I'm a student nurse by day and an urban explorer of abandoned buildings by night... and I hate pigeons

Mark ‘Marko’ Antony, who goes by Marko Explores, is in his second year as a nursing student at university and, when he needs a break from studying, finds himself indulging in a spot of urban exploring, ‘climbing down coal chutes and up trough open windows’, in his own words.

Described as ‘the exploration of manmade structures, usually abandoned ruins or hidden components in forgotten buildings’, urban exploring is becoming increasingly popular, with Marko enticed to try it himself after seeing a friend called Lewis, who runs the TikTok account urbexlew, document his own expeditions on Snapchat.

“One of my mates posted a snap of him in this rundown school, so I messaged him asking where he was and what he was doing,” says Marko. “He explained it to me and the next day I went out myself to this school. It felt a bit iffy, like should I be here? Anyway, I spoke to Lewis and we decided to do it again.

“We joined a load of communities on Facebook and went from there,” said Marko, who now has his own Facebook page and TikTok account as well. “I get an adrenaline rush when I’m in places - when I was in the school, it was daytime, but it was dark inside, so it played with my mind a bit. And I could hear things like pigeons; one flew out and gave me a heart attack.

“I started to run, but then caught myself like ‘what am I running for?’ I hate pigeons now!”

Last week, Marko and Lewis crossed the Pennines to explore the abandoned La Parisienne Hotel on the Promenade in Blackpool. The paid came across the hotel by accident, having originally travelled to Lancashire to explore the old Bonny Street Police Station, only to find it sealed up and inaccessible.

“Thinking it would be a wasted journey, we passed La Parisienne and went back to have a look,” said Marko. “There was a window out, so we climbed in. There were chairs everywhere, a bar area, and a pool table in really good knick! But part of the roof had come down from the floor above.

“The higher we went, the more and more decayed and ruined it was and I think a lot of homeless people had been staying there because there were a lot of old blankets and clothes scattered around,” said Marko. “The majority of the rooms still had beds and furniture in them, while the kitchen had a load of plates, cups, and cutlery scattered about.

“One of the nicest rooms was the sun lounge - the whole front of it was overlooking the beach and the sea - but the top floor was practically owned by pigeons, so I had to come back down because they were just flying about all over.”

Marko says there’s plenty of excitement in exploring old, forgotten places, but that it can be daunting at times too. 

“It can be scary on your own, I must admit,” he said. “I try not to go out on my own too much - me and Lewis go out together, which is much safer when you’re going to sketchy places with loose and decaying floorboards where, if anything happened, you’d be absolutely knackered.”