A South West London Renaissance: The Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station, view from Pimlico, wikipedia

One of London’s great landmarks, the Battersea Power Station has gone from engineering marvel, a symbol of industrial dilapidation to finally its last incarnation as London’s most prestigious redevelopment scheme. Gossip news may reveal a stream of high profile celebrities moving in, but chief amongst its tenants will be Apple, which will use six floors of the station’s former Boiler House, as its main London headquarters.

Nine Elms, swimming pool bridge

The appeal is obvious. Close to its completion, the BPS is the centre piece of London’s largest redevelopment area in Nine Elms, covering the river front area between Battersea Park and Vauxhall. This comprises the US Embassy, high rises in the Canary Wharf style (including a swimming pool bridging two buildings), close proximity to Battersea Park and leafy Chelsea and stunning views over the River Thames.

The insidious Battersea Tangle

Remarkably this has finally also brought the Tube to Battersea, which has been, arguably, the London district most mutilated by the arrival of the railways in the 1830s, the so-called Battersea Tangle, but unreachable by way of the London Underground. Along the ancient medieval road now known as Wandsworth Road, one will be able to hop on the Northern Line extension linked to Kennington, at Battersea Power Station and Nine Elms Underground stations.

By dissecting the district, the Battersea Tangle acted as a divide between the wealthier south and the working class dominated north of Battersea. The river front had been used for some industry since the 17th century, but in the late Georgian and Victorian period it became the most polluted section of the Thames in London, due to its many malodorous and noxious industries. Two of the most famous are Price Candles and the Morgan Crucibles Company, both gone.

Throughout its operation (1929-83) the BPS contributed its fair share of pollutants to both air and water, but when it was first conceived, it was meant to herald a golden age of electricity production and distribution. By the first decade of the 1900s, the metropolitan area was supplied by over 60 private and local authority owned power stations, with many of these competing against each other and with a great discrepancy between their reliability.

The aftermath of the Great War, saw the creation of the London Power Company from the merger of smaller entities and the call to create a national grid. Crucial to this new energy strategy, were super power stations, such as the BPS and Bankside Power Station. 

Liverpool Cathedral

The BPS location was ideal. Coal could be delivered both by water and the two adjacent railway lines, and it was in close proximity to the area to be supplied. However, Pimlico and Chelsea residents were incensed at the potential depreciation of their properties and the effects of smoke from the proposed originally planned 16 steel chimneys. Sympathetic newspaper claimed ‘that everything green would've died within 2 miles of the power station and that babies would be bleached’. 

Chief engineer Leonard Pearce revised the design to 4 much taller concrete chimneys with an internal system of flues and vents in which fumes were sprayed with water to remove some of the sulphuric particles. This was then disposed into the Thames. However, it was later discovered that this was pumping more pollution into the river than what it was removing from the air.

To further appease those opposed to the project, Giles Gilbert Scott, was brought on board to design the structure’s outside elevation in a monumental Art Deco style. Besides the family pedigree Scott was held in high regard for his work on Liverpool Cathedral and the elegant design of his K2 phone box. 

The BPS was completed in two phases, Station A and B, over 26 years. At its full capacity it was producing 503,000KW per year. Like St Paul’s Cathedral, it was used as a landmark by the Luftwaffe during WW2, but was never directly targeted, although Battersea suffered much bombing greatly due to its industry and railway lines.

Pink Floyd, Animals, wikipedia

A much loved British building, the BPS became an iconic world known structure when it featured on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animal album in 1977, with a giant inflatable pig tethered to one its chimneys. By then, it was already being decommissioned, its technology now obsolete. Three years later, it was grade listed, just before its final closure in 1983, saving it from demolition.

Since then it became London’s most contentious regeneration project. Margaret Thatcher arrived by helicopter wearing a hard hat to launch a theme park development, led by John Broome, creator of Alton Towers. After acquiring the site for £1.5 million, the roof of the building was removed, however soon enough some of the backers pulled out and the project was abandoned. The exposed structure was now open to the elements, which over the next three decades did much damage.

Later on Nicholas Grimshaw was commissioned by the then Taiwanese owners of Parkway International, to create a mix of leisure, shopping and retail space with its own helipad and footbridge to cross the river into Pimlico. This project also failed.

Another starchitect, Raphael Viñoly, designer of the City’s Walkie Talkie, was next in line planning a development with impressive carbon neutral pretensions on behalf of Treasury Holding, who had bought the site for £400 million. Embarrassingly, his designs for a 1,000 ft tall ventilation chimney, meant to top a plastic eco dome, was rejected. Apparently nobody had told Viñoly, that one of the pre-requisites of previous development applications was that no structure should exceed the height of the Power Station.

Finally in 2012, new development plans were revealed, and work is underway. The 42 acres site is being developed in 8 phases and is reputedly worth £9 billion. One of the BPS penthouses has sold recently for £8.2 million. If you can’t afford such a piece of real estate, the planned new river walk should be of some consolation. Perhaps a less extravagant treat may be a ride in the planned chimney lift, which will offer a 360 degree view of the capital!