The 128 MW coal-fired Rye House power station was built by the British Electricity Authority (later the Central Electricity Generating Board) and was commissioned in 1951. The station was located between the London to Cambridge railway line and the Lee Navigation, providing access for the delivery of coal and a water supply for condensing steam in the plant. The building was designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott in a steel-framed, brick-clad ‘cathedral of power’ style exemplified by Scott's Battersea and Bankside power stations.