When I was a kid
A mate took me to a secret location, which turned out to be an ordinary looking drain cover at the edge of a park. The cover was locked, but the earth had been scraped away beside the concrete block it was set in, and we could squeeze through.

It turned out to be a side-entrance to Newhaven Fort, a military fort built into the side of a cliff. It's a museum these days, but back then it was completely derelict and abandoned - a maze of tunnels which would lead to barracks, control rooms or emerge unexpectedly onto gun emplacements set into the cliff face.

A place of wonder and enchantment, for a young lad. Imagine being led into the interior of the Great Pyramid. I remember one stairway which led down into the bowels of the earth; the roof was flat so got deeper and deeper, and half way down you had to go under a huge block of fallen masonry that was jammed half way down.

I can't face going there now, all sanitised and made safe; it would destroy a cherished memory.
(moon monkey is busy making memories worth repressing, Mon 11 Apr 2011, 13:51, Reply)