D
uring recent years there has been a dramatic rise in
London-based “Urban Exploration” involving youths trespassing into commercial premises, posing a significant ongoing threat to business and organisations.
Urban Exploration is an activity in which participants explore, climb and photograph structures and remains a significant ongoing threat to businesses and organisations across the United Kingdom.
Typically, the targeted structures are either ongoing building projects or iconic high-rise buildings in an urban environment. The nature of this activity presents a variety of risks, including physical danger to the climber on a business’s property, disruption to business operations in terms of building evacuations as a result and reputational damage. The activity has a global coverage, where individuals regularly post images and videos of their endeavours across multiple social media platforms, and is viewed by millions.
Threats from Urban Exploration
The threats from Urban Exploration are varied, with the most prominent being the risk of legal action against the targeted building’s owners should an individual suffer serious or fatal injuries. In December 2017, a prolific Chinese urban explorer, Wu Yongning, died after falling from a 62-storey building in the city of Changsha, China.
The legal case over liability and compensation between Wu Yongning’s family and the building’s owners is still ongoing. Brand reputation is also an issue for targeted buildings, mostly due to the video content being posted on social media platforms and successful climbs shared amongst the Urban Exploration
community. In some cases, criminal
damage has been “carried out” in order to gain entry. Security prevention measures such as mag-
locks have been unscrewed and shutters forced open.
The activity is likely to continue to pose a significant threat to London- based businesses, partly due to the large-scale building works that are currently taking place in areas such as Canary Wharf and Wembley. This constant development will continue to attract the current urban explorers, encourage a future generation and copycat individuals to target these locations. The ongoing threat to London is primarily due to its prestige as one of the most famous cities in the world and its tall iconic
buildings which offer a unique view of the London skyline.
A number of the previously targeted buildings in London are amongst the
tallest and most well known. Prominent sporting stadiums across the city have also been targeted by a prolific group of urban explorers.
6 © CI TY S ECURI TY MAGAZ INE – S PRING 2020 www. c i t y s e cu r i t yma g a z i n e . c om
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
