ICI Mond House - Winnington
Since its closure in 2014 this site has been repeatedly visited by urban explorers, even now in the present day people sneak around the mostly vacant site. There’s different things to see dotted around the site but due to it being part active there’s a constant security presence in the form of multiple vehicles, routine walk arounds and CCTV cameras. Because to this exploring in the night isn’t really do able as it wouldn’t take long before the waving around of a torch would give the game away so the only way to do it realistically is in the day time with stealth.
We made our approach down by the river following it until we were parallel with our intended point of entry, we realized that the brambles and presence of a security car opposite would make us have to re think our approach. After re tracing our steps we made it on site further up away from the car and decided to head for some bushes that followed the buildings most of the way to our target. We made a break for it trying to avoid the multiple security cameras as much as possible, a few minutes later the security car slowly drove past where we had just been, unsure whether they were responding to our presence or just on routine patrol we hunkered down until they passed.
These brambles were far worse than google earth led us to believe but with our only other option being to walk down the main roadway towards where the security car was likely to be parked up again we decided to slowly press on. After around half an hour of painful progress, stopping every so often whilst workers opposite strolled past we made it to what seemed like a derelict section of building. This was infact part of the Mond house offices and we seem to have made it in undetected.
We began traipsing through the derelict offices taking in the ordain meeting rooms, defunct science labs and one of the most packed out archives Ive ever seen. After spending most of the day mooching around we decided to leave as dusk was approaching, knowing we had to battle the brambles once more it made sense to do it as it started to get dark to give us the advantage of cover. The exit was more of the same and uneventful, eventually just making a quick dash for the river and out to the road.
History
“In the 1860s, while serving as an office manager at Hutchinson in Widnes, John Tomlinson Brunner met Ludwig Mond, who was working there as a chemist. Mond soon decided to establish a factory to produce alkali using the ammonia-soda process, and Brunner joined him as a partner. Their factory at Winnington opened in 1873 and eventually grew into Brunner Mond & Co. Ltd, the world’s largest producer of soda ash. In 1926, Brunner Mond merged with several other leading chemical companies to form Imperial Chemical Industries (ICI). The Winnington Works specialised in producing sodium carbonate (soda ash) and its derivatives, including sodium bicarbonate and sodium sesquicarbonate. The site gained additional fame in 1933 when polythene was accidentally discovered in its laboratories during high-pressure reaction experiments. In 1991, the Winnington Works were divested to the newly re-established Brunner Mond company, which was later acquired by Tata in 2006 and rebranded as Tata Chemicals Europe in 2011. Production of soda ash and calcium chloride at the site ended in February 2014, concluding 140 years of soda ash production in Northwich. However, the site’s head office and sodium bicarbonate production facility remain operational at Winnington”.
