M.O.D Testing Site, Woolwich Arsenal

This large government domain has been predominantly abandoned for the past 10 years yet still remains strict Ministry of Defence property on the East side of Woolwich Arsenal in London.

As with most MOD sites one of the few tell tale signs left behind of the building’s former usage can be detected in the quantity of mistrustful signage above laboratories resembling an ode made to staff paranoia and its iconography.

These age old warnings which have stood the ravage of time now speak only of neglect and can be found scattered over the site, adorning office doors with notices such as ‘Lock all cabinets after use’ and office doors and cupboards plastered with stickers such as ‘you never know who’s watching’ ‘watch your work’ and numerous others.

The far site boundary of these beautifully overgrown buildings borders on the edge of Britains infamous Belmarsh Prison which was recently re-named by the media as The UK’s own ‘Guantanamo Bay’.

The Prison’s walls from the far edge of the site stretch out into the horizon like an endless wall of reinforced metal and from the rooftop of a nearby three story high laboratory office block you can survey the immense inner prison confines.