The alarm goes at 1am and half hour later i've scooped up Clebby and were on the road. Fawley has been on the list for what seems like forever but i guess you could say it presents a few logistical problems for a pair of lads living over 150 miles away. The station has been explored by several groups before but it's been a while now. Our first question was probably is it still there? We didn't really know for sure but everything suggested it was.
Unit 2 Control Station
So, parking up the car we wandered into the thick fog still with no real idea if the place was even still there! Reaching the fence was a relief, Not only was it still there it looked dead as a dodo with little activity and little to suggest anything had changed since closure.
It seemed like it was one of the easy ones but later we would find that maybe we were more lucky than it first appeared!
Turbine Hall
After some ducking and diving we were in. We found ourselves in a very dark but very very epic entrance lobby complete with a wooden framed revolving door that would have been a feature in the 1930s opulence of Battersea let alone 1960s Fawley. This is a comparison i'd come to draw many times during this explore and really this is what makes Fawley stand out from the rest of the 60s powerstation crowd. There may not be much marble in here but the building is anything but utilitarian. It is essentially a 1960s version of Battersea with all the architectural merit, attention to detail and pure 'flare' just 30 years advanced.
Boiler Firing Face
This revolving door we had discovered turned out to be a workers entrance, it lead through into locker rooms and the like. Things already felt quite derelict. Power was on but most lights were off. The last 3 years had definitely not been kind to the electrics. The main station halls were almost pitch black at this point with only a handful of sodium lights creating a orange glow across a few isolated areas of the vast expanse. After discussion we decided to go to the only place we could see from the outside that was lit, the UFO inspired control block.
Basement Level
Unit 1 Starter
We debated trying more of the admin area but now the sun was starting to rise we could see cars in the carpark and really it seemed a little strange for them to be there if we were truly alone. We elected to head back to the main building and do that first. To go all that way and not see turbines for the sake of a few offices and labs seemed foolish.
Turbine Hall Roof
Sun rising and back in the main station we could now fully appreciate the vast expanse. We decided to start up top. Heading to the top level of the boiler house and working back down. The vast expanse of glass was amazing. Popping out on to the roof the mist had lifted a little but the chimney was still almost totally obscured. It would stay that way all day rendering any attempt to climb it a little pointless.
Units 2 and 3
Working our way back down to the ground floor level (which unusually in this station is actually the main turbine floor) the hours started to tick past. We spied an interesting pair of gas turbines in the centre of the building. Dwarfed by the scale of the place they didn't look that spectacular from afar but standing next to them you realised that even on their own they would have been a find worth shouting about. This was another theme of the place. Take most of the sections in isolation and they are pant spoilers. It reminded me of the first days at pyestock. Building after building and each time it was just more and more to see. It almost hurts there's so much to see!
Main Boiler House Floor
Anyway im not sure what the gas turbines were really there for? Im guessing some kind of black start capability in a similar way to Littlebrook but who knows. We left them and started to check out the boiler firing faces and then over to the turbines themselves. Number 1 unit was partially dismantled. Im guessing its one of the pair that were mothballed in 1995 and then pillaged for spares. The hours ticked past again eventually with us finding ourselves on the gantry crane right at the far end of the building. What view this was!
Gas Turbines
The gantry crane was sitting over the top of the engineering section. Up until that point i hadn't really given it much of a look. Originally i thought it would be quite live, probably still used by the engineers that keep the various sump pumps and what not that were still humming away in order. Once we started to look however it was clear we were wrong. The area was totally abandoned.
Unit 1 Deaerator Tank
Everything in the engineering section area seemed so dated it was like an explore in its own right. There were various workshops. electrical, mechanical, instrumentation, welding etc. A large section was devoted to stores and a chunk was offices for formen, permit to work and even a nice drawing office.
Unit 1 Coolant Pumps
By this point we were getting on for 6 hours in and i have to admit this was taking its toll on my ability to wield a camera. If stuff of this calibre was laying around an easily accessible factory or somewhere like that we would spend months there to see it all. It was torture to spend little more than an hour in this section before we really needed to move on.
Engineering Department
The plan now was to forge our way through and head back to the control block for some better shots before attempting the chimney on the way out. We settled for photographing some of the turbine ancillaries that like the gas turbines from earlier appeared small for a distance but when you got up close you realise they were a big as the biggest of equipment in a paper mill or steelworks type plant.
Spiral Staircase
Now faced with heading back down to that iffy area around the lower floors of the control block it was kind of inevitable that we have to ride some bad luck as well as good on this explore. As we headed back down by pure chance we had picked the exact moment security had decided to head the other way. If we had seen them anywhere else on the site maybe we would have had a chance to run or to hide but here it just wasn't worth it, if i'm honest at that point the prospect of spending a few hours asleep in a cell was probably more inviting than a half mile sprint out of the place! As it happened tho we exchanged pleasantries. Got a nice little tour of the rest of the control block, an insight to quite how much of the security we had managed to foil by pure chance on our way in and ended up with the police giving us a lift back to the car. Maybe getting caught in power stations isn't as bad as people make out? Maybe it's just because they don't have to do it day in day out.. yet!
Unit 2 Control Station
So, parking up the car we wandered into the thick fog still with no real idea if the place was even still there! Reaching the fence was a relief, Not only was it still there it looked dead as a dodo with little activity and little to suggest anything had changed since closure.
It seemed like it was one of the easy ones but later we would find that maybe we were more lucky than it first appeared!
Turbine Hall
After some ducking and diving we were in. We found ourselves in a very dark but very very epic entrance lobby complete with a wooden framed revolving door that would have been a feature in the 1930s opulence of Battersea let alone 1960s Fawley. This is a comparison i'd come to draw many times during this explore and really this is what makes Fawley stand out from the rest of the 60s powerstation crowd. There may not be much marble in here but the building is anything but utilitarian. It is essentially a 1960s version of Battersea with all the architectural merit, attention to detail and pure 'flare' just 30 years advanced.
Boiler Firing Face
This revolving door we had discovered turned out to be a workers entrance, it lead through into locker rooms and the like. Things already felt quite derelict. Power was on but most lights were off. The last 3 years had definitely not been kind to the electrics. The main station halls were almost pitch black at this point with only a handful of sodium lights creating a orange glow across a few isolated areas of the vast expanse. After discussion we decided to go to the only place we could see from the outside that was lit, the UFO inspired control block.
Basement Level
Unit 1 Starter
We debated trying more of the admin area but now the sun was starting to rise we could see cars in the carpark and really it seemed a little strange for them to be there if we were truly alone. We elected to head back to the main building and do that first. To go all that way and not see turbines for the sake of a few offices and labs seemed foolish.
Turbine Hall Roof
Sun rising and back in the main station we could now fully appreciate the vast expanse. We decided to start up top. Heading to the top level of the boiler house and working back down. The vast expanse of glass was amazing. Popping out on to the roof the mist had lifted a little but the chimney was still almost totally obscured. It would stay that way all day rendering any attempt to climb it a little pointless.
Units 2 and 3
Working our way back down to the ground floor level (which unusually in this station is actually the main turbine floor) the hours started to tick past. We spied an interesting pair of gas turbines in the centre of the building. Dwarfed by the scale of the place they didn't look that spectacular from afar but standing next to them you realised that even on their own they would have been a find worth shouting about. This was another theme of the place. Take most of the sections in isolation and they are pant spoilers. It reminded me of the first days at pyestock. Building after building and each time it was just more and more to see. It almost hurts there's so much to see!
Main Boiler House Floor
Anyway im not sure what the gas turbines were really there for? Im guessing some kind of black start capability in a similar way to Littlebrook but who knows. We left them and started to check out the boiler firing faces and then over to the turbines themselves. Number 1 unit was partially dismantled. Im guessing its one of the pair that were mothballed in 1995 and then pillaged for spares. The hours ticked past again eventually with us finding ourselves on the gantry crane right at the far end of the building. What view this was!
Gas Turbines
The gantry crane was sitting over the top of the engineering section. Up until that point i hadn't really given it much of a look. Originally i thought it would be quite live, probably still used by the engineers that keep the various sump pumps and what not that were still humming away in order. Once we started to look however it was clear we were wrong. The area was totally abandoned.
Unit 1 Deaerator Tank
Everything in the engineering section area seemed so dated it was like an explore in its own right. There were various workshops. electrical, mechanical, instrumentation, welding etc. A large section was devoted to stores and a chunk was offices for formen, permit to work and even a nice drawing office.
Unit 1 Coolant Pumps
By this point we were getting on for 6 hours in and i have to admit this was taking its toll on my ability to wield a camera. If stuff of this calibre was laying around an easily accessible factory or somewhere like that we would spend months there to see it all. It was torture to spend little more than an hour in this section before we really needed to move on.
Engineering Department
The plan now was to forge our way through and head back to the control block for some better shots before attempting the chimney on the way out. We settled for photographing some of the turbine ancillaries that like the gas turbines from earlier appeared small for a distance but when you got up close you realise they were a big as the biggest of equipment in a paper mill or steelworks type plant.
Spiral Staircase
Now faced with heading back down to that iffy area around the lower floors of the control block it was kind of inevitable that we have to ride some bad luck as well as good on this explore. As we headed back down by pure chance we had picked the exact moment security had decided to head the other way. If we had seen them anywhere else on the site maybe we would have had a chance to run or to hide but here it just wasn't worth it, if i'm honest at that point the prospect of spending a few hours asleep in a cell was probably more inviting than a half mile sprint out of the place! As it happened tho we exchanged pleasantries. Got a nice little tour of the rest of the control block, an insight to quite how much of the security we had managed to foil by pure chance on our way in and ended up with the police giving us a lift back to the car. Maybe getting caught in power stations isn't as bad as people make out? Maybe it's just because they don't have to do it day in day out.. yet!
