No doubt, this is a mysterious building. There is no reliable information about this abandoned building on the Internet. Impossible to corroborate the details found here and there. Indeed, even the name of the building can’t be confirmed. While some call it Geo(rge) W. Reed, others say the building's name is not correct. They are talking about past owners like Babcock & Wilcox, Western Steel, Westell, Rosco and Dominic Vadela rembourrage.

However, by visiting the Geo W. Reed's building, some facts remain. First of all, a part of the building has been burned. I would tend to suggest that the fire was probably a work of vandalism since it seems like the fire started in a small room filled with carpet rolls. The flames overran the stairs located next to the room, but with no heavy damage. Apart from walls blackened by smoke, the concrete structure was not affected by the fire.

My second observation is that the foundations have been completely destroyed. They even dug about six feet (almost two meters). Again, I do not know the exact reason, but after seeing all these piles of industrial waste, I'll point an accusing finger at the owner who seems to have used the site to unload tons of industrial waste. Maybe he dug to allow trucks to easily unload their soil mixed with household waste, concrete blocks and other construction residues without hitting the ceiling?

My last observation is about how crowded the old abandoned plant was. During the seven hours that we were there, we met a dozen people, among them taggers, filmmakers and photographers. And as we were leaving, we even met two teenagers fearful at the thought of entering. "Heard that this place is haunted" one of them said.

Sorry kids but we didn't see anything...

Babcock & Wilcox around the world

While its headquarters are located in Charlotte, North Carolina state, USA, Babcock & Wilcox still operates several plants around the world including in Canada, China, Denmark, Sweden, Mexico, India and many more. More than 12,000 people work for the company. Founded in 1867 by Stephen Wilcox and George Babcock, the company gave up on many of its restructuring plans, that resulting in several abandoned factories, including one in Sestao in Spain that you can visit on Urbex Playground.