Coordinates: 51.482395° N 0.020301° W
Deptford Power Station was a coal-fired power station on the south bank of the River Thames at Deptford, south east London.
History
Deptford East
The first station was designed in 1887 by Sebastian de Ferranti for the London Electric Supply Corporation. It was located at Stowage, a site to the west of the mouth of Deptford Creek once used by the East India Company. Built on an unprecendented scale and pioneering the use of high voltage (10,000V) AC current, the station was intended as a large scale plant to supply central London. The need to lay distribution cables across the streets of numerous local authorities stirred up a Board of Trade Inquiry, and concerns about the wisdom of concentrating so much generating capacity at a single site. The company also lost customers due to early teething troubles and the station was eventually opened in 1891 on a smaller scale than envisaged. However it was still the world's largest power station at the time. The original building, known as Deptford East, remained in use until 1957.[1]
Deptford West
A new Deptford West station was built on a former dry dock site and opened in 1929 by the London Power Company. Designed by Leonard Pearce, it had a single large concrete chimney at the northern, riverside end. After nationalisation in 1953 the station was extended following the same design, the new section having a similar chimney at each end. This section was known as Deptford West HP (High Pressure). Generation ceased in 1983. Following demolition in 1992 the site was redeveloped for housing. The large coaling jetty in the Thames survives. A nearby park developed from a derelict site has been named Ferranti Park.
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