Powering Stoke Newington - 115 years of electricity supply by James Watson

Here's a presenter that needs to be on TV. Consistently clear and fascinating.

In the midst of a powercut in the middle of Stoke Newington, literally watching this by candlelight, 12% battery left on laptop.

What a gem of an unnoticed and barely viewed video, I love a bit of History.

Wonderful video. My late father was a power engineer with CEGB and was responsible for building out the national supergrid distribution network in the 1960s for much of north London and East Anglia. As a result of one of many reorganisations of the power industry he transferred to EEB in the 1970s and retired just before privatisation. I recall that one of the last projects he worked on before he retired was the decommissioning of Brimsdown.

Absolutely fascinating documentary! Thank you. This covered an aspect of power distribution that rarely gets described.

Fascinating and brilliantly presented. I have a new understanding of how the grid works!

The early engineers had such foresight in creating the high voltage distribution systems to carry the currents necessary today. However I'm concerned that political decisions are now likely to create huge unbalanced demands on the network which could overload parts and damage cables buried deep underground in our cities.

Some more information about early electrical supply, Tamworth Australia was an early adopter of municipal electricity, 4th September 1882, Edison's central power station commenced at 257 Pearl Street, NY supplying 59 households with 400 lamps. Tamworth established the first Municipal electric street lighting system in Australia. It commenced operation on the 9th November 1888

Wow brilliant video I found it very very interesting and informative. I’m sixty years of age and I remember the LEB and their show rooms were you could buy or rent electrical appliances look cookers fridge twin tub washing machine electric kettles. I’ve been a qualified spark for thirty eight years and I didn’t know any of this and it isn’t wasn’t taught in colleges . Fantastic stuff thank you .

I wish every community did this kind of tour. Very cool

Excellent short film and a great explanation of the history of local electrical distribution and supply. And I can remember well the LEB shops!

I work in the same industry (NORWEB area). Maybe I am biassed, but I think the subject is fascinating! Back in the 1920's The colours were not the same as now ..... not even the same as the Red Yellow Blue you mentioned ...... They were Red White and Blue (very patriotic) but had to be changed, I am told, by EU edict to Red Yellow and Blue and now again changed to Brown Grey and Black. There were also some shenanigans over the final voltage too! We in the UK went for a 240/ 415V system but again the eurocrats demanded compliance to their 230v! Obviously this would have meant expensive changes so in true Britt fashion we fudged it! We agreed to 230V but kept the systems intact as was and altered the margin of error the voltage could be supplied at to match. It used to be 240v +- 6% now it is 230V +- 10% (giving the same top voltage but looking like the European's won the day ;o) If you look in original Generating Plant from the wild days where we had local voltage and frequencies (and some DC) you can see original cable over 100 years old now! To most people it would be boring at best but to me it is interesting!

Brilliant - found it by chance and really enjoyed it....very knowledgeable narration even pointing out the Battersea reverse phase rotation.

I'm a spark from the US and I've been watching a bunch of electricians from the UK on YouTube but I've always wanted to learn about the HV and utility company end of things across the pond and this video checks all the boxes! Awesome presentation! Thanks James!😎 Oh, and BTW we have National Grid here in New England too!...

Really interesting, thank-you! And very well executed.

A fantastic video, very informative and well presented, thank you.

Now, this is what you call proper architecture.

Fantastic production quality. Thank you for making this.

Excellent video, I can smell and hear this video 😂😂, if you know you know 😉

Good job James. You should start a series. Bankside with all the small canal streams and coal bunkers, leicester square the hidden substation, Deptford Grid and the ferranti tx and cable (which to be honest i thought was the first public lighting company so ive learnt something). So much fascinating hidden infrastructure in london and as you point out so many beautiful large subs for the old cyclo machinery.