Rigler Road Power Station Site, Poole, Dorset

A look at the Rigler Road site of the old Poole power station, which was demolished in the 1990s. Most of the area is empty, but a large electrical installation still exists on the northern corner of the site.
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[@jonbaldwin]

I'd love for you to visit an active substation (or the fence around one anyway) and tell us what the pieces of equipment are and what they do.

[@bobuk5722]

Hi John. Many, many moons ago as a young lad I rode here on my bicycle and had a conducted tour around this power station. I remember being amazed how big the generator hall seemed. Very noisy as well. Sad to find its been demolished. BobUK

[@oldblokeh]

At the chemical factory I once worked at that used to be opposite the power station on the other side of Holes Bay, it used to be a popular prank to put a small lump of dry ice into a thick rubber glove, tie a tight knot in the glove and chuck it into Holes Bay. The glove would float away, getting bigger and bigger as the dry ice sublimed into CO2 gas. It would finally burst with a satisfying bang. Rumour had it that the fun stopped after complaints were received from the power station about shredded rubber gloves fouling their cooling waiter intakes. We're talking mid seventies here, by the way. The chemical factory is long gone, thank goodness, although you might be interested to know that it once made the vast majority of the world's supply of liquid crystal materials.

[@Sidneyyoungblood75]

oldblokeh - did that include the lava lamp?

[@mebalshaw]

That was a brilliant video John. I really wondered about that installation when I came to Bournemouth with my family last year. We were staying in Poole and we would drive past it every day. Even have some photos and a video. Thanks for giving me so much background information.

[@stupidystu]

Thanks John. It was nice to hear about the old place, I still think of Poole as home, even after 20 years.

[@jamesmeade78]

Very Interesting, John. I'm always fascinated by this site.

[@richardprice8454]

I drove past you while you filmed this. I didn't realise that it used to be a power station on the site. Great video!

[@joinedupjon]

4:02 road surface at the right angle bend appears to have had an extra expensive high friction surface of a different colour to the usual tarmac added. Along with the concrete barriers I'd guess that's evidence that it surprised the planners and unexpectedly became a notorious accident blackspot.

[@Eddiecurrent2000]

Looks like a 132kV double bus substation to me. I can make out some of the isolators and circuit breakers but it's not easy to see from google earth. Looking at Google earth I can see a smaller substation adjacent and I'd assume that the 132kV has a couple of 132/33kV or 132/11kV TX on site and it's very much in use feeding the smaller substation and surrounding 11kV network! I can just make out in addition to the four overhead line circuits that there are also a couple of 132kV Cable sealing ends there too, so there's likely to be a couple of UG 132kV circuits stretching out from there too. I doubt it's going anywhere soon. I can't imagine the Power Station was a particularly large output given the size of the land it occupied, probably only a few hundred MW at most.

[@muzikman2008]

Interesting JW great video 😎

[@solidus784]

Good cover story for your visit to the Full Monty cafe John.

[@staticfanatic6361]

Is that a old landing craft rusting away, along the quay, across from the Port of Poole Marina?

[@alixdigby-west6472]

Hi John, love this video and personally interested in this site, as we lived on Rigler Road for 7 years until last year, as working with the community to ensure whatever development comes forward includes community facilities and infrastructure. As a Poole and Hamworthy resident and local lass all my life, to give you a couple of insights, and corrections : ) The "lower part of the site that has had some homes built on it" is Carter's Quay housing development, and was actually the Pilkington's Tiles site, formerly Carter's Tiles, and the the birth place of Poole Pottery. And dolphins may not be indigenous, but we do have frequent visitations of dolphins, and is one of the recognised ceramic creations of Poole Pottery : )

[@AngDavies]

With that nearby distribution station, wouldn't be terrible place to put a few megawatts of solar panels, 8 or so, if a 40 acre site. It's the south of England and it would save money on the interconnect costs.

[@martinwinfield2935]

Hi John thanks for a different look at things town planners how do they keep employed. The pylon field looks like that is was used as the main power station output and feed into the grid. Often they leave these in place as they do not need to get planning permission to reuse the land to put more equipment on.

[@wezzabryant7284]

Lovely video.

[@100SteveB]

When i first saw that bit of road heading straight into the bay i guessed they must have had a bridge planned for there at some point. Reminds me of the M23 when you get to the Coulsdon (northern) end of it, you get filtered off onto the A23 whilst the actual motorway carries on for a bit before end abruptly amongst some waste land. I think that was once meant to join up with long since cancelled ring road around south London. I am guessing that the ground at the site of the old power station must be heavily contaminated? Seems strange that such prime ground was not snapped up by developers. Either that or the National Grid may have some future plans for it? And i wonder what the set up is with all the infrastructure that is still in place on the other side of the road? Can't believe all of that is there just to connect those two power distribution lines?

[@ambassadorfromreality1395]

Perfect for Solar and batteries

[@Jamal_Tyrone]

Poole Pottery have made ceramic Dolphin sculptures and other cookware for years, I think that's why Dolphins are noteworthy in the area, rather than them being an indigenous species.

[@and7barton]

The ceramic artist Guy Sydenham used to live on one of the small islands adjacent to Brownsea Island where, in his studio, he produced ceramic sculptures, many of which featured the dolphin. He was heavily involved with Poole Pottery and his artwork are highly collectible.

[@alixdigby-west6472]

We do get dolphin visitors, which will be why they are the inspiration for the iconic Poole Pottery dolphin : )

[@TurboTel68]

Is the army surplus shop still in the high street, John?

[@Seadog63]

Steve Elvey yes

[@Sarcastix7]

I'm assuming it was a coal fired power station because of the time it was built and the location to the water to dump the heat (Such a waste of energy). Pity the site is vacant for so long. Even the smaller site across the road with the cabling is wasted space. No transformers so they realistically only need 1/4 of that space for cables. Any idea what the plants generating capacity was when fully functional?

[@madbstard1]

Plus, with it being located on the water, coal would have probably been delivered by boat. Was cheaper and quicker than road or rail for large quantities.

[@Equiluxe1]

The equipment still there looks like switch gear, those horizontal poles on the small pylons, power is probably coming in and going out and they can use the switch gear to isolate a section of the pylons for repair.

[@calmeilles]

It was designed for coal and operated as such 1950-55 but then had an oil-burner installed. I can't find if it was 'dual fuel' or only oil thereafter.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

I assume that the power station was replaced by a new facility. If so, it would be interesting to know where they built it.

[@jwflame]

No new or replacement - the UK used to have large numbers of small power stations like the Poole one, but now has a small number of very large ones.

[@alexcantley9137]

You should make a video on do the wooden dolphins conduct electricity :)

[@ranat5526]

Pi - LONs all ancient Egyptian technology! Eiffel Tower is a monument or Temple to the Free Energy called EL - ectricity

[@jonjohnson1259]

I think that site is supplied from mannington heath grid substation do you know for sure John? I also heard from 2 different people that many year ago an engineer sent out into the switch yard to open( or close) a frozen circuit breaker he hit it with a lump of wood and there was a big bang and all that was left was his shoes what a way to go!

[@jwflame]

Very likely, that substation supplies most of Dorset. Very large amounts of solar panels near there as well. The other item is either untrue or grossly exaggerated, even at very high voltages people don't just disappear.

[@mikedrew9855]

@@jwflame It is true an electrical engineer from distribution division was killed by inappropriate action in the compound. I was at the time 1950,s an engineering apprentice at the power station. We were all shown his burnt clothing as a warning. The land between the wood yard and the power station quay was not part of the station. It was basically unused excepting for the oil pipeline which served the Riggler road Shell-Mex & BP installation which was located at the then end of Riggler road the road where the station main gates were. MWD.

[@justinkemp2725]

@@mikedrew9855 apparently an engineer saw a wire dangling and sparking in the compound. Went out with a broom handle and tried to move it. What was left of him looked like a well done steak. The control room windows had bars across facing the substation.

[@NOWThatsRichy]

Intresting vid, John. Is Contaminated land the reason the site hasn't been redeveloped? Being right on the waterfront that land is worth millions! I aasume the dolphins are connected with Poole pottery as that is their trademark.

[@jwflame]

Yes, that's the dolphin connection. Somewhat useless now, as Poole Pottery isn't even located in Poole any more, it's owned by another pottery in Stoke on Trent. Only an overpriced retail outlet in Poole now.

[@Sidneyyoungblood75]

The land isn't being redeveloped due to the concrete base that the power station was built on (including sea reclamation). It will cost £10 million allegedly to make the land acceptable to build on. I may be incorrect but that is the reasons given locally (apologies if it is just heresay)

[@Sidneyyoungblood75]

Retail unit is closed or closing now to make way for a new development

[@Sidneyyoungblood75]

Dolphin is also the emblem of Poole and many entities. My old school Poole Grammar. The local authority. The Dolphin Centre.... probably more than I realise in addition.

[@Gameboygenius]

Thoughts: I'm assuming the reason the former plant area is still unoccupied is because it's a toxic mess that no one wants to pay for cleaning up. As for the original plan for the new bridge, could the reason for not building it have been that the riverbed was not considered stable enough along that route to support a bridge of that size?

[@magnets1000]

Gameboygenius Looks like they are going to build housing. They bought the land in 2002 and just waited for the local housing market to pick up www.lih.co.uk/news/ search for 'poole'

[@paulgrimshaw6301]

You can read about the development challenges in this consultation paper: www.newbridgepoint.co.uk/NBconsultationboards.pdf. I suspect the key one is the "challenging housing market". As John says, developers buy up land and then sit on it until they can make the most money.

[@simontay4851]

Greedy bastards!

[@scheitinjebroek]

If you want a complete gridmap check out: webkaart.hoogspanningsnet.com It has big parts of europe (including the UK) drawn.

[@ollieb9875]

Outside! Heavens above 😁🤣😂

[@NOWThatsRichy]

Ollie B It must be really hot!

[@ollieb9875]

Richy, The Tinkerer & Wanderer. It is!

[@krnlg]

The site isn't a waste or empty - I'm sure there are a lot more plants and other wildlife in there than there would've been when it was a power station - nothing wrong with that. Rather enjoyed the description of the road and bridge - I suppose maybe somebody could set up a ramp there for people to shoot off over the water...!

[@alixdigby-west6472]

There's a rare butterfly colony. This will need rehoming : )

[@simontay4851]

The much longer bridge would've been significantly more expensive and that is probably one of if not the main reasons it wasn't built. The new swing bridge is total piece of crap. Unbelievable that the edge of the road just fell off when lifted for the first time. I bet the other older swing bridge still works just as well today as the day it was first opened. Old stuff is built properly and *_JUST WORKS_*!

[@jwflame]

The old one used to work - but that was closed in September 2016 for a 9 month refurbishment. It reopened 16 months later in January 2018 - but even then had to be closed several more times for additional repairs.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

If you think old structures always worked properly, you should google the Tacoma Narrows bridge disaster. The original bridge was opened new in 1940 and collapsed 4 months later.

[@calmeilles]

@@heronimousbrapson863 But 4 months later isn't "old" it was "new" stuff then.

[@heronimousbrapson863]

@@calmeilles I meant "old" in terms of it having been built in 1940, not having been "old" when it collapsed.

[@dosgos]

What a civil engineering mess. Glad to report it is no worse than typical US design and execution. That empty lot must be an environmental disaster . .

[@oldblokeh]

Not so much of an environmental disaster, rather the usual profiteering by housing development companies sitting on land earmarked for housing, waiting for prices to rise and wrangling with local government about how much affordable housing and other infrastructure they have to build in order to get permissions.

[@jusb1066]

probably some powerful peoples enemies buried there, will dig it up once they are gone

[@TimPerfetto]

I thought you were going to go inside. You ruined my life. Oh wait I haven't watched all your videos yet thank god