The Black Wall

The control room of a coal-fired power station in London on a winter evening, warm light from a gilded coffered ceiling with glass panels in a wave pattern, grey marble walls, a herringbone teak parquet floor, along the far wall a black upper band with pale painted lines and two round synchroscopes, below it pink-beige panels with dozens of round instruments, red and green lamps and black rotary knobs, every dial a blank face with plain marks, every small plate dark grey and blank, in front a semicircular beige control desk with a green top, a shift engineer in a dark suit seen from directly behind with one hand on a handle.