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Lots Road Power Station


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The London Underground received its principal power supply from a power station at Lots Road in Chelsea. Thames Barges brought coal to the basin that linked with the River Thames, yet it seems that Chelsea Creek may have been used to access a wharf west of the main turbine hall. Over head Telphers were used to unload the barges and the coal was burnt in boilers to create steam to drive the turbines. The ash was taken away by lorry or barge and it appears the Chelsea Creek wharf was for the ash transport. The unloading basin appears to have been quite large:

 

302001.jpg.30d48e625554187dcd18936f088c2b5e.jpg

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After is stopped using coal it was run on gas. It was North Thames Gas' biggest consumer.

Now closed down.

My co. is currently helping install a new energy supply to same redeveloped site  at the mo.

Edited by mark99
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I can't help but think the basin shown is the unloading basin for the gas works. Lots Road power station was alongside Chelsea Creek.

(Gorgeous ornamentation on the lamp standard seen left).

The Church spire seen across the river looks to be that of the Church of the Sacred Heart in Trotts Road, Battersea.

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=16&lat=51.4764&lon=-0.1820&layers=6&b=1

https://www.google.co.uk/maps/place/Lots+Rd,+Chelsea,+London+SW10+0QD/@51.4763774,-0.1813699,654m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m5!3m4!1s0x4876057c09badfa3:0x5c28840d9040c1be!8m2!3d51.4783115!4d-0.1814348?hl=en

 

ETA: This is interesting, the pdf shows a diagram of the station with the overhead cranes (telphers?) feeding the station, and an ash plant at the other end. Of course, such a diagram may not exactly represent true life in terms of precise locations, and does state that coal was delivered via the tidal Chelsea Creek, which clearly the locked basin is not.

http://content.tfl.gov.uk/research-guide-no-30-lots-road-and-greenwich-power-stations.pdf

A visit to Lots Road power station:

http://www.hampsteadscience.ac.uk/article_Lots_Rd.htm

Edited by Derek R.
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Fulham Gas Works were supplied with coal via the Kensington Canal of which I think the Creek is the entrance and the Canal was an improved version of the C. Creek/Counters Creek.

Must have been transhipped I guess.

https://londoncanals.uk/2010/01/14/the-kensington-canal-the-waterway-that-served-west-london/

As regards Lots Road Power - on the old map there is at least one "Dock" shown in blue suggesting locks? (North of Creek entrance).

 

Edited by mark99
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Fascinating. I wonder if the basin accessed from the lane off Warwick Road isn't here shown leading to the "Coal Yard":

http://maps.nls.uk/geo/explore/#zoom=17&lat=51.4952&lon=-0.2065&layers=6&b=1

Follow the railway South, and you will come across the bridge carrying the King's Road where the navigation appears to end at the head of Chelsea Creek. If only I had a pound for every time I crossed that bridge!

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2 hours ago, mark99 said:

Well spotted Mark. That image shows the gantrys over the basin at the Eastern end of the power station clearly, and none above the substantial basin for the gas works.

Some shots of inside the derelict power station:

https://www.28dayslater.co.uk/lots-road-power-station-london-april-2015.t96075

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Having been to Lots Road auctions a few times, it occurred to Mrs Stilllearning, an ex employee of London Underground, that the building might have been part of the power station. There are some features that look like big hydraulic plates set in the floor, perhaps to move heavy machinery or components up from basements and around the works.

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I worked at C.A. Parsons in Newcastle in the late 70's/early 80's and worked on the Lots Road steam turbines, which were being refurbished at that time. 

In comparison with the other stuff in the works at the time (e.g. 660MW sets for Drax) the 30MW sets for Lots Rd were tiny, but they were beautiful little things, nice to work on, and like everything from Parsons of that era, built like a watch. We were actually only doing a major refurbishment on these sets, which from memory had been built in the 1960's, this included replacement of all of the blades on the turbine "spindles" (to use the Parsons terminology), i.e. the rotors inside the turbines. There may have been a rewind on the generator too, but I can't be sure as that was a different section.

The Lots Road turbines were interesting not just for their small size, but because they weren't used for normal generation to the grid like most sets were. The London Underground generated their own electricity, which made them very independent. The problem for Parsons was that the traction load imposed by the railway was very irregular, both in the short term and over 24 hours. For example, when a train accelerated from a station it imposed a sudden large load, then the driver shut off and the load went to zero. Of course, in practice there were numerous trains on the supply network at any one time, so it wasn't quite as simple as this, but it did impose immense thermal and electrical stresses on these machines which wouldn't be seen on a normal power station. The fact that they worked so long and so reliably is a testament to their designers, builders and maintainers, as they were operating until comparatively recently.

There was a much earlier Underground power station on the same site, and it had a major rebuild with this new equipment in the 1960's as by then it was completely obsolete.

We travelled up the Thames on our narrowboat from Limehouse to Brentford in August 2013 and passing Chelsea creek I was interested to see the power station I had worked on all those years earlier. which was still reasonably intact but derelict at that time, see pic below taken from the boat.

 

P1010232.JPG

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