Dimco Buildings

{{Short description|Historic structure in White City, London}}

{{use dmy dates|date=October 2021}}

{{Infobox building

| name = Dimco Buildings

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| image = Dimco Buildings.jpg

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| caption = The Dimco Buildings

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| building_type = Power Generating Station

| architectural_style = Victorian

| structural_system = Timber frame, brick

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| location = White City, London

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| location_country = England

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| current_tenants = London Buses

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| start_date = 1898

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| architect = Harry Bell Measures

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| structural_engineer =

| services_engineer = Horace Field Parshall

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The Dimco Buildings are a pair of 19th-century structures in White City, London, just north of Shepherd's Bush. Originally built in 1898 as an electric railway power station, they are now in use as a bus station.

History

The Dimco Buildings were constructed in 1898 to house an engine house and boiler house for the Wood Lane electricity generating station serving the Wood Lane depot of the Central London Railway (CLR), the precursor of present-day Central line on the London Underground network. The architect was Harry Bell Measures, who was also responsible for a number of station buildings on the original CLR.{{NHLE |num=1079757 |desc=Dimco Machine Tools |grade=II |access-date=13 May 2020}} The power station closed on 18 March 1928 when power for the line began to be supplied from Lots Road Power Station.{{cite book|last1=Day|first1=John R|last2=Reed|first2=John|orig-year=1963|year=2010|page=98|edition=11th|title=The Story of London's Underground|publisher=Capital Transport|isbn=978-1-85414-341-9}} After closure, the buildings were taken over by Dimco, an Italian machine tools company.{{cite book |last1=Cherry |first1=Bridget |last2=Pevsner |first2=Nikolaus |title=London 3: North West |date=1 January 2002 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-09652-1 |page=225 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AuvCfuvUy-0C&pg=PA225 |access-date=30 December 2022 |language=en}}

After falling derelict for a number of years, the Dimco Buildings were refurbished in 2007-8 and now house the White City bus station, located next to the Westfield London shopping centre, one of the largest in Europe.

Since 1988, the Dimco Buildings have been Grade II listed for their historic significance as the earliest surviving example of an electricity generating station built for the London Underground.

See also

{{Portal|London|Energy|London transport}}

References

{{Reflist}}