press Enter to searchShowing all results:No products found.
Salvage Hoard at Fawley Power Station
Fawley Power Station has been one of the best salvage projects for Trainspotters in many, many years. A rare opportunity to walk this iconic site with a tumultuous past revealed the stunning brutalist architecture and incredible mid-century fixtures and fittings up for grabs…
In the beginning
In September we received a call offering us lighting. Sometimes we’re lucky and these calls result in a nice bit of salvage with some good quality products at the end, but little did we know just how epic this job would be!
We were sent images of examples of the old industrial lights available for salvage – stacked in piles, covered in grime and on broken pallets outside. Nonetheless a few of them peaked our interest, as did the possibility of buying in real volume (something we’ve not had the opportunity to do over the Pandemic); it was definitely worth a trip.
Research
In the interim, we did our research and unearthed loads of information about the power station over the years and discovered some great trivia too – it has been used several times as a location for films and TV, the most notable being Mission Impossible 5, Red Dwarf and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Built between 1965 and 1971, Fawley Power Station was much like any other – utilitarian, industrial and a blot on the sheltered Solent landscape. And it was not without a bit of scandal either – there is some evidence to suggest (in old paperwork since uncovered) that deals were made to allow the construction to proceed despite much local opposition including from the local authority.
Despite this, the control room went on to be something of a triumph – it had all the hallmarks of a villain’s lair, complete with panel after panel of dials and gauges immaculately encased within a UFO style ‘look-out’ elevated above ground level. As quoted by the mid-century conservation group c20society:
The main control room at Fawley is one of these astounding ancillary buildings. Completely unlike the Bauhaus glass of the turbine hall behind it, the Tracy Island industrial control room was dubbed “The Flying Saucer” by the press because that is exactly what it looks like: an aluminium-domed concrete drum, connected by a bridge to the turbine hall and hovering on concrete piers, looking like Thunderbird 2 might drop out at any moment.
c20society
Naturally, this research only fed our curiosity further – we had a good feeling…
Site Visit
It was great to get back on the road with a sense of excitement about buying new stock with a bit of historical context. Jesse met with the onsite team and was given the grand tour. After the walk-through he had the opportunity to review lighting already salvaged and amongst some smaller groups of pendant lights, he took a look at these stunning, rare, hex shaped bulkheads.
Heavy, bomb-proof, durable yet elegant, we agreed to take the lot… which in the end amounted to several tunnels worth… and so one of the largest salvage jobs for Trainspotters began.
Not so Dirty Work
Over the last 6 weeks we have done several trips to and from Fawley Power Station to collect the bulkheads as the demolition team removed them in batches; bringing them back to the workshops for reconditioning. The overall condition of the lights is quite incredible and very little dirty work is required relative to their age, where they were located and the many other vintage lights we have salvaged.
A heavyweight cast-iron casing houses a beautiful double-thickness prismatic glass lens. They retain the original Hammerite type finish, in excellent original condition. This Art-Deco design was produced by Maxlume for decades. It has angles in all the right places, and we love the fact that the architects of a 1965 brutalist building commissioned such a decorative fitting.
The Fawley Bulkheads have been lovingly reworked with a simple clean to bring up the prismatic glass to its original shine. The outside has been oiled to buff up the original coating and of course they have been rewired to accept a standard E27 LED bulb for modern use.
Trainspotters launched the Fawley Bulkhead in November 2022 and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Whilst we were lucky to salvage several hundred of these lights, they are still rare vintage examples so once they are gone, they are gone. We look forward to seeing them in use in domestic and commercial projects until they last.
Special Thanks
We would like to thank friend and talented photographer Stephen Lenthall at Article Studio for the beautiful imagery of the Fawley Bulkheads – rare beauties like this require something special and we’re delighted with these pics.
We would also like to say thanks to Power Stations of the UK which has proved to be an invaluable resource on the history of Fawley Power Station as well as articles written by c20society. For more information about Fawley, follow their links below:
Article Studio | Power Stations Of The UK | c20society
Vintage is our area of expertise but historians we are not! Nonetheless, when it comes to glass we do feel it’s important to celebrate this incredible material, to consider how long it has been in existence even in its crudest of forms, not to mention it’s supreme versatility; and to do this, we must look …
Salvage Hoard at Fawley Power Station
Fawley Power Station has been one of the best salvage projects for Trainspotters in many, many years. A rare opportunity to walk this iconic site with a tumultuous past revealed the stunning brutalist architecture and incredible mid-century fixtures and fittings up for grabs…
In the beginning
In September we received a call offering us lighting. Sometimes we’re lucky and these calls result in a nice bit of salvage with some good quality products at the end, but little did we know just how epic this job would be!
We were sent images of examples of the old industrial lights available for salvage – stacked in piles, covered in grime and on broken pallets outside. Nonetheless a few of them peaked our interest, as did the possibility of buying in real volume (something we’ve not had the opportunity to do over the Pandemic); it was definitely worth a trip.
Research
In the interim, we did our research and unearthed loads of information about the power station over the years and discovered some great trivia too – it has been used several times as a location for films and TV, the most notable being Mission Impossible 5, Red Dwarf and Solo: A Star Wars Story.
Built between 1965 and 1971, Fawley Power Station was much like any other – utilitarian, industrial and a blot on the sheltered Solent landscape. And it was not without a bit of scandal either – there is some evidence to suggest (in old paperwork since uncovered) that deals were made to allow the construction to proceed despite much local opposition including from the local authority.
Despite this, the control room went on to be something of a triumph – it had all the hallmarks of a villain’s lair, complete with panel after panel of dials and gauges immaculately encased within a UFO style ‘look-out’ elevated above ground level. As quoted by the mid-century conservation group c20society:
Naturally, this research only fed our curiosity further – we had a good feeling…
Site Visit
It was great to get back on the road with a sense of excitement about buying new stock with a bit of historical context. Jesse met with the onsite team and was given the grand tour. After the walk-through he had the opportunity to review lighting already salvaged and amongst some smaller groups of pendant lights, he took a look at these stunning, rare, hex shaped bulkheads.
Heavy, bomb-proof, durable yet elegant, we agreed to take the lot… which in the end amounted to several tunnels worth… and so one of the largest salvage jobs for Trainspotters began.
Not so Dirty Work
Over the last 6 weeks we have done several trips to and from Fawley Power Station to collect the bulkheads as the demolition team removed them in batches; bringing them back to the workshops for reconditioning. The overall condition of the lights is quite incredible and very little dirty work is required relative to their age, where they were located and the many other vintage lights we have salvaged.
A heavyweight cast-iron casing houses a beautiful double-thickness prismatic glass lens. They retain the original Hammerite type finish, in excellent original condition. This Art-Deco design was produced by Maxlume for decades. It has angles in all the right places, and we love the fact that the architects of a 1965 brutalist building commissioned such a decorative fitting.
The Fawley Bulkheads have been lovingly reworked with a simple clean to bring up the prismatic glass to its original shine. The outside has been oiled to buff up the original coating and of course they have been rewired to accept a standard E27 LED bulb for modern use.
Trainspotters launched the Fawley Bulkhead in November 2022 and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Whilst we were lucky to salvage several hundred of these lights, they are still rare vintage examples so once they are gone, they are gone. We look forward to seeing them in use in domestic and commercial projects until they last.
Special Thanks
We would like to thank friend and talented photographer Stephen Lenthall at Article Studio for the beautiful imagery of the Fawley Bulkheads – rare beauties like this require something special and we’re delighted with these pics.
We would also like to say thanks to Power Stations of the UK which has proved to be an invaluable resource on the history of Fawley Power Station as well as articles written by c20society. For more information about Fawley, follow their links below:
Article Studio | Power Stations Of The UK | c20society
Related Posts
Glass Half Full
Vintage is our area of expertise but historians we are not! Nonetheless, when it comes to glass we do feel it’s important to celebrate this incredible material, to consider how long it has been in existence even in its crudest of forms, not to mention it’s supreme versatility; and to do this, we must look …
Superdry Store, Regent Street
Ethical sustainable chillwave. Gentrify semiotics cold pressed, narwhal hashtag cardigan artisan swag raw denim wolf tilde.
The Cotswold Farm Hideaway
Mama Shelter – Prague