Reports - Power Station - Urban Exploration
Reports - Power Station
Battersea Power Station
Where? London. Comments 2. Posted 21 October 2006.
Battersea Power Stations is one of the iconic buildings of London, if not Britain. It was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, who was also responsible for designing another UK icon - the red phone box.
Construction on the power station started in 1929 and was completed in 1939. It was originally built with two chimneys and one generator hall. In the 1950's a second hall/chimneys were built mirroring the original. These two sides are known as A and B.
A rare opportunity to view the power station was presented in the form of an art exhibition - China Power Station Part 1. This is dubbed as a "major exhibition of Chinese contemporary art, architecture and sound". I'm not really bothered about art, but just had to go to visit the power station!
Littlebrook B Power Station
Where? Dartford. Comments 1. Posted 7 June 2007.
There has been a power station at Littlebrook since 1939. "A" and "B" closed in the 1970s with "C" in the 1980s. "D" soldiers on, but as a reserve station running on gas.
We visited "B". Post-closure history is sketchy, but it was taken over by the British Nuclear Group who used it to test robots on life-sized replicas of nuclear cores. Yeah! It closed down in 2006.
I think this has taken NGTE's crown as "explore of the year". After a long, hot day of five non-explores, we decided to check this out.
Thorpe Marsh Power Station
Where? Doncaster, Yorkshire. Comments 14. Posted 24 September 2006.
Thorpe Marsh Power Station closed in 1994. Since then it has gradually been demollished. Well, everything except the cooling towers - 6 of them. The are also two biggish buildings (I have no idea what the were for) and several small buildings.
There are various plans for the site - including a nature reserve, and a landfill site (fiercely objected to by local residents). In reality, nothing will probably happen. The towers still survive because it is feared that any explosion caused would rupture the banks of the nearby canal.
Willington Power Station
Where? Derby, Derbyshire. Comments 19. Posted 15 April 2007.
Willington power station was built in the 1950's next to the river Trent and close to the Nottinghamshire/Derbyshire coalfields, at the time thought in-exhaustible. Initial plans were to have two cooling towers and four generators - "Willington A". During construction, "Willington B" was commissioned, with three more cooling towers and two generators.
Privatisation ensued, and National Power eventually decommissioned the station - A closing in 1995, and B following in 1999.
That's a very concise history - more detailed information can be found on the excellent Brief History of Willington Power Station website.
Not a lot remains at Willington power station today - just five cooling towers.
