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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Do you, or have you ever, worked in a very famous building?

233 replies

ferriswheel · 11/11/2017 20:40

I've just lost the best part of a day watching Designated Survivor and it has made me think about all of the behind-the-scenes people who work in The White House, or Buckingham Palace, or any kind of place like that.

Does anyone have any exciting stories of what it is actually like?

OP posts:
G1ggleloop · 11/11/2017 21:26

I work on London Underground. There are loads of disused stations down there. Not sure about Buckingham palace. I've been to the disused platforms at Charing Cross and Holborn. And to aldwych disused station. Really creepy down there.

pixelated · 11/11/2017 21:26

I also worked in Tower 42, formerly known as the NatWest Tower. When it was being built, I went up the outside in a workman's cradle - not very high up, but high enough!

TossDaily · 11/11/2017 21:27

I used to own and work in a building in York's Shambles.

It used to get closed for filming period dramas every now and then.

Piffpaffpoff · 11/11/2017 21:27

I worked in a very prominent, much photographed building in Edinburgh. It was great, but murder during the fringe and winter festival as you couldn’t have any windows open in the summer due to performer noise (I remember with horror on summer of the oompah band that played Crazy in Love seemingly non-stop) and then at New Year there was a funfair outside the window so even though we were two floors up there were screaming tourists swirling past our window every 10 seconds or so...

blamethecat · 11/11/2017 21:27

I studied in the building that is on the new £10 note. Not the most practical building or location for a national training college. But very lovely nice views when you were bored in lectures

HeartsTrumpDiamonds · 11/11/2017 21:28

I worked in the Sydney Opera House. Our actual offices were elsewhere but I had an access-all-areas pass which was very cool.

Inmyownlittlecorner · 11/11/2017 21:29

DH works in Buckingham Palace.
He was quite nervous when he first started, but is pretty blasé about it now. He did lose his shit when he Obama though & still talks about how great he was!

liquidrevolution · 11/11/2017 21:33

Toss I was at uni in York so know and love the Shambles. You probably had lots of historic architecture students popping in.

If it was a rather nice chocolate shop you owned I did part of my dissertation on it. Grin

BelligerentGardenPixies · 11/11/2017 21:34

I worked in a few West End Theatres.

AcrossthePond55 · 11/11/2017 21:35

Not 'famous', more interesting.

I worked for a Govt Agency that stored records in an old salt mine. I never worked there but frequently spoke to workers who did and worked there as records retrieval specialists. Meaning that they were the ones who were assigned the task of retrieving old files and records for us. Huge rooms/caverns with endless rows of files deep underground.

DerelictWreck · 11/11/2017 21:35

I work in the Houses of Parliament. Like PPs have said, you get used to ignoring the people, but the architecture and interior never gets old!

whosafraidofabigduckfart · 11/11/2017 21:36

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Lolimax · 11/11/2017 21:42

I’ve cheffed in The Tower of London. Nightmare!!

TossDaily · 11/11/2017 21:43

liquid

I used to get a historical archaeology student popping in quite a lot...one of them more often than the others

Wink
TossDaily · 11/11/2017 21:44

That made little sense, but I'm sure you get the gist.

Pollaidh · 11/11/2017 21:44

@district

I'm thinking of using it as a setting a future book as I guess it's the kind of place most people haven't seen inside. Have to be careful what I say though for obvious reasons!

Most of the buildings are big warehouses in design. The thing I probably found most fascinating as a newbie was the changing room where you go from clean to dirty. It looks a bit like a swimming pool changing room, divided in half by a sort of ridge/bench that crosses the entire room and marks the separation of contaminated zone and clean zone. You change out of your clothes and put, as an absolute minimum, a boiler suit on (whatever your seniority). You have knee length regulation socks which you tuck the trousers into, so the socks can be seen up to your knees. Then, IIRC, you swing your legs over the barrier and straight into what are almost certainly bowling shoes, without touching the ground. You then add various types of protective clothing, depending on how contaminated the zone. From gloves and white suits through to gas masks and almost astronaut type suits.

You also wear personal dosimeter at all times, which measures your annual radiation dose, this is recorded by HR, because if you exceed your annual dose you have to leave the zone for months. In heavily contaminated buildings you also have a sort of personal geiger counter clipped to your boiler suit, which crackles all the time.

You cannot eat, drink, apply lipstick or, most bizarrely, take snuff (there are signs up everywhere warning against using snuff!), basically anything that passes your lips/nose is a risk. You also have to cover any even small open wounds with dressings. If you want even a sip of water you have to leave the dirty zone, decontaminate etc, which takes bloody ages.

Most of the buildings have lots of metal walkways, very 1960s looking computer equipment, all cream ceramics. The fuel ponds where they keep the rods cool are like deep swimming pools. The air is weirdly pressurised, to keep the contamination in, I think.

I've worked in a different nuclear site where the reactor was the size of a an average sized sitting room, and there was a gangway going up and around. It was like a giant box sitting in the middle of a warehouse.

To get clean you have to take off all your clothes (boiler suit etc), wash, swap sides - you sit on the bench things and swing your legs over to the clean side. Then redress. Then a number of different radiation scans and checks including a weird automatic gate a bit like a 3D scanner at the airport, where you press your hands on one plate and lean your arse on the other plate. Then to leave the building itself you use a hand held scanner before you can go, even the bottom of your feet get checked.

I've also lived in a Grade I * tourist site. Nothing like a crowd of tourists outside your window taking photos of you and your family eating breakfast.

LouiseBrooks · 11/11/2017 21:45

Westminster Abbey

Mac12345 · 11/11/2017 21:46

Years ago my sis worked at Buckingham Palace. She really loved it.

OnlyTheDepthVaries · 11/11/2017 21:47

I had a Saturday job selling souvenirs on HMS Victory. Fabulous history!

AndNoneForGretchenWieners · 11/11/2017 21:47

I used to work at 10 Downing Street.

Dizzybacon · 11/11/2017 21:48

As a Construction QS I have worked in some pretty cool buildings:
One Canada Square (in reality all the towers)
GCHQ. Accompanied by armed guards to take a pee!
Bank of England
One Hyde Park
The Rolls House
Rolex
A top secret data centre. It actually blew up during construction phase and killed a load of operatives.
Microsoft
Google
Facebook
Thames House
And loads more over the last 20 years

I think the most interesting was the Bank of England.

We get to parts of these buildings that many don't know exist!

NormHonal · 11/11/2017 21:49

My experience is of University buildings and heritage sites.

Externally: beautiful, photogenic, never gets old.

Internally: why won’t the heating/lighting work? Why why why don’t we have a/c? When was this room last painted/carpeted/cleaned? This place is a shithole.

district · 11/11/2017 21:49

@Pollaidh That is amazing. Thank you so much for sharing. The deep pools that house the rods fascinate and terrify me at the same time.

Whywonttheyletmeusemyusername · 11/11/2017 21:51

combat that sounds fascinating, as does Sellafield. My sister works in a film studio, where there's a very famous house....

AgnesSkinner · 11/11/2017 21:52

I’ve worked on oil rigs and in explosives factories. And just spent the summer working at some historic ruins that appear in movies quite often too.

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