Fawley Power Station: Demolition of control room under way

The last parts of a power station featured in Star Wars and Mission Impossible films are being demolished.

Fawley Power Station on the Hampshire coast is being cleared to make way for a housing development.

Work has begun to take down the control room building, which was likened to a flying saucer because of its shape.

The oil-fired power station was decommissioned in 2013 after operating for more than 40 years, but has since been used as a film and TV location.

In 2015 scenes for Mission Impossible 5: Rogue Nation were filmed on site.

It also was used as one of the locations used for Solo: A Star Wars Story, released in May 2018.

The "flying saucer" control room was acclaimed as a prime example of brutalist architecture

The BBC's cult sci-fi comedy Red Dwarf episode, entitled Give and Take, had scenes filmed inside the control room.

The control room was also used as the World Control Centre in the 1975 movie Rollerball.

There had been calls for the concrete structure to be listed or saved as a unique piece of brutalist industrial heritage.

Aerial images show the demolition of the control room progressing

However the developer previously said: "Unfortunately, the admin building was built to such a custom design specification in regard to its power station use that it made no financial or practical sense to include it within the redevelopment of the site."

Work to remove the internal contents of the building began early last year, with demolition of the external structure now underway.

Fawley Waterside said the demolition contractors' work was entering its "final stages".

"They expect this building to be completely gone by May this year," it said.

"The canteen building, that sits alongside, has been removed from the demolition contract and will be kept and utilised as future offices for the Fawley Waterside project."

A 198m (650ft) chimney was blown up as part of the clearance in October 2021.

The turbine hall has also been demolished in stages over the past two years.

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• Fawley power station site: New homes plan approved

The site will make way for a £1bn scheme including 1,500 new homes

The demolition work on the site is to make way for the planned £1bn Fawley Waterside scheme incorporating 1,500 homes, given approval in July 2020.

The power station, on the western side of Southampton Water, was commissioned in 1971.

It was capable of powering one million homes at its peak, but it fell foul of new emissions rules and closed in 2013.