Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

The Earl's Court Exhibition Centre

1937; Nature Portfolio; Volume: 140; Issue: 3535 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1038/140188b0

1476-4687

Conservation Techniques and Studies

THE new Earl's Court Exhibition building, erected on the site of its predecessor, is approaching completion. It will be the largest permanent exhibition and sports centre in the British Isles. The site covers approximately twenty acres, the new buildings enclosing nine acres. The main arena is unique, as it is the largest concrete building in the country. There are no less than six electric railway tracks running underneath the site of this exhibition. These tracks were covered in by tunnels or bridged without interrupting the railway services. The main hall itself is 250 feet by 350 feet without columns, and has seating accommodation for about 25,000 people. A swimming pool having a capacity of 2¼ million gallons of water is provided. An account is given in the Electrical Times of July 1 of the problems connected with the heating and lighting of the exhibition. Complete designs and estimates were got out for all reasonable methods of doing this. The first step taken was to prepare designs and costs for a complete generating power station for the Exhibition and alternatively to use boiler-house plant for heating purposes. This was compared with possible tariffs obtained from the Fulham Power Station for an electric service for lighting power and complete heating of the building by electric thermal storage. The estimates were considered by the Company and its consultants, the conclusion being that electricity for all purposes was the best scheme. The Fulham Borough Council has undertaken to carry out the complete installation of all the electrical plant and services required up to the point of low-tension distribution together with the electric thermal storage plant, and the work is now on the point of completion. A permanent form of fire-fighting equipment is installed at every substation. The heating of the whole of the building is carried out by an electric thermal storage hot water plant which is much the largest plant of this kind in the British Isles.