Report - Battersea Power Station - Control room B - Aug 2013

[WhoDaresWins]

Visited with End-Proc, Seffy, Elliot5200, 2wid, Keitei, JasperB, sirjonnyp, raisinwing, Gabe and a few others.

This is my first visit of this place so probably haven't done it justice. Absolutely loved the experience, big shout out to Keitei & 2wid who gave us the tour!!

Managed to see Control room B and went up the scaff on one of the chimneys, however it was raining and the camera started to get water drops on the lens so only managed a couple of usuable photos from outside. Didn't manage to get any other exterior shots, but hey, that's a good excuse for me get to pay it a second visit (as well as hopefully seeing Control room A).

Brief history:

The building is in fact a steel girder frame and Sir Giles designed the exterior brick cladding and the tower-like bases of the four chimneys. It is the largest brick building in Europe.

In effect Battersea is two power stations and the familiar silhouette of four chimneys did not appear until 1953 and for the first 20 years the building had a long rather than four-square appearance, with a chimney at each end. But even this appearance caused positive comments, described as a temple of power and to rank as a London landmark equal with St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1939 a survey of celebrities voted it their 2nd favourite building when canvassed by the Architects Journal.

The construction of 'B' Station was begun a few months after World War 2 to bring Battersea to a total capacity of 509 megawatts and the 3rd. largest power station in the U.K.

This huge project, begun by the London Power company 30 years before, was to be completed by the British Electric Authority when the electricity supply was nationalised in 1948. Battersea "B" station began operating in 1953 and had the highest thermal efficiency of all power stations and provided one fifth of Londons total electricity supplies, ( 28 other stations generated the rest )

Throughout the whole of its life Battersea has been a symbol of the electricity industry to the media and the general public alike.

And one from scaff:

Thanks for looking.​