BARKING CONTROL ROOM
THE HISTORY:
Barking A Power Station was opened by King George V in 1925 and boasted eight small Parsons turbines. It was designed to take over from Barking Town Urban District Council’s power station and, at the time of construction, was the largest plant in Britain to have been built as a complete station.
The station sat next to the Thames which made delivery of coal and cooling for the plant very easy. Subsequent to construction of the station, a cable tunnel was built under the river to supply the south of London with electricity.
Today, only a few buildings remain standing from Barking Power Station following its closure in 1969, including this Substation containing a very vintage control room.
THE EXPLORE:
Pulling into what is now a modern industrial estate to explore this one, it was clear that Barking’s history of industry had not lost itself to the confines of time.
I do genuinely question if I’ve ever climbed a fence higher than the one we were presented with here, as the security team had installed two palisade fences on top of each other. Presumably they thought nobody would be that desperate to look inside an old substation that they’d actually bother to climb it, but we were!
Once inside, after having posed as workers so as not to arouse too much suspicion, we immediately realised the effort had all been worth it. From the outside the building looks like a redbrick Victorian prison, but the inside couldn’t be more different. Throughout the whole property, the sunlight illuminated the alluring brickwork and truly showed the building’s beauty.
The outside of the building had all the charisma of a Victorian workhouse.
The control room was incredibly archaic and the black panels melted my heart like a tongue does butter.
Some of the cabling had been removed from behind the panels.
A very ominous warning sign.
A strange collection of glass boxes filled with water which presumably leaked from the roof.
The generator in one of the wings was built by the classic Leyland Diesel.
A lot of the building had been flooded throughout.
A secondary control room had almost entirely been stripped.
The fact that any of Barking is still standing after 54 years of closure is very impressive and the level of decay present is a trope of its longevity. Control rooms with black panels hit differently and so it was amazing to see this place without any damage having been done to it while encapsulated in a dome of natural decay.
THE HISTORY:
Barking A Power Station was opened by King George V in 1925 and boasted eight small Parsons turbines. It was designed to take over from Barking Town Urban District Council’s power station and, at the time of construction, was the largest plant in Britain to have been built as a complete station.
The station sat next to the Thames which made delivery of coal and cooling for the plant very easy. Subsequent to construction of the station, a cable tunnel was built under the river to supply the south of London with electricity.
Today, only a few buildings remain standing from Barking Power Station following its closure in 1969, including this Substation containing a very vintage control room.
THE EXPLORE:
Pulling into what is now a modern industrial estate to explore this one, it was clear that Barking’s history of industry had not lost itself to the confines of time.
I do genuinely question if I’ve ever climbed a fence higher than the one we were presented with here, as the security team had installed two palisade fences on top of each other. Presumably they thought nobody would be that desperate to look inside an old substation that they’d actually bother to climb it, but we were!
Once inside, after having posed as workers so as not to arouse too much suspicion, we immediately realised the effort had all been worth it. From the outside the building looks like a redbrick Victorian prison, but the inside couldn’t be more different. Throughout the whole property, the sunlight illuminated the alluring brickwork and truly showed the building’s beauty.
The outside of the building had all the charisma of a Victorian workhouse.
The control room was incredibly archaic and the black panels melted my heart like a tongue does butter.
Some of the cabling had been removed from behind the panels.
A very ominous warning sign.
A strange collection of glass boxes filled with water which presumably leaked from the roof.
The generator in one of the wings was built by the classic Leyland Diesel.
A lot of the building had been flooded throughout.
A secondary control room had almost entirely been stripped.
The fact that any of Barking is still standing after 54 years of closure is very impressive and the level of decay present is a trope of its longevity. Control rooms with black panels hit differently and so it was amazing to see this place without any damage having been done to it while encapsulated in a dome of natural decay.
