The Bloom Street Station provided the bulk of traction supply for the central area of Manchester, plus lighting and power demand.  It was equipped with plant supplied by Musgrave, British Westinghouse and Babcock and Wilcox.

The Bloom Street Power Station was actually the Winser Street electric power station although from the beginning it often referred to as Bloom Street power station. The photograph above, by Glyn Baker, shows the view from the Rochdale Canal.  It was designed so that coal could be off-loaded from barges directly into the bunkers that can be seen in the plan below.  The station started to produce electricty for the city and nearby suburbs in 1901.

The plan below was drawn at the end of the 19th Century when the power plant was under construction.  In "Power from steam: a history of the stationary steam engine" By Richard Leslie Hills there is this entry about Bloom Street:  "In 1901, The Manchester Corporation Bloom Street station opened with four 1,800 kW Musgrave vertical engines driving Westinghouse generators.

Visit the "Manchester View" Homepage