there’s four of them and they are
all aligned. All seems very random when you look at it
with no clue of what’s going on, but it’s all carefully placed and designed. Alistair: It looks like some sort of admin
block, there. Really want to get inside that - could house
a nice control room. In a good position to analyse the structure
for the first time in daylight, we could truly appreciate it’s design and organisation
as an engineering marvel. Constructed in 1979, it was the largest in
the UK at the time and the second largest in Europe. The area of Teesside became notorious for
housing blast furnaces, at one time in the 20th century boasting over 100, but this final
relic seems to be the most beloved of the lot as the last one standing. Alistair: Need to be careful with the torchlight,
but this is directly below the valves above. The whole process is downwards from the top. The conveyor would take coal up, which is
why there is a huge coal yard and the power station we looked at would power that and
everything really, so there’s a coal yard for that, as well, but it would all be done
by coal and the molten steel would slowly move down until it was ready to be exported. Incredibly confusing, but a simple process
in hindsight. I guess that’s what you could say. It’s fascinating to look through, though. Theo: We’re finally inside at the bottom
of the furnace. Makes it feel a bit more abandoned in here
- well, at least there’s more items for us to look at, such as these forklifts. You can see how much dust they’ve gathered
after being sat here for years. Also, you’re getting a sense of scale, never
mind how tall this structure is, but this particular hall is huge. Just look at that! Each side of the hall is a mirror image, so
the crane and the gantries are all the same. Alistair: This it it! This is the main attraction of this place. Theo: It’s not disappointing either. Alistair: No. Finally can tick this off the list. Theo: We’ve been waiting to do one of these
for a while - this one in particular. Alistair: Yeah. This is where the process comes to a conclusion,
I’m pretty sure. In the two big sheds, the reason why there’s
large exporting doors is because it would all be transported out and taken somewhere else. Having found ourselves at the foundation of
the complex, we had come to the tuyeres, which is the network of pipes that would inject
a deadly hot blast of air into the furnace, to cause the transition of materials. 1988, the year of privatisation of the steel
industry in the UK. Margaret Thatcher and her government had gathered
knowledge that the production was doing exceptionally well and invested more than £100 million
into the works. The prime minister is said to have paved the
way for it’s shutdown, enabling cheap foreign imports from Russia, China and America. Amidst Redcar steelworks, the amount of blast
furnaces wasn’t at the number it once was, with this one being the sole reminder of an
innovative past, bigger and more powerful than all of it’s predecessors. The industry was becoming less profitable
every day and because of this, the site was passed from owner to owner from 2007 for brief
durations. Alistair: This is absolutely incredible! Feels like such a privilege to see one of these
in real life. Such an intimidating machine, but designed
so well and if you look up, you can see the entire blast furnace, all the way to the peak. By 2015, international market conditions had
left the steel industry at an all time low. Since 2015 a year onward, 5000 steel related
jobs had been lost in Britain, unable to compete with knocked down prices elsewhere. The current owner of Redcar, SSI, went into
liquidation, extinguishing the furnace and ending the immense spell of steel production
in the region. Theo: This room is immense and it’s such
a nice contrast to be able to explore this compared to the tight walkways at height. The fact that the roof and the walls have
gone allows for all this foliage to be growing. Now, this room here, or building should I
say, is looking like a control room. Looks like at the top there, it had some look
out points and the electrical boxes are really selling it. So, I’ll see if there is anything left. It is, yeah! Nice silver panel in here. It’s definitely for the blast furnace by
the looks of it. That says ‘blast furnace technology’ at
the top. It’s definitely an operational desk, as
well. Probably moved part of the furnace itself,
or different machinery. Wandering through the colossal hall at the
base of the blast furnace, we were surprised at the amount of overgrowth developing. Whilst it was being swapped from company to
company over the last two decades, at times, it would sit dormant in between takeovers. Perhaps, this deterioration would take place
then and has progressed since due to the missing roof. Theo: We’re in the opposite side now, which
as I referenced earlier, is a mirror image as you can see. However, by the looks of it, this side has
a lot less greenery and it looks like a bit of demolition work has been going on, maybe
along with some roof collapses in places, which is why it looks like there is a lot
of stuff scattered about. Inside itself, there is nowhere near as much
growth and the central attraction piece, here, is completely different compared to the opposite
side. Alistair: These are the tracks I was referencing. Some sort of vehicle would come through here
and export the finished steel. Nowadays, it’s blocked off and cut off and
all that remains is a valley in it’s place. You can see all the demolition work going
on, even a digger in the distance, too. So much scrap metal, I wonder where it all
goes. Using the vast gap in the building to make
our way outside, we were curious to check a few of the smaller properties next to the
premises. Firstly, we looked at what we believed to
be an admin block with our fingers crossed for a dated control room. Alistair: Lovely Art Deco staircase. Heading straight for the control room that’s
on a map near the reception at the bottom, because a quick look at everything else makes
it seem that it’s gutted. Maybe, this one? Yeah, this is it. It’s extremely modern, very disappointing… Probably was old, you can see, there, windows
behind a new plasterboard, so they probably had an older one, but replaced it with monitors
as opposed to panels. These two here look a bit older, though. Alistair: This is an indicator of how hot
it would get - some of the temperatures are on here. All these gauges would record them. Unfortunately, the brain of the facility was
not as old-fashioned as we had craved. It turned out that the majority of the space
was uninteresting, stripped of anything valuable and modernised before closure. Theo: These are the offices, or one side of
them. Judging here, they look the be the better
side. You can see there is lots of documents left. This one, here, has what looks like technical
workings related to the blast furnace on here. I wouldn’t be able to tell you what any
of the numbers or letters mean, but it’s very cool to see that it’s still in place. Alistair: A lot more offices. Sadly, this building wasn’t as good as we
thought it would be, but still cool, to see a bit more of the admin side as opposed to
the industry. This place really does have everything. Alistair: Couple of really cool instruments
I just spotted, passing this room, although I couldn’t begin to tell you what they are. That is a ‘ratemeter’ apparently. This here, a ‘cartridge recorder.’ Comes in it’s own case. We wouldn’t anticipate that this building
will be protected in the near future, but thankfully, some features in the blast furnace
are planned to be collected as a way to recognise the significance of the structure. Demolition was announced some time ago and
smaller outbuildings have been flattened already. Currently, the furnace stands tall and as
impressive as ever. Alistair: Apparently - the pump house. Wow! This is a longer row than I thought it would
be. 1, 2, 3, 4… I’d say there is about seven in here. Some of them are much older than others - I
feel like they were constantly replacing. There was one more task we wanted to complete
before we vacated the derelict grounds. Earlier on, we had been very high yet not
to the official maximum height we could ascend to. We felt that it was absolutely necessary to
manage this, especially with the probability that we will not revisit Redcar again. Once we had arrived at the crest of the goliath,
surpassing the area we had traversed to in the morning, it was the ideal way to finish
our mission. Seeing this territory in a way that few will,
luckily before the furnace is brought down from the proud location it seems natural in,
we were totally overwhelmed and felt honoured. It’s destiny is likely sealed, so we really
hope that we covered it to our best ability. If you thought so, feel free to like the video
and subscribe to never miss a future upload. Here are some of our photographs captured
at Redcar Blast Furnace. If you like the look of them, check out our
Instagram page below, where we share images of the places we explore months before they
are shared on YouTube. We also offer prints of certain locations
on our website, also linked in the description. Thanks for watching! If you are interested in reading more details
about this exploration, see the Urbandoned website to purchase Issue #1 of our official
magazine. See you next time!
