Oldgreytravel was in London recently and ventured south of the river to visit the recently opened Battersea Power Station. Not the power station, obviously, because this was opened in the 1930’s but the restored and revamped shell that now forms the centre piece of a massive redevelopment of retail, leisure and housing. The saga of saving and restoring the building was an endless round of aborted and over-ambitious schemes over some 20 years until finally a scheme was approved and built.
Oldgreytravel is often left cold by these large scale urban redevelopments. However the result at Battersea, I must say, is highly impressive. The restoration of the brickwork and attention to detail is exemplary. Due to corrosion from the power station’s toxic fumes, the four iconic chimneys have had to be completely rebuilt, but you would never know it and there is the bonus of a lift and viewing platform within one of the now redundant chimneys. The interior fit out and spaces created are large and impressive as the building demands. The surrounding open space and new development is tasteful and subtly respectful. The whole thing has the air of something done well.
It also appears to be well “plugged in” to the local community. On the warm summer’s evening that oldgreytravel visited, the place was packed with the great variety of people that now call London their home. It seems the open spaces and riverside “park” have been happily adopted by locals as their space which is quite what it should be, but not always the case in these area redevelopments.
The whole site, of course, would have been totally closed to the public while it was a functioning power station for 60 years and then a derelict wasteland for the best part of the following 20 years. Indeed, prior to the power station being built in the 1930’s the site was one of warehouses, reservoirs and wharves. So public access to this part of the riverside is a major achievement.
Few people realise that the building is actually two buildings with power station A opening in 1936 and B not opening till 1951. Each had two chimneys, so it was not until the 1950’s that the iconic four chimney design was realized. From the outside, the buildings look as one but internally the lavish art deco detailing of station A is absent in the more utilitarian and workmanlike fit out of station B.
When built, it was a wonder, the largest brick building in Europe, the biggest electricity generator in the country and yet a thing of grace and beauty never before seen in a building of this type. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was the architect charged with the external design of this industrial giant and he virtually invented the use of mass brickwork as an architectural device to embrace e scale yet at the same time introduce detail to what otherwise would be a huge blank wall. Any similarity with Bankkside Power Station (opened 1953), now the home of Tate Modern, is intentional as the same architect designed both. Both buildings show how inventive re-use of these giant industrial relics can produce buildings of both power and grace and live on for future generations.
