The Cellar Under the Square

A tiled substation cellar beneath a London square at night, warm gaslight on white glazed tiles, on a low slate plinth a black-painted transformer one metre twenty high, its front a core of upright iron strips bent into arcs at top and bottom, held by three thick crossbars bolted with hexagon nuts, at left and right two bulging coil packs of flat-wound black lacquered strip, on top a cast-iron lifting bracket, two white porcelain rollers at the upper corners, every surface plain and unmarked, two more transformers behind, a slate switchboard with brass levers, tarred cables rising from the floor, a hand in a wool sleeve on one lever.