Lots Road Power Station

Lots Road Power Station is a disused gas- and oil-fired power station (originally coal) on the River Thames at Lots Road in Chelsea, London in the south-west of the Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea, which supplied electricity to the London Underground system. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as Fulham Power Station, a name properly applied to another former station a mile south-west along the Tideway.

A power station at Lots Road was originally planned by the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR, now part of the Piccadilly line) in 1897. The B&PCR was controlled by the District Railway (DR, now the District line) from 1898, and was sold in 1901 to Charles Yerkes' Metropolitan Diistrict Electric Traction Company, which built the station to provide power to the DR. The station allowed the District line trains to change from steam haulage to electric. At around the same time the Metropolitan Railway built its power station at Neasden.

The station was built end-on to the Thames, on the north bank of the tidal Chelsea Creek. Construction started in 1902 and was completed in December 1904, the station becoming operational on 1 February 1905. At opening the station contained 64 Babcock & Wilcox boilers producing 18,000 Ib/hr of steam which fed eight Westinghouse turbo alternators of 5,500 kW, 11,000 Volts 33 1⁄3 Hertz. The station burned 700 tonnes of coal a day and had a generating capacity of 55,000 kW. At the time it was claimed to be the largest power station ever built, and it eventually powered most of the railways and tramways in the Underground Group. Six of the Westinghouse turbines were replaced by Parsons turbines during 1909/10 and in 1915 an 18,000 kW set was installed from Parsons and a further 18,000 kW set in 1919. A third 18,000 kW set was ordered in 1923.

The original equipment comprised eight turbo-alternators of 6,000 kW capacity each. Three extra sets, each of 15,000 kW, were installed, the first in 1916, another in 1921, and the third in 1925. Since the latter date, three of the old 6,000-kW sets have been removed and replaced by three 15,000-kW machines. A further 15,000-kW set is now in course of erection displacing a fourth 6,000-kW set. All these sets were from C A Parsons.

The station was re-equipped and improved several times. During the early 1920s a sump and hopper system for more efficient fuel handling was installed. It was designed by The Underfeed Stoker Company and constructed under their stewardship by Peter Lind & Company, who still trade in London today.

The modernisation undertaken in the 1960s converted the station from 33+1⁄3 Hz to 50 Hz generation and from coal burning to heavy fuel oil. The number of chimneys was reduced from the original four to two. Between 1974 and 1977, with the discovery of natural gas in the North Sea, the boilers were converted to burn gas, with the option of oil firing if required. The station later worked in conjunction with the ex-London County Council Tramways power station at Greenwich to supply the London Underground network.

The station played a part in the birth of commercial radio in the UK. When the first two radio stations, LBC and Capital Radio, opened in October 1973, the site for their medium wave transmitters was not complete. As a result, a temporary 'Tee' antenna was strung up between the two chimneys (transmitting LBC on 417 m (719 kHz), and Capital Radio on 539 m (557 kHz)), until the permanent site at Saffron Green was ready in 1975. From 1979 the site was used again, on 720 kHz (for a low power MW relay of BBC Radio 4's LW service) which was in use until 2001 when the radio transmitter was moved to Crystal Palace. Additionally, there were broadcasts of BBC CARFAX experimental traffic information on 526.5 kHz, 1979–1981, and Spectrum Radio on 558 kHz, 1990-2001.

In July 1992, it was decided not to re-equip Lots Road again; rather it was to continue to operate only until the machinery's life was expired. On 21 October 2002, Transport Minister John Spellar switched off the turbines, ending 97 years of electricity generation. Since 2002, all power for the London Underground has been supplied from the National Grid (except that Greenwich Power Station is kept on standby, in case of National Grid failure).