Amazing pictures taken by 'urban explorer' who posted snaps from the top of the unfinished Shard give a glimpse of the hidden corners of the world's cities Urban explorer Dr Bradley Garrett part of team that climbed the Shard in London in 2012 when it was still being built He and the London Consolidation Crew explored sewers, 'ghost' tube stations and unfinished buildings Said movement about 'democratising' and 'sharing' the secret spaces so they available to all They explore abandoned amusement parks, sewers and 'ghost' tube stations and make it their mission to publicise the hidden corners of their cities. These extraordinary pictures are the work of urban explorer Dr Bradley Garrett, who seeks out secret areas both above and below ground to photograph. He was part of team who made headlines back in 2012 when he posted a series of snaps from the top of The Shard skyscraper while it was still under construction. Garrett, now a researcher at the University of Oxford, took these shots during his time with the London Consolidation Crew (LCC), a loose collection of urban explorers based in the English capital. Don't look down: A team of urban explorers on top of a water tower on the roof of an estate in Pimlico in London, UK. Bradley Garrett said the movement is about 'democratising' city spaces Urban explorers: A member stands on his head inside a vast underground tunnel during the excavation of a new line for the Paris Metro Forgotten places: A man slides down a water slide at the abandoned Rock A Hoola Water Park in the Mojave Desert, California (left) and an incredible view of the Farwell Building in Detroit (right) Rarely seen: Bradley Garrett poses against a giant statue of a head on the roof of the Palais de Justice in Brussels, Belgium 'Exploring these places is about democratising those spaces and making them available for more people and that's why we take the photos - to share it,' Garrett said. 'It's not a typical explorer thing, like "hey, look at me, I made it to the top." It's saying "look, here's the view, this is what it looks like, this is what you can expect, we had this amazing experience" and then people can live vicariously through that, even if they wouldn't do it themselves in real life.' Garrett grew up in California, driving his car into the Mojave desert as a 16-year to explore abandoned gold mining camps and Native American rock engravings. After moving to London, he decided to write his PhD on the access-all-areas subculture, now published by Verso as Explore Everything: Place-Hacking the City, a collection of his writings and photographs on the scene. Hidden from sight: Bradley Garrett stands in front of the funnel of The Queen Mary in Los Angeles, U.S. He took the pictures while part of the London Consolidation Crew Infamous: Garrett hit the headlines when he and his crew climbed London's Shard while it was still under construction (left) and another urban explorer scales a crane tower in Aldgate East over from a mothballed construction site Grand view: Garrett and his team have explored new sights in the cities as well as more opulent buildings such as the roof of Cambridge University Precarious: A man stands on a concrete ledge high above the ground at London's disused flour mill, Millennium Mills, and man one dangles upside down as he enters the Embankment Cable Run on the north bank of the River Thames Urban exploration - known as urbex or UE for short - is a term used to describe the creative exploration of the built environment, which Garrett believes should be as natural as a brisk walk in the countryside. 'If you move in the wilderness, it's totally expected that if you've got a big mountain next to your house, you're going to climb it. Everyone wants to see the view from the top of the mountain,' he said. 'If you live in Southwark, and they're building an 80-storey building, obviously you want to see the view from the top. The construction firms appear to make concessions, like putting the viewing platform in The Shard, but it ends up being only for people that have a large disposable income. Garrett is also keen to dispel some of the myths that have grown up around the urban exploration community. 'A lot of people like to label this whole thing as us being deviant and smashing into places, but it's actually not about that at all, it's about appreciation for these places,' he said. 'It's totally benign. We go out, nothing gets damaged, nothing gets broken, we go in, we feed the adrenaline rush, and we go home. Scenic: Dr Garrett said he wants to show people secret views of the world. This shot shows Las Vegas at night from the unfinished 68-storey, $2.9billion Fontainebleau Las Vegas hotel Lost river: A man inside the tunnel carrying the River Tyburn - one of London's many 'lost rivers' and a tunnel carrying another lost river, the River Effra Unique: Garrett, pictured looking over the streets of Paris from the roof of Saint-Sulpice church, said people should see the secret views even if they do not go there themselves Freedom: The urban explorer said the movement was about appreciation for the spaces rather than the thrill of breaking in While some of the group's larger ventures such as an exploration of Burlington, an underground Cold War city designed to house the UK government in the event of a nuclear strike, required intricate planning, sometimes - as with The Shard - they would just let the city surprise them. 'It's often those spontaneous explorations that end up being the coolest, when you're just walking through the city and someone says "look, there's scaffolding on that building" and you climb it and you get through a window and then all of a sudden you get on a staircase and then you're on the roof and you've got this incredible view of London at 2am in the morning. 'You sit up there with your friends and chill out and take in the view, and then you climb down and spot a night bus and you're home and in bed in an hour,' he said. 'And then you wake up in the morning and it feels like a dream, and then you stick the memory card of your camera in the computer and you go "My God, that was real, that was amazing!" and you've got these incredible photos to document this experience.' Garrett insists that all the urbexers he met during his PhD were united by two things: a passion for real-life adventure and a love of London. Incredible: Garrett stands hundreds of feet in the air on the edge of the Ritz-Carlton Chicago as lightning strikes in the distance Hitting the headlines: Garrett and fellow urban explorers posted a series of pictures from the top of the Shard while it was still being built in 2012 (pictured) Exploring the old: A man holds up a tattered bible in the Woodward Avenue Presbyterian Church in Detroit, U.S. (left) Unseen: An urban explorer illuminates a Parisian sewer. Members of the group explore abandoned amusement parks, disused churches and forgotten tube stations 'If you love the city enough and you've seen loads of places, you get to a point where you're like 'yeah, but I know these other places are here, I want to see those places too'.' Although trespass is generally not a criminal offence in the UK, setting foot on the railways is a different matter, and the explorers eventually fell foul of the law during their search for the disused 'ghost stations' of the London Underground. Garrett was marched off a plane by British Transport Police and his bail conditions currently prevent him from communicating with other members of the LCC. Nevertheless, he is adamant that in the long run the group will remain friends. 'You build very particular bonds with people when you risk your lives together and when you spend your nights jumping over fences and running from security guards, it's a very particular type of friendship,' Garrett said. That has meant more to me than anything. I've learnt a lot about the history of London, and I've learnt a lot about how different security measures are put together and implemented, but the thing I've really learnt the most about is about community, about what it means to have a real community of people that you care about. These people will be friends for the rest of my life.