Brunswick Wharf Power Station

Infobox UK power station
static_

static_image_caption=Brunswick Wharf Power Station, 1974.
map_type=Greater London
os_grid_reference=TQ388807
latitude=51.508115
longitude=0.000991
country=England
region=London
metropolitan_county=London
london_borough=Tower Hamlets
operator=Central Electricity Board
fuel=Coal-fired
fuel_capacity=328 MW
secondary_fuel=Oil
secondary_fuel_capacity=
opened=1946
closed=1984

Brunswick Wharf Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the River Thames in Blackwall, London. It was built by Poplar Borough Council for the Central Electricity Board after the Second World War.

History

The station was built in stages between 1946 and 1956 on the site of the former East India Export Dock, itself originally the Brunswick Dock of the Blackwall Yard shipyard. The site was controversial due to both potential air pollution in a densely populated part of London, and to the strategic implications of a further concentration of generating capacity in the light of the experiences of The Blitz.

The building was a monumental brick structure with fluted concrete chimneys, similar to Gilbert Scott's design for Battersea Power Station. Although originally coal fired, it was converted to oil in 1970. It ceased generation in 1984 and was demolished in the late 1980s. The switchgear house survived longer but was later redeveloped. [cite web
title = Brunswick Wharf
work = British History Online
publisher =
url = http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=46538
accessdate = 2007-11-02]

References