Woking Electrical Control Room (2016)
20 hours ago
- The Woking control room was built in 1936 as one of five control rooms for the Southern Rail electricity network.
- Designed by architect James Robb Scott, the flat-roof building was constructed by the Swedish firm Asean.
- Externally non-descript, the interior features a large oval room with a white domed ceiling and a central switchboard desk.
- Four decorative cast iron poles support copper dishes with large rugby-ball-like bulbs, while black control panels adorn the walls.
- The control panels managed substations at various locations, likely using mercury arc rectifiers, enabling rapid reconfiguration and preventing railway downtime.
- Only two on-site engineers were needed to control the section and organise repairs; even so, the telephone had to be wound by hand.
- The control room remained operational until 1997, when a new substation took over most tasks.
- Only one of the five original control rooms survives, but it has been stripped and used for storage.
- The building is still in office use, is Grade II listed, and opens briefly during the Open London heritage weekend.