In today’s Urbandoned video, we are
showcasing our exploration during the night of the last remains at one
of the UK’s huge power stations. Fawley was an oil-fired generating station
located in Hampshire that was decommissioned in 2013. Almost a decade later, the turbine
hall and boiler house have been demolished, yet something very unique still resides onsite,
the original admin block and control room. Join us on our infiltration as we attempt
to find the motherboard of the complex. It was very late, deep into the night at
2am. On one side of us were the peaceful waters of Southampton’s bay, whilst on the
other, razor wire fences and warning signs, towered over by a flashing chimney, the
beacon we had followed to reach this point. However, the UFO-like admin block was
what we had travelled many miles to see. Positioned a sky bridge’s
length from the turbine hall, it had boasted the plant’s main control room
since construction in the late 1960s. After discovering it was accessible, despite being
guarded by a security team and many cameras, we were down South in a flash and finally
were ready to explore it’s interior. Alistair: Inside a very peculiar looking
building that was formerly the control room and admin block for one of the UK’s large
power stations. Most of it has been demolished, but this building still remains. As you can
see, there is some construction work going on, but the architecture is very unique and
something totally different to what we have seen. Alistair: Here’s a small model of the power station,
completely intact. Stuff like this deserves to go into museums, but probably will just be
scrapped when this building’s stripped out. Alistair: Holy sh**! This is like a goldmine. Looks like folders full of
reports and board procedures. Just important files. This
room was definitely locked. The amount of paperwork left behind
was staggering. If we hadn’t been a little pushed for time with the ever
threatening presence of security, we could have scanned through
the folders for hours. Alistair: Can’t use my torch in here. If there’s
no bits with the lights on, I can’t turn them on either, because the patrolling security would
notice differences. Here’s an upstairs lobby. Can see a sign there that says ‘conference room.’
Hopefully, that is sealed off so I can turn the light on. As you can see, the architecture is
very unique and different. It’s not a massive building and it won’t be a huge video, but still
something unique that you don’t see everyday. Alistair: We did manage to find the
light switch for the conference room. All the furniture is set up just how
it would’ve been, all that time ago. I bet some pretty important
meetings were held in here. It felt as if we were wandering back
in time to the facility’s occupation, with the untouched state of the
offices and conference rooms, mixed with the functioning electricity
making the building seem hardly abandoned. Alistair: Here’s another meeting space. This one is a
lecture room, as told by the label on the door. It’s got this creepy, flickering fire exit
light, but the architecture is more of the same. It reminds me of a college we
did in Wales last year. We actually lost the footage to it, but it’s a brutalist
architecture building. It looks very similar. I quite like the architecture
though, it’s quite unique. After taking in some of the better details
in the lower floors, we decided to progress upwards in hopes of coming across
the site’s best feature remaining. Alistair: I’m not sure who wrote this, but it seems like the
last thing they planned was the meals for a day. Alistair: Gradually getting up to
the top - the staircase has thinned. I expect we are going to
see the control room, soon. Yeah, this is pretty telling. Here we go… Wow - look at the plaques on the walls, dating back to
the 70s. This is one historic room. Oh my god! The floor is so reflective, but look at
these panels… The ceiling with the curves - this is one beautiful control room. It’s
definitely up there with the ones we’ve seen. Welcome to Fawley Power Station’s incredible central control
room. Dubbed ‘The Flying Saucer,’ the circular space was astonishing to be within.
Although missing some panels in it’s old age, the curved design, including panels and windows, means that operators would have panoramic
views over the Southampton water. It was up there with the best we
have had the pleasure of visiting. The futuristic interior was only topped
by the working power and polished floor, making us feel as if we were
featuring in an episode of Star Trek. Except for the replacement of
the classic four computers, every inch of the control room was original and
untainted since 1965. Vital for years onwards, the space had even been utilised after the
generating station was decomissioned in 2013, for a further three years where it was used to control
numerous other power stations around the country. But what happened to the property’s other
assets? The plant was built over a period of six years between 1965 and 1971, beginning
operation in the latter as a 2,000 MW oil-fired power station. It’s position had been chosen
deliberately, adjacent to Fawley Oil Refinery, whose heavy fuel oil would connect directly
into the complex through a pipeline. As oil was more expensive than coal and natural
gas, the station would never run consistently, but switched on in times of high demand. In September
2012, the owners announced that the structure would be shut down by the end of March 2013 due
to economic restraints. After that, the turbine hall was stripped and demolished, with all that
remains today being the admin block and chimney. Alistair: This room is massive. I didn’t even
look to the left when we came in, because all the panels seem to be on the
right, but you’ve got this long one against the doorway wall and as you can see here on the
ground, there was definitely two more sets here that meet at the middle one and then
they would continue over there, so it sucks that these were removed. I
believe they were removed a while ago, even 10, 20 years ago (untrue, only in the past
couple years!), but I’ll still take what’s left. Alistair: Yet another map. This one a bit more
different though. This shows what they are going to try and do with the place. I think they’re
making it into a water treatment centre, but these are the prospects that may have been
completed by the time you’ve seen this video. It looks like they’re going to be building a lot
of houses. Whether, they are for workers or just purely residential, I’m not sure. It would
be a nice location, it’s right by the sea. Alistair: In case you’ve been wondering, why we’ve been ignoring all these cameras you might have seen in the rest of the building besides the control
room? Here’s the reason. They all connect to here. If I waited for a while, you might see some
other explorers that I’m with walking around, but at this point, everything looks empty.
There’s my security sweep done for the night. Alistair: Looks like quite a modern switchroom, especially this bit. These ones with the glass signage looks a bit different and they are the same colour
as the rest of the panels in the main room. Can hear a slight hum in here, so I’m
going to be careful not to touch anything. Yeah, these signs are so cool! Very dated. As well as old computer systems in the
back rooms of the ancillary building, we would also discover countless blueprints
and papers that deserve to be in a museum. Alistair: It’s awfully hard to film this, because
we are not allowed to use torches in here by our guide, so I’m just using my phone’s flashlight
for now. These are all really old paperworks and there is a ton of them, all confidential
or blueprints of the power station. From 1962, right there - crazy… That would be all we had time for on
our last minute trek to the remnants of Fawley Power Station. Realistically, we had
travelled over 500 miles for one single room, but we think the history and importance of
it makes the journey very worthwhile. After making sure we hadn’t missed anything, we
managed to exit the premises undetected. Unfortunately, the rare control room has been stripped of it’s
panels now and is destined to be bulldozed. We couldn’t believe the news, fairly confident
that it would be protected for decades to come, perfectly intact and complete and a tribute
to the nationalised industry in the UK. Removing the entirety of the station is
set to be finished at the end of 2022 in preparation for the land’s conversion into
a new community of 1,500 homes. Currently, there is even less of Fawley than there was
a year ago when we recorded this film. We hope you found our documentation
interesting for what it was and crucial to preserving the iconic
building when others had failed it. Here are some of our photographs
captured at the abandoned power station. If you like the look of
them, check out our Instagram page where we share images of our explores
months before they are seen on YouTube. Thanks for watching! We listened to
the great feedback on our last video and decided to showcase another UK power
station this time. Be sure to join us in the livestream tomorrow to discuss
this location. See you next time!
