Powering Stoke Newington - 115 years of electricity supply by James Watson

Presented at the 15th Stoke Newington History Talks event on April 6th 2021. www.StokeNewingtonHistory.com
Filmed and edited by Nick Perry
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In this fascinating talk James Watson explains how Stoke Newington is wired and where its electricity comes from, covering the development of the electricity infrastructure from 1906 to the present day. This talk features footage from the former Hackney Power Station and the main substation on Edwards Lane filmed especially for the talk. Enjoy from the comfort of your own home, rubber boots not required!
James Watson lives in Hackney. He is a professional electrical engineer and amateur historian of technology. He makes sure the lights stay on in London, with particular priority given to his own neighbourhood!

[@RobCCTV]

Here's a presenter that needs to be on TV. Consistently clear and fascinating.

[@christiantroy3034]

Totally agree, National Grid needs him in US New England

[@thingsdisappear]

In the midst of a powercut in the middle of Stoke Newington, literally watching this by candlelight, 12% battery left on laptop.

[@ChristianBreaks]

Me too! Down on wordsworth road, using the last of my phone battery to watch this delightful chap 😂

[@thingsdisappear]

@@ChristianBreaks What a night of drama!

[@paulkurilecz4209]

Now that is irony.

[@Thor110]

What a gem of an unnoticed and barely viewed video, I love a bit of History.

[@NicholasNA]

Wonderful video. My late father was a power engineer with CEGB and was responsible for building out the national supergrid distribution network in the 1960s for much of north London and East Anglia. As a result of one of many reorganisations of the power industry he transferred to EEB in the 1970s and retired just before privatisation. I recall that one of the last projects he worked on before he retired was the decommissioning of Brimsdown.

[@johnhawkins2105]

Fascinating and brilliantly presented. I have a new understanding of how the grid works!

[@robpinter5431]

Some more information about early electrical supply, Tamworth Australia was an early adopter of municipal electricity, 4th September 1882, Edison's central power station commenced at 257 Pearl Street, NY supplying 59 households with 400 lamps. Tamworth established the first Municipal electric street lighting system in Australia. It commenced operation on the 9th November 1888

[@johnj4860]

The early engineers had such foresight in creating the high voltage distribution systems to carry the currents necessary today. However I'm concerned that political decisions are now likely to create huge unbalanced demands on the network which could overload parts and damage cables buried deep underground in our cities.

[@Dog-whisperer7494]

Wow brilliant video I found it very very interesting and informative. I’m sixty years of age and I remember the LEB and their show rooms were you could buy or rent electrical appliances look cookers fridge twin tub washing machine electric kettles. I’ve been a qualified spark for thirty eight years and I didn’t know any of this and it isn’t wasn’t taught in colleges . Fantastic stuff thank you .

[@kc0eks]

I wish every community did this kind of tour. Very cool

[@scemeengineer]

Excellent short film and a great explanation of the history of local electrical distribution and supply. And I can remember well the LEB shops!

[@totherarf]

I work in the same industry (NORWEB area). Maybe I am biassed, but I think the subject is fascinating! Back in the 1920's The colours were not the same as now ..... not even the same as the Red Yellow Blue you mentioned ...... They were Red White and Blue (very patriotic) but had to be changed, I am told, by EU edict to Red Yellow and Blue and now again changed to Brown Grey and Black. There were also some shenanigans over the final voltage too! We in the UK went for a 240/ 415V system but again the eurocrats demanded compliance to their 230v! Obviously this would have meant expensive changes so in true Britt fashion we fudged it! We agreed to 230V but kept the systems intact as was and altered the margin of error the voltage could be supplied at to match. It used to be 240v +- 6% now it is 230V +- 10% (giving the same top voltage but looking like the European's won the day ;o) If you look in original Generating Plant from the wild days where we had local voltage and frequencies (and some DC) you can see original cable over 100 years old now! To most people it would be boring at best but to me it is interesting!

[@Wriggs74]

Now, this is what you call proper architecture.

[@whitemonkey7932]

Brilliant - found it by chance and really enjoyed it....very knowledgeable narration even pointing out the Battersea reverse phase rotation.

[@TheChipmunk2008]

came here by accident too, the same eff up happened at southampton university, at a much smaller scale of course, the west side of the campus has reverse phase rotation ... and again, have to keep it working

[@lumpyfishgravy]

Really interesting, thank-you! And very well executed.

[@matttravers5764]

I'm a spark from the US and I've been watching a bunch of electricians from the UK on KZbin but I've always wanted to learn about the HV and utility company end of things across the pond and this video checks all the boxes! Awesome presentation! Thanks James!😎 Oh, and BTW we have National Grid here in New England too!...

[@TheChipmunk2008]

Same company, historically, the UK national grid somehow got sold off but also bought american utilities :)

[@BLOCKsignallingUK]

Fantastic production quality. Thank you for making this.

[@barumman]

A fantastic video, very informative and well presented, thank you.

[@andyclark1426]

Excellent video, I can smell and hear this video 😂😂, if you know you know 😉

[@dksspec]

Oh I know 👍

[@andyclark1426]

@@dksspec brilliant smell

[@dksspec]

@@andyclark1426 opens the door to a 60year old substation. Warm transformer oil , grease and lubricants from hot switchgear, hot loaded open LV bars and dust from years of building neglect. If they made a Yankie candle id buy 10 !

[@Paddington2000]

A very interesting and well presented video, thank's

[@lumo1001]

I Lived in Millfields Road in the 80’s and remember the power station being demolished.

[@aaronjanes762]

Good job James. You should start a series. Bankside with all the small canal streams and coal bunkers, leicester square the hidden substation, Deptford Grid and the ferranti tx and cable (which to be honest i thought was the first public lighting company so ive learnt something). So much fascinating hidden infrastructure in london and as you point out so many beautiful large subs for the old cyclo machinery.

[@user-ps2zr7jp6p]

Fascinating

[@MrZx9rdoug]

Very good

[@pjofurey6239]

Very well presented interesting film.remember the demolition work near Clapton , was in there asking for the scrap 😅.still an ind/comm electrician although not on the tools so much sadly.good to see the CORRECT (battersea) colours still used,as opposed to the idiotic and fatal euro colours ( let’s use the three most identical colours ) .

[@Subgunman]

It’s nice to see that most of the UK has zero power poles as well as having major substations housed in grand old buildings. In the states everything is a hodgepodge of areial and under ground distribution to residential properties. Industrial old build comes in overhead while new state of the art facilities have everything under ground. Now the issue of substations is a bit odd. Many are just surrounded by 10 foot tall chain link fencing, some topped with barbed wire or razor ribbon to protect fence climbers from entering the substation. Other substations May have ten foot tall brick walls with one rather large entrance to allow cranes in for transformer replacement. Both are subject to deranged individuals from attacking these transformers with high powered rifles. Banning any rifles is not the answer. There have been situations where transformers were damaged but not destroyed by high power rounds, piercing only the main body of the transformer and allowing cooling oil to leak out. There are protection systems that will take the transformers off line should oil levels and pressures should drop as well as excessive temperature sensors that will take it off line. There have been multiple events in the past where some transformers will explode due to external or internal overload faults, lightning being one of the issues but not that common.

[@markrainford1219]

Very interesting. Also interesting that you still refer to phases as RYB.

[@peterking2794]

I worked for many years on ops at an oil fired power station in the north west and was endlessly fascinated by the transformer compound and the various switchrooms around the station. Great video, Cheers!

[@ihatnecksered]

Fascinating, thanks. I had 33 years on the 132 and 33kv system in the East Midlands. Obviously mostly rural locations, I often wondered what it must have been like to fight your way through London traffic every day.

[@markrainford1219]

You definitely got the better end of the deal I'd say.

[@user-ky6vw5up9m]

Great Presentation James , Cheers

[@eliasthienpont6330]

🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁 THE LION WAS HERE 🦁🦁🦁🦁🦁 No. 756

[@gordonreeder3451]

I have no idea where Stoke Newington is (somewhere around London?) And I have only been to England briefly about 20 years ago. But I found this video quite fascinating.

[@bugleboy4527]

Very interesting

[@andyb7813]

Fantastic video, thankyou

[@KiwiMaker]

Good to see your building subs 10:07 look as crappy as ours do in NZ all though we still use magnafix hazemeyer hv switchgear. Thanks for the tour.

[@stuartandrews4344]

Just superb James!

[@blackbird8632]

Awesome film!

[@martyn6792]

Fascinating video

[@Lightbulb42cd]

Thanks James, brilliant video, very useful for us in our professional capacity as Emergency Planners - we all work right next door to Edwards Lane in the underground Civil Protection Control Centres at SN Town Hall - if you fancy a visit let us know, although we'll be asking for a reciprocal visit to the sub station!

[@bernienicholson9582]

Sounds good

[@BerlietGBC]

What a excellent presentation, I was hopping you might have spoken about reactive compensation. Have you read the Northmet book, if not it’s really worth getting a copy, it was written about 25 years ago, I think you could make a standalone presentation on the company

[@paulanelectrician819]

Highly informative and interesting, all local landmarks to me, an electrician in hackney and walthamstow.

[@e5Group]

Excellent

[@barrywhitley2535]

Interesting video.

[@WOFFY-qc9te]

Well that was an enjoyable video you done well.........

[@Rs500ybd]

When this first come on line it was intended to be free for all. How that soon changed.

[@johnbewick6357]

Very interesting, although I would not have termed the electric going into houses as ' safe ' certainly ' safer ' than the 400.000 or 275,000 volt supplies but still enough to kill. No mention of DC supply as was used on the very first domestic supplies, or maybe it was never used in that area.

[@sanjitng7483]

Excellent 👍 job

[@UQRXD]

Just why was this suggested to me?

[@aaronbrandenburg2441]

I have a feeling I'm not the only one that thought this at first add kind of did a quick Double Take or an O moment. When he was mentioning the abbreviated portion of this three letter. For a second there I thought he said LED! Part of this might be that the European accident or how things are said across the way you could say. I'm wondering if I'm the only one that kind of got caught up by this for a second. Still laughing inside after realizing what was said and was thinking LED it happens but sometimes it's stuff like this it throws you off for just a Split Second

[@robbaxter7730]

James very interesting, how about the for West Ham? Rob Baxter OHL's retired

[@elspethinglis7360]

A friend if mine has lived at the Neville for the last 25 years or so. Did you speak to him?

[@aserta]

Paris was the first. 1878, Yablochkov candles.

[@dansheppard2965]

Is that Hackney station all gas-insulated? Do you still use SF6, or have they found anything better for climate change?

[@chrisjarvis4449]

ELO so its not a band ! strange magic ! or was it telephone line !

[@harryjones5260]

swifty powers stoke newington

[@barcodenosebleed5485]

James Wat(t)...son? Nominative determinism strikes again. 🙃

[@Mr.1.i]

66 000volts ac electricity

[@chilledoutpaul]

what happened to my comment?

[@godfreypoon5148]

8:19 red means on and green means off 😡😡😡😡😡😡😡