Barking Control Room

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 Power Station following its closure in 1969, including this Substation containing a very vintage control room.

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.

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 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.