MoD Aquila (Part One)

Kent, UK - Simon Cornwell - Wednesday, June 7th, 2006 : goo

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For some inexplicable reason, I like walking around old derelict sites and buildings. There's aspects of urban decay I find interesting, whilst I enjoy the freedom of 'not having to stick to the tour.' You can wonder off where your heart takes you.

This is part of a series of urban explorations of the UK from my website: www.simoncornwell.com/urbex

Almost a month after I took these pictures, the site was demolished. New, much needed, but ultimately dull housing is now being constructed. Welcome to the final days of Aquila.

It was a glorious April morning when I met up with Jon-Doe www.sub-urban.com, Marlon and our guide, Dr. Bob. Indeed, the three of us didn't know what to expect (having received just a few pictures of some non-descript buildings from Dr. Bob) but everyone was agreed: this would make a nice change from those dirty old hospitals we spent so much time in.

Through the main gates and Aquila stretched away into the distance. We walked to the crossroads and paused.

Aquila, in many ways, was a rather different exploration. Firstly, I was offered the chance to explore the buildings, neither having discovered, nor researched the location. Secondly, when I’d been given some details, I couldn’t find anything else about it. MOD Aquila was a secret, silent place.

And thirdly, before even putting one picture up, people were e-mailing me. Aquila piqued the curiosity of many, so I was somewhat privileged just to have got in through the main gates. And given the secrecy, and the rules governing the site, I doubt if there are any other photographs of it.

This part of the site appeared to be constructed from 1930s block houses with two storey reception rooms. Looking the other way revealed a similar building, this one backed with a large modern office building. We elected to move into the building we’d first seen, leaving the sun and warmth outside.

A liquid nitrogen store guarded the main entrance. Rather odd, we all thought. Luckily there was no liquid nitrogen as I think we’d have ‘amused’ ourselves with it to no end – until someone managed to freeze a limb off.

Inside we found a reception room cluttered with miscellaneous bits and pieces. The site was still being cleared, and odd pieces of equipment had ended up in here.

Once inside the reception room, we found ourselves in the main spine corridor. Apart from the odd fridge and stool, the “Standards and Calibration Acoustic Noise Measurement Facility” was largely stripped.

Some clues could be found, as this empty wooden rack revealed. Obviously some form of acoustic testing had gone on in this building. But why? And for whom?

Some offices remained well equipped, although the filing cabinets were all empty. Not that we’d have been permitted to take anything anyway. And all I was after was a map of the site.

Walking along the corridor, we found a large room with a small concrete acoustic chamber set into one side. The length and the positions of the detection equipment within the chamber could be altered by pulling up a concrete block.

This was nothing compared to the acoustic chamber we found at the end of the corridor. An entire room was covered with spiked foam. We ventured in. Every surface in the small room was covered in shaped foam. The sound inside was immediately dampened and the effect was rather unnerving.

Far more fun was the fact that the floor was sprung. It was like jumping up and down on a large mattress. Even the door had the necessary acoustic foam stuck to it.

"[This] is an "Anechoic Chamber". It's used for measuring all aspects of sound - it is a room that completely absorbs echoes and reverberations, so that you can precisely measure the direction and level of sound coming from a loudspeaker (or any other sound generator)."

"If you sit in them on your own for more than a minute or so, you start to hear the blood rushing round your head... They aren't very nice places to get stuck in!" - Tom

There's more on them here: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anechoic_chamber

The door to the room was similar to a safe. We did talk about experimenting by locking someone in there with the lights off, but decided (probably wisely) that it might be asking for trouble.

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Biff: No woman, no cry...

Michael: This is great, I did my apprenticeship there.

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