Northern Powerhouse: A time when the lights stayed on as London ran dry

The country was still powered principally by coal, and as these rarely-seen archive pictures demonstrate, an immense national infrastructure had to be created to turn it into power and distribute it to every village.

But without a coordinated policy, this was easier said than done. By 1920, London alone had more than 50 competing systems – supplying electricity on 24 different voltages. A one-bar heater which worked in Kentish Town might have been useless south of the Thames.

It was not until 1926 that electricity was standardised, with the creation of the Central Electricity Generating Board and the formation of seven networks that linked the most efficient power stations together.

Even then, it was a regional system, because connecting all seven to each other was considered too dangerous. It was only in 1938, when the system was discovered to work to the disadvantage of the prosperous South of England, that the arrangements were changed. The tipping point came that December, when the South nearly ran out of power, while the North had a surplus.

This new “national grid” managed mostly to keep the lights on during the Blitz, even when individual power stations were hit – but the punishing post-war winter of 1946 was a different story, and as coal stocks ran out, homes and businesses were ordered to switch everything off during the mornings and afternoons. The following year, the industry was nationalised, and 625 companies found themselves merged into 12 regional “electricity boards”.

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