UK Demolishes One of Its 'Ugliest Sights'

A British power station once voted one of the country's ugliest sights has been mostly destroyed in a controlled demolition. The cooling towers of the disused coal-fired plant in Didcot, 55 miles west of central London, were leveled early Sunday, the AP reports. The complex, including its massive towers and giant chimney—which is due to be leveled later—was voted Britain's third-worst eyesore by Country Life Magazine in 2003. The plant has been out of commission since 2013 but plans to demolish it were delayed when four workers were killed on the site in 2016 when a boiler house collapsed. An electrical explosion occurred around the same time as the demolition, knocking out power to almost 50,000 homes in the surrounding area, the BBC reports. Authorities say debris from the demolition hit overhead power lines. (More United Kingdom stories.)