# Lots Road Power Station



## Zero (Jan 7, 2008)

Lots Road Power station, one of the cursed london ue sites, it has been attempted countless times but never successfully accessed; and with good reason too, with several dozen cameras around the site, on site security, no ground floor windows and enough razor wire to fill a cruise ship, it certainly is a tough cookie.

Built between 1902-1905 Lots Road was originally a coal fired power station before being to converted to heavy fuel oil in 1960s and then to natural gas in the '70s. Lots Road provided power to the London underground before it finally closed on the 21st of October 2002.

This wasn't the first time I had tried to explore Lots Road, I had attempted it with Robsey back in March '06 but that merely knocked a possible access point off the list. So how do we get in then? Every single way in we saw was no no'd by some type of security measure, so eventually we looked at the last remaining option, the creek. With a bit of ingenuity and some serious climbing it seemed possible, and so myself, Dsankt and Jondoe launched our vessel out into the murky waters.

Attaching the rope to something was the hard part, but once sorted we were inside within 20 minutes. We stood in a large access tunnel with diggers and machinery parked along the sides. There was only one thing I wanted, a picture from the roof and so up we went. The design of the building was amazing, large five story windows let the ambient light stream into the turbine hall and the emergency lighting that had been rigged up made the machines glow. 

The view from the top was something else, I found myself staring across the Thames at Battersea Power station and instantly started snapping. We headed back down passing a small Pyestock-esq control room but pressed on for now to the main turbine hall. To one end of the hall was a bay window behind which was housed the main control room, at the other end was the biggest window I have ever seen and inbetween lots of turbines. A few more snaps and we were control room bound.

Sadly it was a bit of a anti-climax. The room was a mere shadow of its former self, many of the dials and consoles had been removed and many of the levers bent, some broken. We salvaged a few stealth shots, as we were now meters from security's view, and headed back to our entrance. Sadly we had to cut this trip short as we were dangerously close to 6am and knew people would be arriving soon, but we would return.

Pics - set 1 of 2
































*The Return*​
So here we are again, a new year starting, returning to the london monster this time with fellow explorer st00p joining our intrepid bunch. While access was unchanged we hadn't fully considered the tide, which was almost out, meaning we had to pull our raft through treacherously deep mud and had to abandon it as "sunk" by the time we climbed out. Our aim for today was to find the cable tunnels, which we had heard rumors about, as well as explore the rest of the buildings.

Alot of work had gone on since our first visit, many of the generators were now contained in asbestos removal housing and a large chunk of the main turbine hall and several other areas were now cordoned off. No worries there was still lots to see, excuse the pun. We scoured the ground floor looking for some kind of hatch or stairs leading further down. Eventually we found them. Two reinforced doors led downwards with a series of cables going with it. Luckily we could open the door from the inside and so didn't have to mess about squeezing through. It wasnt to be however, the cables ran down a long set of stairs before heading straight up eight levels to a welded door. Damn!

We gave up our search and started taking a few photos here and there, returning to the roof once more for some more clear sky shots. On the way back down while on the first level we passed something quite unexpected. We passed through a archway straight into one of the old chimney stacks!, Lots Road used to have four it seems. A precarious set of ladder rungs bending in all kinds of directions ran to the capped top and definitely didn't look safe. But we needed something to compare the size of the chimney too. Hmmmm. "Ill go up" Stoop had volunteered, and as the guy holding the camera I didn't argue! So up he went, an insane amount of dust falling from the aged brickwork as the rungs strained and moved under his weight. He continued up until one actually pulled out of the wall!! we decided that was far enough and took the shot.

After a brief detour to find the large stacks, which ended up having no ladder at all, we continued to the main control room. A few more bits and bobs gone once more, so much so I didn't even get my camera out. We looked across a small bridge to a smaller building and thought 'why not' as we're here. Only problem was it was right in front of the security hut and if they looked up we would be done for. We waited for the right time before dashing over....To a completely stripped and eighty percent demolished nothingness, crap! To make things worse one of the guys in the security hut had come out to begin his rounds and blocked our retreat leaving us with nowhere to go.

We just prayed we hadn't messed up and luckily he walked off to begin his patrol and we headed back as fast as we could all the way to the opposite side of the site. With our boat scuttled we had to find another way out, luckily there was a handy fire escape onto the street, that'll do nicely, we opened the door and ran like hell into the night.

Pics - set 2
























Hope you enjoyed it!


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## Reaperman (Jan 7, 2008)

As I said to JD It really does look good, Great to see more Pictures from here, I hope I'll be able to visit before its too late.

RM


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## stud (Jan 8, 2008)

What can I say , other than well done 

The pictures are great.
Quiet a bit of skill to get into the place , but by the looks of the pictures well worth it


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## Foxylady (Jan 8, 2008)

Absolutely stunning pics. What an amazing place eh! Excellently done guys.


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## dsankt (Jan 8, 2008)

I think the further into demo/stripping the workers progress the easier access will become. It's a bit over the top and convoluted at the moment but as things come down I'm positive many entrances will sprout up around the place. Stoops reaction to the security guard was priceless - his face lit up like a child and he said "lets get chased".


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## Reaperman (Jan 8, 2008)

dsankt said:


> I think the further into demo/stripping the workers progress the easier access will become. It's a bit over the top and convoluted at the moment but as things come down I'm positive many entrances will sprout up around the place. Stoops reaction to the security guard was priceless - his face lit up like a child and he said "lets get chased".



I'm not botherd about the security so much as being unable to commit the time at the moment. I am in the final year of my Degree and Its severly eating into my exploring time / Money.


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## Zero (Jan 8, 2008)

Little Addition for those who like the history of places, in a old file cabenet we found a few old photos of when the powerstation was in use from 1947. A few were beyond salvage as the water had gotten to them but here is the few that were ok.

Written on the back "Colin Tait Studios"


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## King Al (Jan 8, 2008)

Absolutly fantastic pic's + location, I would love a walk round there. If some one colud PM me in the right direction it would be apreciated


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## Foxylady (Jan 8, 2008)

Loved seeing the old photos. There's something a bit surreal methinks, about taking pics of pics...or is that just me?  
The guys looked as if they were getting on a bit, but I've noticed that people looked a lot older back then. They were probably only in their twenties!


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 8, 2008)

Another great report with supa pics to back it up! 
Very well written report too. Thanks for sharing.

Lb

p.s. -well done for rescuing those pics. Great to some heyday pics


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## Lightbuoy (Jan 8, 2008)

Do you suppose that this little dock area was where they unloaded coal to fire the Power Station?


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## krela (Jan 8, 2008)

They look like coal barges in those photos to me.


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## Rotax (Jan 8, 2008)

Quality chaps, Absolute Quality!!

You da men! Rotax....


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## snappel (Jan 8, 2008)

Lightbuoy said:


> Do you suppose that this little dock area was where they unloaded coal to fire the Power Station?


No shit!

Krela's right - they care coal barges.


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## sheep2405 (Jan 8, 2008)

Really good work guys, fantastic stuff, reminds me so much of White Bay Power Station In Sydney.


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## Zero (Jan 8, 2008)

The dock area isnt little, its a creek . which used to run all the way to acton.


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## Mr Sam (Jan 8, 2008)

what a control room, on par with battasea me thinks


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## smileysal (Jan 8, 2008)

Again, excellent write up and excellent pictures. Love the one of Stoop climbing up the inside of the chimney stack. rather him than me lol. I really do love that control room, with the round walls, and the huge turbines, and the views, love all the pictures. Love hearing about the history of the powerstation, and well done on finding the old pictures when the place was working.

Thank you.

Cheers,

 Sal


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## Lone Explorer (Jan 8, 2008)

grate read grate photos


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## snappel (Jan 8, 2008)

Mr Sam said:


> what a control room, on par with battasea me thinks


The whole place is, largely because at Battersea the turbines, boilers, etc have all gone. I dare say the guys removing everyone's favourite carcinogenic insulation material have a lengthy job on their hands!


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## Braveheart1984 (Jan 9, 2008)

Love the photo's Zero!


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## chelle (Jan 10, 2008)

I always thought Lightboys exploits were the most exciting to read/see but this is also pure class...the old pics too are priceless...look after them.It looks like a Parsons set in one of them too.Many thanxxx for an excellant report.


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## Bad wolf (Jan 14, 2008)

Complete class!!


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## mr_bones (Jan 25, 2008)

Colossal! Truly amazing report


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## sam1990 (Mar 26, 2008)

Hi,

Did anyone get any photos of any boilers?

Also, does anyone know why it was converted again in the 70s?

Thanks


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## Reaperman (Mar 26, 2008)

sam1990 said:


> Hi,
> 
> Did anyone get any photos of any boilers?
> 
> ...



I suspect its directly related to the oil crisis of 1973. OPEC the oil Cartel decided to cut off oil supplies to the west as payback for the support of Israel in the Yom Kippur war. Overnight the price of oil skyrocketed. In the UK this combined with industrial action in the coal industry which led to Power cuts.

Given the importance of Lots road as a supplier of power to the capitals transport grid it was important to maintain a stable fuel supply and at the time oil was not a good choice to run the capital on. 

The 1973 crisis resulted in a major rethink about how we supplied our energy needs. Security of supply was suddenly an important factor. From this period a number of interesting projects began to develop such as the "plan for coal" (investement in coalfields, modernisation, development of new mines, technologys etc.) There was a knock on effect for other developments such as north sea oil and gas, though these did not really come on stream in force untill the 1980's.

RM


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