The Princess Drain featuring a brick laden flume chamber. So low key and easy to access, with curbside parking and a 3 meter hike. Even a princess wearing high heels, while taking a selfie could access. Hence the name Princess Drain. It even has slots built into the walls, to place your lamps for exposure shots.It is a sizable storm drain, draining an urban shopping zone with its showcase double flume chamber feature, no further then 8ft inside. Keep reading more below….
This drain was accidentally found on google maps while searching for directions to a newly relocated supermarket. A small stream appeared out of nowhere, from underneath a parking lot, emptying out into a park/wooded area. Any urban explorer or drainer would be highly suspicious potential drain and at the time, the GPS was simply highlighted and saved/bookmarked on Google maps and left be.
Months later, an hour of free time came about after a 13 hour banger at work and I already was in the vicinity and spontaneously decided to explore and confirm its existence. The last time I spontaneously did some urban exploration was over a year so I was itching to get out and get some more fresh content. Ironically it began to drizzle, as soon after I pulled into the parking lot. Shaking my head, speaking into the rolling GoPro “When it Rains, Stay Out of Drains”. I am already here, Im just going to check it out and confirm the existence of something worthwhile. While pulling into the parking lot, it became very apparent that access to this drain would be extremely easy. Already I would see the line of trees, hiding the urban stream dead ending into the parking lot.
I literally park next to a short foot path leading into the park or veer left down into the drainage basin. Boom there it was, a sizable 6ft drain with corresponding slanted concrete walls, laid out into its foundation. Princess Drains most notable and worthwhile features is not more then 2-3 meters inside. Two 130cm concrete drains join into the one 2 meter drain. This was accomplished by constructing a brick laden flume chamber.
The one left sided drain does not go back very far, as a brick wall can barely be seen standing at its mouth. The second right sided drain, leads out toward the direction of the road and was later penetrated. Curiosity left ungoverned, one could hypothesize “What if it connects into the old system, what if this pipe served as an overflow (CSO)?”. Later exploration & penetration of this section proved that, following this tunnel, all the way out to the road, the tunnel simple continues after a corner. The corner consisted of a nice brick laden section before continuing onward, following the direction of the street.
