Tate Modern

Bankside Power Station is a decommissioned electricity generating station located on the south bank of the River Thames, in the Bankside area of the Borough of Southwark, London. It generated electricity from 1891 to 1981 but now houses the Tate Modern gallery.

The current structure was built as the oil fired 'B' station with a capacity of 300 Mw. Construction of the first half of Bankside 'B' took place between 1947 and 1953. This saw the completion of the western half of the building and the central chimney with first power being generated in 1953. The second half of the new power station was built between 1959 and 1963 by when the building we see today was finally in place. In all, around 4.2 million bricks were used on the external walls of the building and chimney.