Expedition Site 4, Expedition 6, May 30th 2009, Belgium

This time our trip is closer to home. Not far from where I live a few jewels are preserved and waiting to be photographed.

 

In 1895, a man called EDP and his sons created an enterprise driven by a steam mill. In 1927 a weaver was added on the site that counted 300 workers at that time. During the second world war, the factory was heavily damaged in bombardments and was reconstructed and started operating again despite of that destruction. The company was flourishing and in 1963 a company, that was property of the same owners, joined the factory grounds. They were manufacturers of undergarments. The weaver closed its doors in 1976, but the lingerie company continued to work for another six years after until in 1982 it had to close down as well.

The principal feature of the site is a cooling tower. That tower represents perfectly how enforced concrete is used for cooling and it replaced an old tower made from wood. The old tower was destroyed in 1967. The tower is considered as an remarkable achievement as part of the construction that is very rare in Flanders. The whole place is part of steam turbines linked to a cooling system that feeds the tower.

Since 1982 the whole grounds were purchased by the city that uses the place as a sort of stockade or warehouse. The original technical installations of the company have disappeared from the site. The big boiler and the chimney were demolished by the city in the end of the eighties.

The demolishing works in and around the factory will start soon in march or june 2009. The objective is creating a housing project with about 70 houses, a sports center and a small green park for having a small section of nature around. From what I gathered the parc will keep a remains of the cooling tower, a steam turbine and the base of the chimney. They will be the last witnesses of a soon to be disappeared weaver.

 

Around 9 a.m. a couple of friends arrived at my house. We had an urbex day planned and so it shall be done!
We knew our first objective and after picking someone up we went onsite to check it out. Getting on the grounds wasn't so difficult, but getting inside was a somewhat harder task. After finding our way in (involving crawling underneath some fences), we were in detail-walhalla! All remnants of old factories, old machinery and paperworks left behind there. It was just magnificent.
One person was along for the first time as she had to do an open assignment for school. She is studying photography and tought that urbex was a nice branch to have an assignment on. She had a blast as well and I think another one got infected with the virus...

We had a great time there and after a couple of hours we were finished and went back home to see what the afternoon had in store for us.