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Report - - Tilbury A Power Station, Essex - January 2015 | Industrial Sites | 28DaysLater.co.uk

Report - Tilbury A Power Station, Essex - January 2015

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clebby

( . Y . )
Regular User
Tilbury A Power Station, Essex.

Visited with Speed, oakleyframer and PopPunkJa'mie. Thanks to Speed for supplying the beta on this one.

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Construction of the 360 MW Tilbury A Power Station began in 1951, with the first unit synchronised to the national grid in 1956. Initially commissioned as a coal-fired station, the boilers were converted to burn oil before coming into full commercial operation. In 1981 Tilbury A effectively ceased operation and the station boilers and turbine hall were demolished in 1999.

Fortunately, as the others have mentioned, when the B Station was built next door in 1967 someone decided that it made more sense to share the stores and workshops with those on the A side than it did to build new ones. As a result the attached administration building and control room have been rotting away since the early 1980s. Amazing to think that this place was empty when Battersea was still generating electricity.

Whilst the building is by no means large, there's so much to see here it's almost ridiculous. The control room is rather nice but the place offers so much more than that; offices dripping in CEGB epic, labs full of equipment, uncleared locker rooms etcetera etcetera. Naturally 34 years of neglect has ensured that the building is in a poor state of repair, so I'd suggest visiting soon as I'm not sure how well it will stand up when the tourist bus inevitably crashes into it.

Regrettably I had an outrageous hangover that culminated in me vomiting behind a Premier Inn. As such, I'm not sure I really got to make the most of the place and a few of my photos are questionable at best, but here goes. Note how the building is dwarfed by the formidable B Station behind it:

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Control Room

The only difference between the control room when it was built and now is an imperial tonne of pigeon shite. Then:

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Now:

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I swear the sunlight didn't move off the control panels and allow me to get decent pictures for the entire six hours we were there fuck sake

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Labs

The labs are very original and plenty of oldschool equipment still remains.

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Unmolested store room:

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Offices

Some offices were fetid holes:

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Whilst others were absolutely pristine. I'm fairly certain we were the first people to touch anything in the wages office since 1981.

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Some naughty paperwork remains as well.

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Diagram of the turbines:

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Hopkinsons of gauge fame:

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Canteen

Call me weird but the canteen was one of my favourite bits. Note the very 50s ceiling lights:

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Locker rooms and bath house

Didn't many pictures in here as the hangover began to relapse at this point. Consult Speed's report for some more pictures.

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Nice colliery-style lockers though:

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Workshops and Stores

These buildings were in use right up until 2013 and so are naturally in much better condition.

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Miscellaneous

Couple more that don't fit in elsewhere:

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Have fun!

 
Last edited:

Ojay

Admin
Staff member
Admin
Two splores for the price of one here at Tilbury, one to bear in mind next time the flights are cancelled to Belgium :p: :D
 
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