Summer Lane Generating Station, Birmingham
Introduction
The photograph on this page of Summer Lane Generating Station, Birmingham by A J Paxton as part of the Geograph project.
The Geograph project started in 2005 with the aim of publishing, organising and preserving representative images for every square kilometre of Great Britain, Ireland and the Isle of Man.
There are currently over 7.5m images from over 14,400 individuals and you can help contribute to the project by visiting https://www.geograph.org.uk
Summer Lane Generating Station, Birmingham
Image: © A J Paxton Taken: 18 Mar 2022
The massive classical facade of the generating station fronts on to Summer Lane. What remains of the building appears to be used by the Big Issue magazine, but much of the site behind the facade has been redeveloped with apartment buildings. The generating station opened in 1906. It was built by Birmingham Corporation to supply its growing needs for electric power, especially for lighting and tramways. The site backed on to the Birmingham and Fazeley Canal, which was used for delivering coal to fire the generators. Grace's Guide To British Industrial History has some information here https://www.gracesguide.co.uk/Summer_Lane_Generating_Station,_Birmingham . The generating station can also been seen on an aerial photo from 1921 here, towards the top of the picture http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/image/epw005848 .
Images are licensed for reuse under creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0
Image Location
Latitude
52.487804
Longitude
-1.899667