This weekend a group of friends and myself decided to go urban exploring at a former P.O.W. camp just east of Toronto outside of Bowmanville. The camp is referred to as Camp 30.
Camp 30 was originally a school for “unadjusted boys who were not inherently delinquent”, that was turned into a P.O.W. Camp during World War II, and then subsequently turned back into a school afterwards. Camp 30 was last used in 2008 which we found really surprising given the state of the buildings. Initially we thought the place hadn’t been used since World War II however that didn’t make much sense either when we noticed the materials and building practices that had been used in many of the interior portions.
Here’s a satellite image of the whole compound. I’ve placed some numbers on the buildings for reference with the photos below.
Building One
This building looked like a mess hall, I mean the kind that served food not just it’s current state of being. From the outside we thought it had three stories, but clearly it did not.
Building Two
Not really sure what this one would have been for, but I like how these photos turned out. The second one I think is better than the first.
Building Three
Took these two photos for very simple reasons. The first one, the elephant in the room. The second one because I watch John Green on YouTube, and while I’ve never read nor watched Paper Towns that quote and those initials stuck out at me immediately.
Building Four
This building was probably the most colourful and interesting, lots of big and mostly well done graffiti. The basketball court looks like it’d be a bit difficult to play on now, full of holes and wood that would probably break if you jumped on it.
Surveillance
The whole site was monitored with solar powered camera stations like this one. Slightly amusingly an old man told us to leave because the fines were hefty, but he was there too with a small group of people walking around. I think he suspected we were hoodlums and spray painting and destroying things because we rode motorcycles and had backpacks on. I dunno, I thought it was a bit hypocritical. Regardless, we did not deface anything, damage anything, or take anything.
I’d never really gone urban exploring prior to this excursion; it was an interesting experience and I think I’d like to do more of it.
