Generating electricity since 1972, Fawley was an oil fired power station on the western shore of Southampton Water in Hampshire.

Commissioned by the CEGB, Fawley was built by Mitchell Construction, comprising 4 sets of 500MW Parsons generating units, totalling 2GW capacity. Two units were mothballed in 1995, leaving 1GW capacity remaining.

The power station has a few unique and interesting architectural features designed by architect Colin Morse. The boiler house is clad in marine grade glass arranged in a zig-zag pattern, which still looks modern and shiny to this day. By the late 1960s, not only the huge main buildings of power stations were designed to make a statement, attention to the ancillary buildings was also being drawn. No other power station reflects this more than the “flying saucer” design of the control building, a large round structure juxtaposed against the straight lines of the expansive turbine hall and towering boiler house behind. Flanking the control building with another huge contrast of design elements, the canteen building is formed from triangular concrete sections.

To minimise the visual impact the power station would have on the surroundings, Fawley was built in a 24 foot deep trench. Unusually, the turbine floor is at ground level, and the lower level of the turbine hall is within a basement. The result is the building, with the exception of the 650ft chimney, is hardly visible from the surrounding areas. The only place to view the building in its entirety is from the Solent or immediate shoreline.

Fawley was never used to full capacity. Being built just before the oil crisis of the 1970s meant it was expensive to run, despite being listed as the most efficient power station in the UK at the time. The power station opted out of the Large Combustion Plant Directive (LCPD), meaning it would not comply with new emissions regulations and therefore could operate for no more than 10,000 hours until the end of 2015. Owners RWE announced closure in 2012 and the station generated electricity for the last time on 31 March 2013.

Buildings and Plant Detail

Fawley Image Gallery

Visit the plant detail pages above to view more images from each area of the power plant

Image references:

1. Unknown
2. Gene (GFDL CC Licence)
3. MHG Heating

The main control room at Fawley is an astounding ancillary building. Completely unlike the Bauhaus glass of the turbine hall behind it, the ‘Tracy Island industrial’ control room was dubbed “The Flying Saucer” by the press because that is exactly what it looks like: an aluminium-domed concrete drum, connected by a bridge to the turbine hall and hovering on concrete piers, looking like Thunderbird 2 might drop out at any moment.

The interior is no less futuristic with its curving walls, stacked up with dials, controls and flickering screens broken up by a strip of windows giving almost 360 degree views of Southampton Water. The ceiling lights radiate from the central pillar, spiral staircases take you down to the lobby, detailed in teak and polished concrete. Apart from the replacement of the original four computers, not much appears to have changed since 1965. The English Heritage report remarks on the building’s interior completeness and, despite mothballing Fawley in 2013, RWE were still using this to control a number of power stations across the country up until 2016.

Alongside the control room is a narrow, concrete dock which can accommodate and oil tanker should the enormous Esso refinery next-door be unable to supply the station, it also provides seawater to be pumped around the turbines to cool them. The canteen building projects over the dock, four triangular sections in laminated Douglas fir, which house the dining room, changing facilities and kitchens. With large wooden-framed windows below a dynamic, interlocking sail design for the roof, the design is distinctly different from the Brutalist-influenced control room. It feels much more of-our-time, like a newly-opened pavilion in a Danish park, not a canteen for industrial workers in 1960s Hampshire.

Plan of the Control Room

Control Room Pictures

Admin Block Pictures

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Fawley incorporates four 500 MW Parsons turbine-generator sets, totalling 2,000 MW generating capacity.  Units 2 and 4 were decommissioned in 1992 and 1994 respectively. Unit 1 was mothballed in 1995 but returned to service in 2006.

Fawley Generating Units

List of power generating units at Fawley Power Station:

Turbine Hall Pictures

Gas Turbines

Fawley was equipped with 4 Olympus gas turbines manufactured by Bristol Siddeley Engines Ltd. and generators manufactured by Richardson Westgarth with an output of 17.5 MW each.

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The oil-fired boilers of Fawley Power Station are contained within a central core rising above the turbine hall. The walls are a close zig-zag of glass, formed into adjacent triangular columns rising until, just below the flat roof, they taper between inverse columns slotting downwards. The thick marine-grade glass gives a translucent, crystalline effect.

The four boilers were manufactured by John Thompson Ltd. and are of the La Mont Forced Circulation type. They could produce up to 441 kg/s of steam each. At the superheater outlet the steam was at a pressure of 165 bar and a temperature of 541 degrees C.

Boiler House Pictures

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