Level Two is offline

April 16th, 2008

With some sadness I report that level-two.co.uk, a website showcasing the incredible urban explores of my good buddy snappel, has been retired. Snapps introduced me to the joys of being places you weren’t supposed to be a few years back, and with him I crept, crawled and climbed onto some of the best rooftops in Liverpool – not least the X building, the Beetham West Tower crane, Martins Bank, Heaps Rice Mill, Stanley Dock Clock Tower, the Prudential Buildings, Exchange Flags, and many, many more. We fled angry security guards, got caught a few times, and saw some beautiful sights.

Snappel himself is a titan of the urban exploration scene, notching up hundreds of sites across Europe, including cranes, abandoned hospitals and asylums, drains, factories, catacombs, a submarine, industrial sites, old theme parks, and more. And this is likely to increase, as he hasn’t hung up his boots yet. However, snapps feels that has outgrown the exploring community:

‘Urban Exploration’ is no good. With those two words alone, too many rules have already been laid down. When undertaken as a group effort, something that should be an escape from the dull, robotic community in which we live seems to, in fact, be just a smaller version of it. Rules and fears, insecurities and conflicts.

Snappel hasn’t ruled out opening Level Two again. You can see his website as it stands here, along with his thoughts on retiring it. If you’d like to see his explores, visit the UE forum 28DL. Snappel is a resourceful man whose spent years pushing his limits, so it’s exciting to think of what he’ll do next. Hopefully it’ll include pictures.

Entry Filed under: General