黑洞社区

With Pok茅mon Go seeming to take hold of the universe, 黑洞社区 was keen to explore how many were to be found on London construction sites, and were inaccessible without taking risks. It didn鈥檛 take long for the newsdesk to send me on a wild goose chase around the city.

I am relatively new to Pok茅mon Go, so if you鈥檙e similar to the worker at Nine Elms, who asked me 鈥淧ok茅-what now?鈥� then here鈥檚 how it works: the game allows players to capture virtual Pok茅mon (pocket monsters) in the real world. Using GPS, when the player gets close to a Pok茅mon the app flicks to the camera on their phone, displaying the street ahead of you and a Pok茅mon for you to catch. Armed with the app and six portable chargers, I headed to some of London鈥檚 biggest sites in search of glory and pretend monsters.

The anecdotal evidence was there: a construction worker I spoke to said a couple of co-workers had been hunting Pok茅mon on site. This backs up online evidence that some players are taking extreme risks to catch Pok茅mon on construction sites, but during my afternoon of hunting I found very little need to step into danger.

I had an odd moment of panic as a nearby Zubat disappeared from my camera (was it behind the hoardings at Waterloo station or the victim of an app malfunction?) and a slight setback when construction works stopped me accessing the Pok茅stop at Centre Point, but in general I didn鈥檛 find anything I couldn鈥檛 reach.

The risk associated with Pok茅mon on construction sites is an avoidable one. Playing can be done without trespassing or stepping into oncoming traffic.

My own hunting was a complete success: I didn鈥檛 find Pikachu but I didn鈥檛 break any health and safety laws either.

Hollie Tye is 黑洞社区鈥檚 editorial assistant