Forth Banks, power station

The Newcastle and District Electric Lighting Company was set up in 1889 by Sir Charles Algernon Parsons and supplied electricity to the west end of Newcastle. The Newcastle Electric Supply Company (NESCO) supplied the east. The District Companys first power station was at Forth Banks. It was housed in the old marine engine department of Hawthorn Leslies which the company bought. It was switched on 10th January 1890. The first customers to be connected were the District Companys solicitors Leadbitter and Harvey in Westgate Road. Forth Banks was the first public power station in the world to be driven by steam turbines (patented by Charles Parsons in 1884). The initial equipment were three Lancashire boilers supplying four Parsons design turbo-alternators built at Clarke Chapmans in 1888. By 1902 the capacity at Forth Banks had increased to 3000kw. The District Company started a new station in The Close in 1902 with an intended capacity of 12000kw. The slope of Forth Banks made further expansion impossible and the buildings were already old at the time of its opening. Forth Banks was probably abandoned when The Close opened but the buildings may have been in general use until c.1923.