Lots Road Power Station is a disused coal and later oil-fired power station on the River Thames at Lots Road in Chelsea, London in the south-west of The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which supplied electricity to the London Underground system.
A power station at Lots Road was originally planned by the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway in 1897. The B&PCR was controlled by the ex Metropolitan District Railway (MDR, now the District line) from 1898, and was sold in 1901 to Charles Yerkes' Metropolitan District Electric Traction Company, which built the station to provide power to the MDR. The station allowed the District line trains to change from steam haulage to electric
The station played a part in the birth of commercial radio in the UK. When the first two radio stations, LBC and Capital radio, opened in October 1973, the site for their medium wave transmitters was not complete. As a result, a temporary 'Tee' antenna was strung up between the two chimneys (transmitting LBC on 417 m (719 kHz), and Capital Radio on 539 m (557 kHz)), until the permanent site at Saffron Green was ready in 1975. Some years later the site was used again, on 720 kHz (for a low power MW relay of BBC Radio 4's LW service) which was in use until 2001 when the radio transmitter was moved to Crystal Palace.
Pictures of the inside of the power station are at http://www.silentuk.com/writeupabove/lotsroad.html
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