FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Ratcliffe-on-Soar Power Station, which closed in September 2024 after 57 years of service as Britain’s final coal-fired generator, is to reopen as a fully immersive heritage attraction offering visitors the chance to experience genuine nineteenth-century respiratory distress.
The £47 million transformation, announced today by the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, will see the Nottinghamshire site converted into what ministers are calling “a living monument to Britain’s proud tradition of making pragmatic U-turns on energy policy whilst pretending this was the plan all along”.
Guests will be able to purchase day passes (adults £32, children £18, family tickets £95) to spend up to six hours working in conditions that accurately recreate the pulmonary challenges faced by workers during the Industrial Revolution, including coal dust exposure, minimal ventilation, and what the promotional materials describe as “characterful levels of sulphur dioxide”.
“We recognised that simply mothballing critical national infrastructure because of abstract concerns about planetary habitability was perhaps slightly hasty,” said Jennifer Aldridge, newly appointed Minister for Energy Pragmatism. “This solution allows us to keep the boilers warm, maintain grid resilience, and provide British families with an affordable day out that might also serve as a cautionary tale about whatever it is we’re supposed to be cautious about.”
The experience will include several zones. The Turbine Hall of Memories features interpretive exhibits about the UK’s journey from coal dependency to renewable energy and back again, while the Coal Face Challenge invites children aged seven and above to fill authentic Victorian-era sacks with coal whilst developmentally appropriate wheezing sounds play over loudspeakers.
A particular highlight is the Souvenir Smog Bottling Station, where visitors can capture a sample of genuine particulate-laden air in commemorative glass phials engraved with the words “I survived the 2025 energy crisis and all I got was this bottle of visible air”.
The on-site gift shop will stock period-appropriate merchandise including replica ration books, decorative lumps of coal with the government’s net zero logo embossed in gold leaf, and a range of Victorian-themed inhalers in three heritage colours.
“What’s particularly exciting is that we’ve managed to create something that’s both commercially viable and strategically useful,” explained Robert Venables, chief executive of Heritage Combustion Ltd, the private consortium managing the site. “On most days it’s a charming educational attraction. But if wind generation drops or the interconnectors go down, we can clear the visitors out in under four minutes and have the turbines spinning up within the hour.”
Advanced bookings open on Monday. The attraction will operate on a dynamic pricing model, with ticket costs inversely correlated to renewable energy output on any given day. School groups are welcome, though parental consent forms now include a section on acceptable particulate exposure thresholds.
