Welcome to my first report. Our visit to Barking Power Station.
History
In 1897 the Barking Urban District Council set up and operated its own small power station by their offices. Then, in 1920, the County of London Electric Supply Company applied for permission to build a larger power station, able to be expanded to 600MW. The station was planned to have twelve 20MW generators and twenty-four boilers.
Completed in 1925, Barking power station (Barking A) was opened by King George V. It was the first ‘super’ power station to be constructed in the UK; considered to be the largest in Europe at the time. It was built on the north bank of the River Thames. Barking A was then followed by Barking B in 1939 and, finally, Barking C in 1954. In 1933, Barking A was expanded by the commission of the BTH 75MW turbine-alternator, so by 1934 Barking was the largest generation plant on the grid, with a capacity of 390,000kW.World War 2 saw the capacity of the plant increased with a 75,000kW generating set and four boilers. The generating set came into service in the summer of 1940 and the first two boilers came online in '41 and the other two in '42. One reason for this north river site location was for the easy delivery of coal from the Thames and by railway line. It also had an abundant water supply and space on the site for expansion. Barking was originally designed to supply electricity for the entirety of London, but as electricity demand went up, so did the scale of this ambition.
A cable tunnel was built to supply the south bank with electricity. The chimneys poured so much black smoke into the surrounding area, that it helped during the war screening the site from enemy aircraft. This also helped the nearby Ford car factory downstream. Due to the work at the station being so heavy, dirty and dangerous, they didn't employ any women workers.
The power station at Barking was decommissioned in the '70s when a redundancy program began. The full site finally closed in 1981 and has mostly been demolished. When I mean 'mostly been demolished' all the turbine halls and boiler rooms have been long flattened but the 'Barking East 33kV Switch House' and 'Control Room & Office Black' are still in situ!
The Power Station shown in 1979. Photo © Fred Ivey
The Explore / First Visit
We arrived arrived in the Barking area late afternoon after our failure at State Cinema. After pondering if the power station was even still standing after all these years, we were happily proved wrong when the building came into view. We immediately started to wander around the perimeter of the site. This lovey sign was situated on the fence.
We arrived arrived in the Barking area late afternoon after our failure at State Cinema. After pondering if the power station was even still standing after all these years, we were happily proved wrong when the building came into view. We immediately started to wander around the perimeter of the site. This lovey sign was situated on the fence.
After a few hours of 'working' things out we finally manged to find a way past that fence. Now to find a way into the building itself.
After looking around for 20 minutes I suddenly remembered that I had a camera on me. Another issue that soon presented itself is that I didn't have a flash.
And here it is, what people come here for! It was quite peaceful just to take it all in. This being my first proper power station control room and all. I loved those big panels with the schematics printed on them, they're a lot heavier than they may appear.
I love a good Synchroscope! If memory serves right this was on hinges and could rotate, but the days of that are far over and some bird has made a nest in the back of it.
We soon left after realising that we had limited light left.
Second Visit
We decided for this visit to aim for the Control Room and Office building. Despite this second visit, we decided to have another around the 33KV substation as now I had a flash on my camera.
I love this Leyland diesel generator. Don't know much about engines especially diesel but I wonder if with the right equipment if you could get this running once more?
Once we left we aimed to try and get into the other building. Now we were in the area where they're storing shipping containers
Peering round one showed security's car right outside the main gates.
Despite getting to the fence around the building there were no holes and with it getting darker we decided to accept defeat and headed home. I hope this was OK for a first report! Thanks for looking.
