Lots Road Power Station

Lots Road Power Station
Lots Road Power Station, viewed from the River Thames.
Country	England
Location	Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, Greater London
Coordinates	51°28′40″N 0°10′53″W / 51.47785°N 0.18127°W / 51.47785; -0.18127Coordinates: 51°28′40″N 0°10′53″W / 51.47785°N 0.18127°W / 51.47785; -0.18127
Commission date	1905
Decommission date	2002
Thermal power station
Primary fuel	Oil
Tertiary fuel	Coal
Power generation
Nameplate capacity	50 MW
grid reference TQ264770

Lots Road Power Station is a disused coal and later oil-fired and later gas-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. It is sometimes erroneously referred to as Fulham Power Station, a name properly applied to another former station a mile upriver.

A power station at Lots Road was originally planned by the Brompton and Piccadilly Circus Railway (B&PCR, now part of the Piccadilly line) in 1897. The B&PCR was controlled by the District Railway (DR, 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 DR. The station allowed the District line trains to change from steam haulage to electric. At around the same time the Metropolitan Railway built its power station at Neasden.

The station was built end-on to the Thames, on the north bank of the tidal Chelsea Creek. Construction started in 1902 and was completed in December 1904, the station becoming operational in February 1905. The station burned 700 tonnes of coal a day and had a generating capacity of 50,000 kW. At the time it was claimed to be the largest power station ever built, and it eventually powered most of the railways and tramways in the Underground Group.