The Dunlop/Slazenger Factory

Abandoned alert!

Little known fact: I am a bandit for abandoned. If it's old, broke, deserted or forgot, I want a piece of it. From ghost towns along empty highways to dead and empty factories, there's something about these places that gets me humming.

The place is huge, there are tunnels and gutted warehouses with the skeletons of their once-roof exposed to the sky, there's diggers and heavy machinery, site offices and engine rooms, dark stairwells and crevices.

If you walk around it you can peep in windows and see all manners of schtuff. Seeeeecret schtuff.

This is one of the few gems left in Sydney - being a city in a relatively new country, we don't have a lot of history, we certainly don't have many ruins. Being a photographer, one thing I'm absolutely obsessed with is the concept of modern day ruins. The old Dunlop/Slazenger Factory in Bowden St Alexandria is an abandoned factory, that hasn't yet been destroyed and another shiny new one built in it's place. In fact, the whole place looks like everyone just stopped what they were doing one day and walked out, leaving the gates unlocked, and files and products lying around everywhere! After being unoccupied for at least the last 20 or so years, it has of course been adopted as such as a so-called Studio for Sydney's graffiti artists. This place is a feast for the eyes! One visit simply is not enough! It's like an urban art gallery of colour, machinery, poetic and political messages, amazing portraits including one of Heath Leger as the Joker from The Dark Knight movie, which wall-sized and absolutely amazing!

The numerous times I've been there, just to document the place by taking photos, there has been a cohort of photographers scouting the place out for their personal or professional photography purposes. This time I saw a wedding photo shoot being held there - it was absolutely amazing! Such a beautiful, technicoloured concrete jungle - contrasted against the beautiful wedding party - bride in her white dress, flower girls and groomsmen. I have also seen films being shot here by professionals too. The building seems endless - a maze of rooms and staircases that lead upstairs, downstairs and into boardrooms and safe rooms and toilets and storage rooms. There are random old school television sets lying around, and other bits of furniture like chairs and lounges, there is even a rusty old gutted out car full of vintage pornographic magazines from the '90s! Barely a beer bottle or cigarette butt in sight, this place seems like the local hanger-outers here must really respect the space they have the opportunity to use, and keep it relatively clean, surprisingly! Littered throughout the entire building are thousands empty of graffiti spray cans in all different colours.

This factory is a novelty to visit, however there is definitely something sacred and respectful about the area too. It is a little seedy, and while it's not "open to the public" so to speak, it's not "locked" closed either!

Definitely one for all you Sydney-siders who think you've seen it all!

i went past today hoping to spend some time there , but I had heard that it was closed up. Driving past the gates all seem to be locked up now. Is there another way into the building that anyone knows of? I really want to experience this.