History
The oil-fired power station at Fawley was commissioned in 1972 and was capable of producing two gigawatts, using four Parsons generating units. To reduce the visual impact due to the site’s prominent location, the building was constructed on a 24-foot-deep trench, causing the turbine floor to be at ground level. The building was also carefully designed externally, with the builder house clad in marine grade glass, arranged in a stunning zig-zag pattern. However, its most interesting feature is the control room constructed of concrete, with the appearance of a flying-saucer. Tragically this incredible building has been refused listing and is most likely to disappear, along with the rest of the station.
Due to the building’s construction just before the oil-crisis, it was expensive to run and therefore never used to its full capacity. Two units were mothballed in 1995, halving the stations capacity. The station opted out of the Large Combustion Plants Directive, meaning it did not need to comply with new emissions regulations. Therefore, it was forced to close, along with many other power stations after 10,000 hours or until the end of 2015. The station ceased generating in 2013. Following closer the building has featured in several films and TV series. The control from continued to be used until 2016 to control other power stations. In September 2017 it was finally announced that the buildings would be replaced by 1,500 homes, potentially with the chimney incorporated.
Some great history and photos can be seen on this link, also featuring several other power stations:
http://powerstations.uk/fawley-power-station-southampton/
Also, a PDF giving additional history and reasons for not listing:
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/Journals/2014/04/03/q/p/r/EH-Fawley-Notification-Report.pdf
The explore
Visiting this site was completely different to anything I had previously explored, Both in terms of access and the vast scale of the building.
After lying to my parents about my true location I found myself approaching the site early one morning. Once inside all I could see was the seemingly endless expense of the turbine hall, but I was disappointed to see demolition had begun.
Since this I have made two further visits, the first about a month later when the turbine hall was still mostly intact. However, on my most recent visit in July a huge amount of machinery had been removed but at least the boiler house was untouched.
This report covers my first two visits. I’m planning on going here again if anyone’s interested.
The basement, below the boiler house looking towards the turbine hall
First glimpses of the turbine hall- its fucking massive! I was relieved to see there was still a load of machinery
Looking down, its extremely hard to show the scale of this place
Huge bolts holding up the boilers
The chimney
Visit 2
I managed to revisit a month later in the snow and got the whole building to myself
Approaching the site, at this point the snow was beginning to settle
Back up above the turbine hall, I was glad to see not much had been destroyed since my last visit
Looking down towards the remains of one of the turbine units, you can see where the rotors would have been at the top left of the photo
Looking the full length of the turbine hall, to get an idea of its carnivorous size look at the normal sized railings below. In the foreground is unit 4, the last to be destroyed
Back to ground level, the area below this is unusually dug into the ground
Looking down into the trench from ground level in the foreground are the smashed remains of two water feed pumps, and in the top right are the tubes from the condensers
Looking south, showing only half of the turbine hall, in the foreground are the turbines themselves, removed from the housing and waiting to be scrapped. Each unit would have contained three of these.
The end of a generator
On the left of the is a partly stripped alternator at the end of unit 4, to its right is the condenser, used to cool down the steam once it had left the turbines, allowing it to be pumped back to boilers to be reheated
On the floor of the turbine hall looking north
The sad end to an incredible piece of engineering
One of the water feed pumps, there were two of these for each unit
Pipework in the turbine hall
One of the gas turbines, these could be used to start up the main turbines in the event of power loss, there is one for each unit, located in two in two separate bays
Small control room for the gas turbines
One of the four oil-fired boilers
Looking up the boiler house from ground level
Midway up the boiler house, looking south. The turbine hall roof can been seen on the right
Tanks in the boiler house
Thanks for looking
I will post a more recent visit soon...
The oil-fired power station at Fawley was commissioned in 1972 and was capable of producing two gigawatts, using four Parsons generating units. To reduce the visual impact due to the site’s prominent location, the building was constructed on a 24-foot-deep trench, causing the turbine floor to be at ground level. The building was also carefully designed externally, with the builder house clad in marine grade glass, arranged in a stunning zig-zag pattern. However, its most interesting feature is the control room constructed of concrete, with the appearance of a flying-saucer. Tragically this incredible building has been refused listing and is most likely to disappear, along with the rest of the station.
Due to the building’s construction just before the oil-crisis, it was expensive to run and therefore never used to its full capacity. Two units were mothballed in 1995, halving the stations capacity. The station opted out of the Large Combustion Plants Directive, meaning it did not need to comply with new emissions regulations. Therefore, it was forced to close, along with many other power stations after 10,000 hours or until the end of 2015. The station ceased generating in 2013. Following closer the building has featured in several films and TV series. The control from continued to be used until 2016 to control other power stations. In September 2017 it was finally announced that the buildings would be replaced by 1,500 homes, potentially with the chimney incorporated.
Some great history and photos can be seen on this link, also featuring several other power stations:
http://powerstations.uk/fawley-power-station-southampton/
Also, a PDF giving additional history and reasons for not listing:
https://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/Journals/2014/04/03/q/p/r/EH-Fawley-Notification-Report.pdf
The explore
Visiting this site was completely different to anything I had previously explored, Both in terms of access and the vast scale of the building.
After lying to my parents about my true location I found myself approaching the site early one morning. Once inside all I could see was the seemingly endless expense of the turbine hall, but I was disappointed to see demolition had begun.
Since this I have made two further visits, the first about a month later when the turbine hall was still mostly intact. However, on my most recent visit in July a huge amount of machinery had been removed but at least the boiler house was untouched.
This report covers my first two visits. I’m planning on going here again if anyone’s interested.
The basement, below the boiler house looking towards the turbine hall
First glimpses of the turbine hall- its fucking massive! I was relieved to see there was still a load of machinery
Looking down, its extremely hard to show the scale of this place
Huge bolts holding up the boilers
The chimney
Visit 2
I managed to revisit a month later in the snow and got the whole building to myself
Approaching the site, at this point the snow was beginning to settle
Back up above the turbine hall, I was glad to see not much had been destroyed since my last visit
Looking down towards the remains of one of the turbine units, you can see where the rotors would have been at the top left of the photo
Looking the full length of the turbine hall, to get an idea of its carnivorous size look at the normal sized railings below. In the foreground is unit 4, the last to be destroyed
Back to ground level, the area below this is unusually dug into the ground
Looking down into the trench from ground level in the foreground are the smashed remains of two water feed pumps, and in the top right are the tubes from the condensers
Looking south, showing only half of the turbine hall, in the foreground are the turbines themselves, removed from the housing and waiting to be scrapped. Each unit would have contained three of these.
The end of a generator
On the left of the is a partly stripped alternator at the end of unit 4, to its right is the condenser, used to cool down the steam once it had left the turbines, allowing it to be pumped back to boilers to be reheated
On the floor of the turbine hall looking north
The sad end to an incredible piece of engineering
One of the water feed pumps, there were two of these for each unit
Pipework in the turbine hall
One of the gas turbines, these could be used to start up the main turbines in the event of power loss, there is one for each unit, located in two in two separate bays
Small control room for the gas turbines
One of the four oil-fired boilers
Looking up the boiler house from ground level
Midway up the boiler house, looking south. The turbine hall roof can been seen on the right
Tanks in the boiler house
Thanks for looking
I will post a more recent visit soon...
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