Another Teesside mini report. Diggers are munching away at the coke works as we speak but i think if anyone wants to see it (and more importantly if anyone can manage some of the other unexplored buildings on site!) there is still a few months of opportunity left.
We hit up most of Southbank Coke back on our initial trip in 2015 but this was one of the main buildings that eluded us on that first evening. Had i have realised what was inside i would surely have made more effort but at the time we were flying blind and with a lack of obvious entrance it was easily overlooked. In recent months with demolition pressing on i had been keen to get back up and see if i could manage a few outstanding bits. Dweeb was still yet to see any of Southbank so we initially planned to try and hit some of the more familiar parts before trying anything new. However less than 24 hours before we had planned to be up there someone posted these photos on the local heritage group and that kind of changed our priorities a bit.
Ooo turbines! Ooo control panel Ooo cast iron Gents!
Now i must admit it had not crossed my mind that the coke works even needed a blower house. I mean the idea is to NOT get air into the coke after all no? Once i saw the photo it dawned on me tho. I had seen reference to the later one at the Redcar ovens so why i hadn't considered what the significantly older one at Southbank would be like i dont know! From the photo it obviously showed a pair of steam driven blowers, presumably running off steam from the former Cleveland Power Station which is long gone now. It immediately begged the question if they would still be there today.. Only one way to find out!
We had surprisingly little trouble getting into the building this time around. For an explore up here it was remarkably chilled at first. Security were sitting in the cabins at the gate and we just strolled in across the moonscape, down the hill, across the road, through an unlocked gate in the Heras fence and straight up an external stairs into a flapping door. It couldn't have been much easier. To make it even better it was an epic evening with a massive red sunset going on outside and the whole place was dead and deserted. After an initial scare walking into the room where i thought they were going to be only to find it totally empty we luckily relised they were actually in the room next door and yeh they were still there. Modified from their original steam driven power to electric motor power but still there none the less. The control panel was still there too all be it boarded over. It intrigues me as to what might still be lurking behind the boards so hopefully an inquisitive demo man takes the time to rip them off and take a photo. The clock sadly had gone..
Lovely yet impossible to photograph sunset
Blowers
Note the control wheels had been retrofitted with remote adjustment motors
Electric motors replaced the steam turbines
Control Panel Rear
Lower floor eluded us in the end
From the upper turbine floor the stairs had been cut to get lower down so i snapped one photo looking down onto some of the more modern blowers on the ground level before proceeding to try and find another way. Thing is there didn't seem to be another way. There was a control room of sorts but the door was bricked up so we decided the only way was going to be heading back outside to find a ground floor door. Well that lasted all of 2 seconds before we were met with the familiar south bank alarm warble.. I never quite know what to do when setting of the alarms here but after a quick peak around the lower level not finding any way to easily progress we retreated just as the familiar Hi-luxes turned up. Sitting them out in the undergrowth it eventually got dark and we sloped off to live for another day..
Sunrise over the works the next morning, blower house is the brick building in front of the gas holder btw!
We hit up most of Southbank Coke back on our initial trip in 2015 but this was one of the main buildings that eluded us on that first evening. Had i have realised what was inside i would surely have made more effort but at the time we were flying blind and with a lack of obvious entrance it was easily overlooked. In recent months with demolition pressing on i had been keen to get back up and see if i could manage a few outstanding bits. Dweeb was still yet to see any of Southbank so we initially planned to try and hit some of the more familiar parts before trying anything new. However less than 24 hours before we had planned to be up there someone posted these photos on the local heritage group and that kind of changed our priorities a bit.
Ooo turbines! Ooo control panel Ooo cast iron Gents!
We had surprisingly little trouble getting into the building this time around. For an explore up here it was remarkably chilled at first. Security were sitting in the cabins at the gate and we just strolled in across the moonscape, down the hill, across the road, through an unlocked gate in the Heras fence and straight up an external stairs into a flapping door. It couldn't have been much easier. To make it even better it was an epic evening with a massive red sunset going on outside and the whole place was dead and deserted. After an initial scare walking into the room where i thought they were going to be only to find it totally empty we luckily relised they were actually in the room next door and yeh they were still there. Modified from their original steam driven power to electric motor power but still there none the less. The control panel was still there too all be it boarded over. It intrigues me as to what might still be lurking behind the boards so hopefully an inquisitive demo man takes the time to rip them off and take a photo. The clock sadly had gone..
Lovely yet impossible to photograph sunset
Blowers
Note the control wheels had been retrofitted with remote adjustment motors
Electric motors replaced the steam turbines
Control Panel Rear
Lower floor eluded us in the end
From the upper turbine floor the stairs had been cut to get lower down so i snapped one photo looking down onto some of the more modern blowers on the ground level before proceeding to try and find another way. Thing is there didn't seem to be another way. There was a control room of sorts but the door was bricked up so we decided the only way was going to be heading back outside to find a ground floor door. Well that lasted all of 2 seconds before we were met with the familiar south bank alarm warble.. I never quite know what to do when setting of the alarms here but after a quick peak around the lower level not finding any way to easily progress we retreated just as the familiar Hi-luxes turned up. Sitting them out in the undergrowth it eventually got dark and we sloped off to live for another day..
Sunrise over the works the next morning, blower house is the brick building in front of the gas holder btw!
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