What is this building near Old Oak Common?

[Will Crompton]

There is a ruined building to the north side of the GWR main lane visible just after one passes Old Oak Common. I remember seeing it on 'gricing' expeditions out west back in the 1970s. Over the years on the infrequent occasions I have used this route I have noted it still being there, gradually falling into greater disrepair. Now this may be my memory playing tricks but in the early 70s I recall a siding coming off the main line, curving sharply and running towards/into the building. The track seemed to be disused at the time. Does anyone now what this building was? And for the sake of my sanity was there a siding? I've checked my copy of Joe Browns Atlas of London Railways but it is not depicted. I attach a screengrab from Google maps.

 

Edited March 31, 2022 by Will Crompton
Reploaded photo after the 'Great outage of '22!'

[Bucoops]

Interesting  It's not showing on a 1938 map - https://maps.nls.uk/view/102345855

 

The overhead of OOC is depressing now isn't it. Nothing of interest left (apart from this old building!).

[Joseph_Pestell]

55 minutes ago, Will Crompton said:

There is a ruined building to the north side of the GWR main lane visible just after one passes Old Oak Common. I remember seeing it on 'gricing' expeditions out west back in the 1970s. Over the years on the infrequent occasions I have used this route I have noted it still being there, gradually falling into greater disrepair. Now this may be my memory playing tricks but in the early 70s I recall a siding coming off the main line, curving sharply and running towards/into the building. The track seemed to be disused at the time. Does anyone now what this building was? And for the sake of my sanity was there a siding? I've checked my copy of Joe Browns Atlas of London Railways but it is not depicted. I attach a screengrab from Google maps.

 

Have you tried looking it up on old-maps.co.uk or the equivalent National Library of Scotland collection of OS maps?

[keefer]

It's shown on the 1955 OS 1:1250 map but not labelled in any way:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/102897781#zoom=4&lat=5153&lon=3469&layers=BT

 

On the 1938-48 (pub.1955) 1:10000 only the bigger building is shown:

https://maps.nls.uk/view/189259244#zoom=5&lat=5426&lon=2900&layers=BT

Edited June 8, 2020 by keefer

[Joseph_Pestell]

On the 1972 map, it is described as a transformer station. Presumably for the Central Line. There is indeed a siding to it. Otherwise just accessible by a footbridge.

[Joseph_Pestell]

17 minutes ago, Bucoops said:

Interesting  It's not showing on a 1938 map - https://maps.nls.uk/view/102345855

 

The overhead of OOC is depressing now isn't it. Nothing of interest left (apart from this old building!).

That would be consistent with it being for the Central Line which was only extended past there in 1948.

[Nearholmer]

I'd need to do some delving, but I think it might be the ex-GWR power station. If so, it is very old, going back to about 1880, and was used to supply power initially to an installation of arc-lighting at Paddington, and later became an intake point from the public power distribution network. I don't think it ever supplied traction power, but again I'd need to check.

 

EDIT: No, I think its too far out from Paddington to be the original generating station, see below .......

Edited June 8, 2020 by Nearholmer

[Joseph_Pestell]

2 minutes ago, Nearholmer said:

I'd need to do some delving, but I think it might be the ex-GWR power station. If so, it is very old, going back to about 1880, and was used to supply power initially to an installation of arc-lighting at Paddington, and later became an intake point from the public power distribution network. I don't think it ever supplied traction power, but again I'd need to check.

 

That perhaps makes more sense. I can't think why LT would have built a transformer station for the Central Line and then not used it.

 

That is, taken as a whole, an amazing amount of London real estate not to be used for building of some sort. It is accessible from two roads.

[keefer]

The document 'Old Oak Outline Historical Area Assessment' has this on p.48 of the PDF:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.london.gov.uk/moderngovopdc/documents/s56739/For%20reference%20-%20HE%20Historic%20Assement%20report.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjurZqw4_LpAhVHfMAKHQYZBagQFjALegQIBRAB&usg=AOvVaw3DuPTOwEDkya4kPG5a5JJy

 

(Sorry for the crap google link)

 

"Electricity Transformer Station, south of
Wells House Road (NGR 521177, 
181778). Built between 1894 and 1913, 
with later additions. The building, 
presently derelict and overgrown, is 
located on a raillocked triangle of land. A 
monitor roof structure with parallel 
‘aisles’. The structure is identified as a 
‘transformer station’ on the 1974 
Ordnance Survey revision, but not on 
previous editions. It is possible that the 
installation originally related to a private 
electricity supply for a nearby industrial 
building such as the Ducon Condenser 
Works."

[Nearholmer]

I ought to know for sure, having overseen the renewal of a large section of the power system in the late 1980s-early 1990s, but I'm fairly certain that the Central line Western Extension was always supplied from the Grid at 22kV from Acton Lane.

 

PS: Ah, but I'm thinking only of the "New Works Scheme" extension of the late-30s ........... The Ealing & Shepherds Bush Extension came before that, shortly after WW1. Was this building the power supply for that? More delving needed!

 

The 1894-1913 date fits, because the CLR "join-up" and electrification had been planned from 1905, was authorised by the CLR Act 1911, but completion was delayed by WW1, and its in exactly the right location.

 

This is rather nice, dating from 1920:

 

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Nearholmer

[keefer]

TfL research guide no.16 about the Central Line:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://content.tfl.gov.uk/research-guide-no-16-a-brief-history-of-the-central-line.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjd_Z-kivPpAhWIQkEAHTXUBSUQFjABegQIBhAB&usg=AOvVaw1OS2trbWHMVFtI0hDBvJG4

 

p.4 of the PDF has:

"In 1920, the line was extended to Ealing Broadway, with an intermediate station at 
East Acton. As the tracks crossed over one another west of Shepherds Bush, they 
were crossed back again east of East Acton. Two further intermediate stations, North 
Acton and West Acton, were opened in 1923. The 1920s also saw improvements at 
several central area stations, with escalators introduced to replace lifts. In 1928, the 
line's own power station at Wood Lane was closed and power obtained instead from 
the Underground power station at Lots Road."

 

Lots Road is covered briefly in Research Guide no.30:

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=http://content.tfl.gov.uk/research-guide-no-30-lots-road-and-greenwich-power-stations.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwjx37S3i_PpAhXNYcAKHVNFA-k4ChAWMAB6BAgBEAE&usg=AOvVaw1k50MOb7VNYAwc0tVZnowC

 

States it generated power at 11kV AC which was then transformed and rectified at sub-stations to the necessary 550-600V DC

[Nearholmer]

Yes, but ......

 

I am far from sure that Wood Lane Generating Station actually supplied the power for the E&SB extension; I don't think it did. I'm not sure where I've put my copy of "Rails Through the Clay", but if anyone has a copy to hand, it might well answer that point, and possibly even identify this building.

 

(Of side interest, the basic shell of Wood Lane Generating station remains in existence. At some point it got "listed", spent a long period empty, and was used as the location for the warehouse scene in the 1988 film "Who Framed Roger Rabbit", before becoming the outer shell of a new traction substation that was built when the area was redeveloped, eradicating an earlier substation, about 15 years ago.) 

[Nearholmer]

Well, still without being 100% sure what it was for, here is a really good photo showing it in 1939. https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW062806

 

To me, it looks as if construction work is going on.

[Davexoc]

I'm pretty sure I have been in that building as an Old Oak apprentice. We had to do a week with the HV guys based at Paddington, and we went down to that area, accessed from a footpath off Victoria Road IIRC. It was full of redundant antiquated open knife switches and old fashioned meters, but also had more modern equipment too (1970s). Back then it partly supplied Old Oak Common depot, and partly LU. You could see the ammeter needles jumping as tube trains went between sections.

There was another smaller building nearby that was the switch room for three 66kV transformers that IIRC fed into that building. This smaller building may be where the OHLE sub is now, but I remember the big 6 second warning gong that would sound in the event of the CO2 fire suppression system being triggered. The pitch sprayed over the walls and ceiling from a fault once stick in my mind too.

[roythebus]

Wasn't the shell of the Wood Lane generating station used as part of the bus station? I remember driving rail replacement buses through there a few years ago. 

[Nearholmer]

I think it might have been before its film appearance.

[Nearholmer]

4 minutes ago, Davexoc said:

here was another smaller building nearby that was the switch room for three 66kV transformers

 

That tallies exactly with what I think I can see in that second aerial photo - three transformer pens making up the smaller building, with what looks like a new incoming termination being built at one end.

[Will Crompton]

Thanks for the replies and information everyone. It is much appreciated. I'm glad the aerial photo posted by Nearholmer shows the siding - I haven't totally lost me marbles!

[Nearholmer]

I'm going to take a stab, based on what we've got so far, and say that:

 

- the main building was indeed a GWR generating station, but probably not the original 1880s one, a bigger and better one of later date;

 

- that it supplied the E&SB extension of the CLR;

 

- that the 1939 photos show it in course of conversion from a generating station to an intake from the grid in readiness for the Central line extension to Ruislip;

 

- that the siding was for original construction and then for bringing in coal.

 

All subject to further delving/confirmation/denial.

 

As a further side note, you can see in the aerial photos that the CLR was still centre-third, running-rail return at the time, no fourth rail, because that wasn't introduced until a year later when the line was converted to "conventional london underground" four rail system.

 

 

Edited June 8, 2020 by Nearholmer

[keefer]

I wonder if this it the same place?

(Link to an urbex site):

https://www.derelictplaces.co.uk/main/misc-sites/18499-abandoned-london-transport-substation.html

[Ian Smeeton]

Looking at the photos on britain from above, there is one taken in 1938, which predates the construction work, but doesn't show any wagons on site. There is a  NG tramway running alongside the larger building. in the 1939 photos, I think it is visible in the 1938 one, but not particularly clear.

 

See here: https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW058340

 

I don't see any Grid or O/H distribution equipment, though. Nor is there a chimney or flue.

 

Curioser & curioser

[Nearholmer]

The connection from the grid or from a particular power station would be by cables, not pylons, so nothing to see above ground.

 

I was looking for a chimney too, and I wonder if the boiler house and chimney were at one end of the building, where the photos seem to show a pit and a load of pipes, and were swept away by the time the photos were taken. If there never were any, it may always have been a substation, taking supply from elsewhere - there were two "public" generating stations in the area, Acton Lane and Taylors Lane, both built shortly after 1900.

 

The urbex building could be this one, and if it is it looks like a typical early 1900s substation or small generating station. The beams high-up along the building would originally have carried a crane, for shifting heavy parts of turbo-alternators and/or rotary converters (effectively motor generators that were used to convert AC to DC before more modern rectifiers), which would have sat in the centre aisle. The switchgear looks like 1930s DC gear to me, and where it is positioned looks like it may have been either dumped there or fitted there after conversion of the site to more modern rectifiers. If only we could read the designation plates, we could be sure where this is.

[Grovenor]

Quote

The beams high-up along the building would originally have carried a crane, for shifting heavy parts

One of the pictures shows that the crane is still there.

[Nearholmer]

Doh!

 

 

[Engineer]

Suggestion?  - Old Oak Common - one of the substations for the Great Western and Metropolitan Joint route to Hammersmith when electrified.  Others were Royal Oak and Shepherd's Bush.

 

Great Western generating station feeding this and others - Park Royal.

[see NLS OS and

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW033754

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW041853

https://britainfromabove.org.uk/en/image/EPW055718]. 

 

Source:  London's Metropolitan Railway, Jackson, A. A., 1986.

Edited June 9, 2020 by Engineer
Sources added