!UPDATE!

Due to new info which we have just uncovered, we know now that this building was part of a Veterans Care/Residental complex known as "The Wing". In addition to the pool and gymnasium, this building also apparently housed a canteen and a pub in the basement known as the "Iron Duke". Updated writeup continues below:

The Waterloo Pavilion building is by far the most impressive of all the buildings that make up "The Wing", it is made of brick (the others are all wood paneled) with very large windows. Anyway, I am going to leave out how we entered the building, so that it remains secure, and I’ll start the report from the basement up. The basement is made up of 2 levels and multiple rooms; it contains all the equipment you would probably imagine would be required to maintain a public pool namely brightly coloured pipes and shut off valves as well as large pump-like things run everywhere and take up multiple rooms. There were many rooms we did not touch down there, as we found a sign confirming suspicions of asbestos in the basement so the fact that I was the only member with a mask made us rush through it, failing to snap pictures (we will return later, with masks, to check the entire area).

Some of the interesting features besides the large pipes and pumps is a latter that runs to a door which is on a small concrete platform by itself, with no other means of reaching it besides a metal ladder on a wall. There is a set of stairs which leads to a door and 2 (maybe more) offices as well. The door opens on to the pool, the pool room has working lights (even a few of the large underwater lights are still active), other than that it is what you would expect a pool would be. Another interesting feature about this place is the complete lack of graffiti and internal vandalism (the exterior windows have had their share). There are 3 doors coming off the shallow end of the pool area, the girls change room, the boys change room, and a door to a hallway. Both change rooms are pretty similar, they contain lockers sinks toilets and showers, the things you would expect, everything in there was in very good condition. In the hallway there is basically doors back into the two change rooms, and a door into another section. In the other section there are stairs up, a storage closet, and another door leading somewhere, however it is blocked off by a bleacher (even though we could have with effort gone over it, we decided not to check it out).

Up the stairs, there is a door that opens onto a gym, in the gym there is a basketball net in the corner (the kind that stand up, not bolted to the top of something), and a bunch of risers that looked like they were still set up from some athletic activity, on one side was a stage, with chairs and such thrown about, and on the other, was a referee booth (I think), you could climb up a metal ladder in the booth, to a very small room above it with a circular opening that looked onto the court.

- King Pie

Trip 2

Ok, this trip was a little different as me and Citizen-X both had respirators, which allowed us to explore the basement more toughly, we also found more rooms upstairs. Behind the one door with the asbestos sign, there were a number of pipes, one with a sign saying the insulation contained asbestos, much to the dismay of the minority of the group who did not have them; there was bags of pipe insulation laying over the on the ground. This area was of course a small series of tunnels which ran around the pool area(as opposed to my original thought that it was a storage closet) this makes sense as how else would you change those light bulbs and service the pool without them(unless you drained the pool every time... Anyway, we also checked out the door on top of the ladder, which turned out to be not very interesting, it was just a double door (why would they need 2?) which opened onto the outside; it was of course blocked off and not capable of being used as an exit. Above on the stairs there were 2 offices, and a shower, there we found a few documents as well, nothing too interesting though. Going back past the pool and into the hallway then into the foyer in front of the entrance into the pool (the door behind the riser was only a washroom, (see picture of toilet). On the other side was the girl’s washroom, which for some reason was one of the only doors in the place which was locked, which was wired because it was only a washroom). There was also another door which leads off into the other wing of the building, it contained what looked like conference rooms, and these rooms were completely barren. Going upstairs to the gym, there are 2 small washrooms coming off the main doors, 1 to the left and 1 to the right. There were also 2 small rooms that we noticed this time which came off the stage, these were likely change rooms. Behind the stage there was a latter which was boarded off at the top, I was about to swing up and over the small bar when it was pointed out to me that both those doors were pad locked shut... these were the only other locked doors in the place. On the other side the only new thing that we found was a small metal square door which lead onto what looked like an attic (see pic). Also, I decided that the booth with the circular window was not in fact a referee both (which if you think about it, doesn't make much sense, but likely instead it is a tech booth for the stage. One more thing we noticed is the elevator, which goes to the gym... it didn't work. I guess that's it, the only thing now we might go back for (although just looking around that place is pretty fun anyway, granted you don't make any noise in the gym, as the large windows are mostly broken and the area is pretty quiet so anyone driving by can see you) is the 2 padlocked door, although I bet it is either a storage room or an entrance into the attic on the other side.

On a side note when we were exiting, I saw a black Taurus station wagon waiting for us in the parking lot... so I quickly ducked back into the building, after a few minutes of decision making, it was decided that I would go out and check to see if there was anyone waiting for us(we were considering the fact that we had never seen a cop drive a station wagon, and that people might be out on a night dog walk[even though it was only about 7:00 it was dark]). Anyway, so I approached the car and noticed some rapid back and forth movement, I didn't get a clear view of what was exactly making the movement(head/ass?) but the point is I saw it, so I quickly ran back to the group and told them it was only a couple, and we were safe to go. Another mistake the couple made (besides picking that spot) was parking between our exit and my car, after we were all out, we started walking to the car, and I don't believe they had really noticed anything until one of the guy shined their flashlight into the car. We all jumped in my car and left at that point, however, we had forgotten my mask in the building(I took it off right before exiting as I figured it would look even more suspicious to come out with it, just in case). 3 of us go out and ran towards the entrance into the building, which happened to be in the same direction of the car, at that point the car started its engine and took off, which we all thought was kind of funny. Long story short, we got the mask back, and on the way back we took a couple pictures of the car (they weren’t far ahead of us)... hopefully we didn't freak them out too much... but I doubt they will choose that spot again anytime soon.

- King Pie

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