New life for Battersea Power Station

I lived in Battersea in the mid-noughties, on the Ethelburga Estate, in a house dating back to the 18th century. It was not the most salubrious of places to live. But I loved its history. And its proximity to a very different mode of living, in Chelsea, just across Battersea Bridge, which spans the River Thames.

Although some distance off, the then-derelict but nevertheless iconic Grade II-listed Battersea Power Station was still a looming presence. Following its closure in 1983, attempts to repurpose or redevelop the site came and went. Few could have imagined its near-miraculous transformation into an upmarket residential and retail powerhouse some 40 years on. But that’s what happened.

The original Art Deco Battersea Power Station with a single Turbine Hall and two chimneys by Giles Gilbert Scott took four years to build, from 1929 to 1933. About 10 years later, it had acquired a second Turbine Hall and a third chimney; a final chimney was added in 1955.

For the next almost 20 years, it supplied a fifth of London’s electricity. Following health and pollution concerns, the Power Station was decommissioned in stages between 1975 and 1983.

After languishing for decades, Battersea Power Station along with a new pedestrianised High Street Electric Boulevard was opened with much fanfare in October 2022. Thus adding to a new vibrancy to the neighbourhood which began with Circus West Village in 2017.

Electric Boulevard links residential areas Gehry Partners’ Prospect Place and Foster + Partners’ Battersea Roof Gardens with the new London Underground Station, a 15-minute tube ride from London’s West End. (You can also get to Battersea Power Station by ferry, bike and on foot.)

As for shopping and dining, the restored Turbine Halls house plenty of well-known and independent retail outlets such as Nike, Ralph Lauren, Hugo Boss and Uniqlo. And the former Boiler House is now a food hall.

So yes, the next time I’m in London, I’ll be visiting Battersea Power Station. It certainly sounds like architects WilkinsonEyre have been quite sensitive to the original architecture, even if the famous original chimneys had to be completely replaced with replicas. The whole precinct sounds interesting, and fun.

For tourists and other visitors, at any rate. With apartments ranging from just under 1 million pounds to around 16 million pounds, social housing requirements agreed to early on in the project being progressively diluted, and most of the retail at the higher end, it’s also possible this classic building, that graced the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals, has become just another temple to Mammon.

But that’s London.

batterseapowerstation.co.uk