Lots Road Powerstation, London

After floating about in Camden and pissing in the wind up on Cromwell tower we proceeded to fail at finding somewhere to sleep and in the morning ended up here.

We watched the security guard do his rounds, turns out he leaves the site to check the other side of the building. This was our cue to vault the fence and get inside before he came back!

This place is stripped fairly bare but I’d recommend a visit just for the sheer size, the roof was a nice chill too.

The station was built end-on to the Thames, on the north bank of the tidal Chelsea Creek. Construction started in 1902 and was completed in December 1904, with the station becoming operational in February 1905. The station burned 700 tonnes of coal a day and had a generating capacity of 50,000 kW. At the time it was claimed to be the largest power station ever built and would eventually power most of the railways and tramways in the Underground Group.

The station played a part in the birth of commercial radio in the UK. When the first two radio stations, LBC and Capital Radio, opened in October 1973, the site for their medium wave transmitters was not complete. As a result, a temporary ‘Tee’ antenna was strung up between the two chimneys (transmitting LBC on 417 m (719 kHz), and Capital Radio on 539 m (557 kHz)), until the permanent site at Saffron Green was ready in 1975. Some years later the site was used again, on 720 kHz (for a low power MW relay of BBC Radio 4’s LW service) which was in use until 2001 when the radio transmitter was moved to Crystal Palace.

In the 1990s, it was decided that rather than re-equip Lots Road, it would continue to operate until the machinery’s life was expired. It remained in operation until being shut down on 21st October 2002. Since then, all power for the tube system is supplied from the National Grid.