An odd building with an interesting piece of local history over
the door.
The first public supplies of electricity in the UK, used for
street lighting, were made in 1881. By 1921 there were over 480
authorised suppliers of electricity in England and Wales, who were
generating and supplying electricity at a variety of voltages and
frequencies.
The Electricity (Supply) Act of 1926 created a central authority
to promote a national transmission system. This system having a
voltage of 132KV, was largely completed by the mid 1930's. This
building is part of Islington's electricity distribution system
developed in that era.
Subsequently, the Electricity Act 1947 brought the distribution
and supply activities of 505 separate organizations in England and
Wales, including the Islington Electricity Department, under state
control and integrated them into 12 regional Area Boards. Islington
would have come under the London Electricity Board. The electricity
generating assets of the system were brought under the control of
the newly formed Central Electricity Generating Board (CEGB). The
London Electricity Board would have bought its electicity from the
CEGB and distributed to its customers through distribution assets
such as this one.
In 1990, as part of the then governments privitisation program,
the electricity supply industry was restructured and sold. The
distribution system was parceled up into the National Grid company
which still exists and operates these assets.
Also of interest close by: The round orange
brick structure in the field opposite (look through the large
wire-fence gate) is a 17m wide ventilation shaft for the Eurostar
rail link into Kings Cross. Eurostar trains pass 35m directly
underneath. It provides pressurized emergency access to the
tunnels, acts as a buffer against the 'piston effect' of the high
speed trains in the tunnel relieving pressure as a train passes,
and in emergency situations operates as a large fan, which can be
switched to suck or blow, to ventilate the tunnel or evacuate smoke
depending on where the location of any fire in the tunnel might
be.
