FAWLEY POWER STATION CONTROL ROOM
THE HISTORY:
Fawley Power Station was first commissioned in 1971 and was powered by heavy fuel oil, which is essentially a more viscous version of diesel; the same fuel is often used in marine vessels due to its efficiency and high delivery of torque.
Being powered by oil rather than coal, the station was connected by two 2 mile long pipelines to the nearby Fawley Oil Refinery, making delivery of fuel a lot more cost effective than running trains as was required in traditional coal fired power stations. Despite this benefit, Fawley was often not used for the Grid and was rather on standby for times of high demand.
The station was capable of producing 2000 MW for the Grid, though this was rarely reached due to its lower efficiency compared with coal and gas. Throughout its lifetime, Fawley produced more than one hundred billion kWh for the National Grid and in 2013 the power station closed due to the EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive, a recurring theme among old UK power stations.
THE EXPLORE:
More than two years ago at 3am, @UrbandonedTeam @jtza @KPUrban_ Dragon and I descended upon the south coast with Fawley at the forefront of our minds. We were not perturbed by the fact that we were too late for the turbine hall (and the rest of the site for that matter) and instead were full of determination to photograph the UFO-shaped building, which has incidentally been used as a filming location for both Mission: Impossible and Star Wars.
After a long walk and some narrow squeezes, we were in without too much difficulty and the objective turned from getting to the building to actually being able to stay in it. The copious amount of CCTV inside the building gave feelings of slight unease, as our general objective is to avoid cameras in power stations like the plague due to them often still being hooked up to power for workers.
At any rate, we didn’t appear to arouse suspicion of any kind, let alone get caught, despite the control room building essentially being a clear beacon due to it being covered almost entirely in glass. The lights all being on didn’t help our case either, as walking around the corridors felt like being under the spotlight in a very popular Shakespearian play, just hoping that the security wouldn’t be quite as vicious as in Hamlet.
The entire building looked like a UFO from the outside (photo from SciencePhotoLibrary).
The control room had the ambience of a spaceship.
Featured on the back wall was a switch map of the distribution board for Fawley.
Parts of the control room were entirely left as they were when it closed…
…While a lot of it had been stripped out.
Walking around the corridors felt very exposed to both cameras and any workers outside.
Meeting/board rooms were found throughout the control room building and contained some hidden joys in the cupboards.
Documents remained left exactly as they would have when the site closed.
While I may have missed the height of Fawley in its full glory, I left the site feeling more than fulfilled. The control room is like nothing else and is what puts this place on the map, not just as a film set but also as an iconic location. Seeing the UFO in the distance and then later being inside it was a fantastic experience and I can only hope we discover more incredibly unique locations such as this.
THE HISTORY:
Fawley Power Station was first commissioned in 1971 and was powered by heavy fuel oil, which is essentially a more viscous version of diesel; the same fuel is often used in marine vessels due to its efficiency and high delivery of torque.
Being powered by oil rather than coal, the station was connected by two 2 mile long pipelines to the nearby Fawley Oil Refinery, making delivery of fuel a lot more cost effective than running trains as was required in traditional coal fired power stations. Despite this benefit, Fawley was often not used for the Grid and was rather on standby for times of high demand.
The station was capable of producing 2000 MW for the Grid, though this was rarely reached due to its lower efficiency compared with coal and gas. Throughout its lifetime, Fawley produced more than one hundred billion kWh for the National Grid and in 2013 the power station closed due to the EU’s Large Combustion Plant Directive, a recurring theme among old UK power stations.
THE EXPLORE:
More than two years ago at 3am, @UrbandonedTeam @jtza @KPUrban_ Dragon and I descended upon the south coast with Fawley at the forefront of our minds. We were not perturbed by the fact that we were too late for the turbine hall (and the rest of the site for that matter) and instead were full of determination to photograph the UFO-shaped building, which has incidentally been used as a filming location for both Mission: Impossible and Star Wars.
After a long walk and some narrow squeezes, we were in without too much difficulty and the objective turned from getting to the building to actually being able to stay in it. The copious amount of CCTV inside the building gave feelings of slight unease, as our general objective is to avoid cameras in power stations like the plague due to them often still being hooked up to power for workers.
At any rate, we didn’t appear to arouse suspicion of any kind, let alone get caught, despite the control room building essentially being a clear beacon due to it being covered almost entirely in glass. The lights all being on didn’t help our case either, as walking around the corridors felt like being under the spotlight in a very popular Shakespearian play, just hoping that the security wouldn’t be quite as vicious as in Hamlet.
The entire building looked like a UFO from the outside (photo from SciencePhotoLibrary).
The control room had the ambience of a spaceship.
Featured on the back wall was a switch map of the distribution board for Fawley.
Parts of the control room were entirely left as they were when it closed…
…While a lot of it had been stripped out.
Walking around the corridors felt very exposed to both cameras and any workers outside.
Meeting/board rooms were found throughout the control room building and contained some hidden joys in the cupboards.
Documents remained left exactly as they would have when the site closed.
While I may have missed the height of Fawley in its full glory, I left the site feeling more than fulfilled. The control room is like nothing else and is what puts this place on the map, not just as a film set but also as an iconic location. Seeing the UFO in the distance and then later being inside it was a fantastic experience and I can only hope we discover more incredibly unique locations such as this.
