One of the best sites in the UK is about to be demolished - Inverkip power station. So spurred on by it's inevitable fate I dragged myself from the warm cosy drains and met up with hardhitter and screech master Dempsey.
After 5 hours on the road the petrol gauge had began to bottom out, as had my energy. We rolled past Greenock cop shop running on fumes and memories of a wasted trip came flooding back. Travelling half the length of the country to sit in a police station isn't what I'd describe as an intelligent investment of time or money, and despite feeling pretty confident, I couldn't help but feel a bit of doubt creeping in at the edges. Hopefully things would go somewhat better than last time. As we rounded the corner the sight was exactly as I'd remembered it, the huge chimney dominating the landscape. Sense of scale seems to be an alien concept to this valley. Dwarfed next to the 778ft monster, the giant turbine hall looks like a run down shed from your average allotment, but as we crept closer the sheer scale soon became apparent. It's a little bit big.
We made our way in under the cover of darkness and were soon in without a hitch. I find that the list of places that don't live up to expectations is a long one, but no matter how hard you look, Inverkip is most certainly absent. It seems pointless to try and describe what it's like being inside a power station at night, it's quite simply exactly how I imagined it to be. Unreal. With torches on low the space was so vast we couldn't see the floor, ceiling or walls, only the rusty mesh floor stretching out into infinity, like a perfect void.
After a somewhat unnecessarily convoluted route, we finally reached the control room. The lights flickered on one by one in ceremonious style, lighting up the massive array of control panels and displays. Some have sections missing, some sit silently dead, others hum away quietly with the occasional button still lit up. There's just enough of the latter to make it seem like a bad idea to go round pushing buttons and flicking switches willy nilly, although the idea of starting up a power station in the dead of the night just to scare the security guard does seem difficult to resist.
Press the left button and a bananna comes out
Temporal rift in the space time continuum
Always one
Hi, is Drax there?
RTFM - Power stations for dummies
Time flew by, I think I could spend a day in this room alone, but I'd been up for nearly 24 hours at this point and with a long day ahead we needed to get some sleep...
5*
Feeling pretty hideous after the most disjoint nights "sleep" I've ever had, we emerged from the dark corridors to find the hall of darkness transformed into a giant wonderland of turbines, boilers, pipes and walkways. Around every corner lies a photograph waiting to be taken, but given that this is probably the first and only time I'll visit I tried my best to avoid spending the whole day obsessing about generic macro shots and focused on just admiring the view. There isn't a dull moment in this place, and to top it off I only saw one lonely chair the whole time! It's times like this that remind me that I should get above ground more often
Giants Kettle
Heavy Industry
Turbine
Turbine
Nature
Push the button
Steam
Overseer
Turbine Hall
After 5 hours on the road the petrol gauge had began to bottom out, as had my energy. We rolled past Greenock cop shop running on fumes and memories of a wasted trip came flooding back. Travelling half the length of the country to sit in a police station isn't what I'd describe as an intelligent investment of time or money, and despite feeling pretty confident, I couldn't help but feel a bit of doubt creeping in at the edges. Hopefully things would go somewhat better than last time. As we rounded the corner the sight was exactly as I'd remembered it, the huge chimney dominating the landscape. Sense of scale seems to be an alien concept to this valley. Dwarfed next to the 778ft monster, the giant turbine hall looks like a run down shed from your average allotment, but as we crept closer the sheer scale soon became apparent. It's a little bit big.
We made our way in under the cover of darkness and were soon in without a hitch. I find that the list of places that don't live up to expectations is a long one, but no matter how hard you look, Inverkip is most certainly absent. It seems pointless to try and describe what it's like being inside a power station at night, it's quite simply exactly how I imagined it to be. Unreal. With torches on low the space was so vast we couldn't see the floor, ceiling or walls, only the rusty mesh floor stretching out into infinity, like a perfect void.
After a somewhat unnecessarily convoluted route, we finally reached the control room. The lights flickered on one by one in ceremonious style, lighting up the massive array of control panels and displays. Some have sections missing, some sit silently dead, others hum away quietly with the occasional button still lit up. There's just enough of the latter to make it seem like a bad idea to go round pushing buttons and flicking switches willy nilly, although the idea of starting up a power station in the dead of the night just to scare the security guard does seem difficult to resist.
Press the left button and a bananna comes out
Temporal rift in the space time continuum
Always one
Hi, is Drax there?
RTFM - Power stations for dummies
Time flew by, I think I could spend a day in this room alone, but I'd been up for nearly 24 hours at this point and with a long day ahead we needed to get some sleep...
5*
Feeling pretty hideous after the most disjoint nights "sleep" I've ever had, we emerged from the dark corridors to find the hall of darkness transformed into a giant wonderland of turbines, boilers, pipes and walkways. Around every corner lies a photograph waiting to be taken, but given that this is probably the first and only time I'll visit I tried my best to avoid spending the whole day obsessing about generic macro shots and focused on just admiring the view. There isn't a dull moment in this place, and to top it off I only saw one lonely chair the whole time! It's times like this that remind me that I should get above ground more often
Giants Kettle
Heavy Industry
Turbine
Turbine
Nature
Push the button
Steam
Overseer
Turbine Hall
