On my walk from the railway station to the city centre, I noticed this rather impressive derelict building. I’m not brave enough to be an urban explorer, but it’s one of many buildings that are left in ruins in the city which was once an industrial heartland and powerhouse.
And a rather better view of the frontage. Adam Osser’s factory grew out of his cotton business, with the spinning mill built in 1903 for Majer Feinkind, Albert Jarociński and Adam Osser, who later took control himself. After damage in the First World War, production was restored, and in 1923 the business was turned into a joint-stock company. Like so many factories in Łódź, it then lived several different lives, textile production first, wartime conversion by the Germans to aircraft and car parts, then the communist-era continuation of that mechanical profile under the name Polmo.
After the factory collapsed in roughly the mid 1990s, the site drifted into ruin, was looted, and even lost its former office building to arson and demolition. All very sub-optimal. There were plans in 2018 to revive the place with offices, services, research functions and a hotel, but they came to nothing, leaving it as another of Łódź’s splendid and broken monuments to industrial ambition. There is a lot of money coming into the city, so it’s perhaps just a matter of time before something is done with this site.
I might not be an urban explorer, but there are photos on this website of braver people who are.