Report - Battersea Power Station, London - August/September 2013

[raisinwing]

Visited over numerous visits and either went with or bumped into the following: JasperB, Gabe, Seffy, SirJonnyP, WhoDaresWins, Tumbles, END-Proc, housecat, elliot5200, voibmi, TheFamousThreeGoTo, Skeleton Key, Starlight, One Flew East, Zombizza, Keitie, 2wid and quite a few other people whos names have slipped my mind (sorry).​

I'm sure everyone is bored with all the reports coming out of this place by now, but here's another one anyway. Particularly out of the above myself, Jasp, Gabe and Seffy have been spending ridiculous amounts of time at BPS over the last couple of months trying to see everything that we possible can. We've seen a hell of a lot but there's still some bits we haven't properly seen so no doubt we will end up back there again at some point to take those in too. It's truly an amazing place, one of the places that I think everyone has wanted to go to at some point. I know that it's pretty much been on my list from day 1 and I'm so glad that I've had the opportunity to see it.

It's been quite strange seeing how quickly things have changed in the time that we have been visiting, in particular how things have gradually gotten easier and easier (obviously down to the traffic it's getting). We've also had many of those classic moments after spending ages climbing up things only to realise that there was a staircase next door, all part of the fun though!

Obviously we visited the control rooms like most people do, but to be honest I actually enjoyed just wandering around the offices and other parts of the building constantly finding treasure troves of old plans, plans for the John Broome led "theme park" and at the very end tonnes of slides of the 1980's demolition and stripping out. It's really been somewhere that's consistently kept giving and giving each time we visited. I've had a blast doing this with some awesome people, it's been a real pleasure exploring with them.

Our first visit we were very tentative and pretty much expecting it to be a failure, we spent about 6 hours there and didn't really see much but as the visits continued we got to know the place better and managed to get more done each time and felt pretty much at home in the end, on our last trip we shared the site with up to 16,000 people who were taking part in a marathon for charity.

Anyway enough rambling and on with the report.

A special thanks should go to all those people who've gone before us and passed on information which has been a huge help. Also to Seffy for letting us all squeeze in his car on numerous occasions.

Built in the early 1930s, this iconic structure, with its four distinctive chimneys, was created to meet the energy demands of the new age. Sir Giles Gilbert Scott – the man who also designed what is now Tate Modern and brought the red telephone box to London – was hired by the London Power Company to create this first of a new generation of ‘superstations’, with the building beginning to produce power for the capital in 1933.
With dimensions of 160 m x 170 m, the roof of the boiler house 50 m tall, and its four 103 m tall, tapering chimneys, it is a truly massive structure. The building in fact comprised two stations – Battersea ‘A’ and Battersea ‘B’, which were conjoined when the identical B section was completed in the 1950s, and it was the world’s most thermally efficient building when it opened.
But Battersea Power Station was – and is – so much more besides. Gilbert Scott lifted it from the prosaic into the sublime by incorporating lavish touches such as the building’s majestic bronze doors and impressive wrought-iron staircase leading to the art deco control room. Here, amongst the controls which are still in situ today, those in charge of London’s electricity supply could enjoy the marble-lined walls and polished parquet flooring. Down in the turbine hall below, meanwhile, the station’s giant walls of polished marble would later prompt observers to liken the building to a Greek temple devoted to energy.
Over the course of its life, Battersea Power Station has been instilled in the public consciousness, not least when Pink Floyd famously adopted it for its Animals album cover and launch in 1977. As a result of its popularity, a great deal of energy has been expended in protecting this landmark.
Following the decommissioning of the ‘A’ station in 1975, the whole structure was listed at Grade II in 1980 before, in 1983, the B station was also closed. Since that time, and following the listing being upgraded to a Grade II* status in 2007, Battersea Power Station has become almost as famous for plans heralding its future as for its past. Until now, that is.
The transformation of Battersea Power Station – this familiar and much-loved silhouette on the London skyline – is set to arrive, along with the regeneration and revitalisation of this forgotten corner of central London. History is about to be made once more.

A Side

Boiler House

B Side

Thanks for looking!​