A raft of new buildings, including efforts by A-list architects such as Norman Foster and Frank Gehry will soon be going up around London’s Battersea Power Station, seen below. After years of plans that have fallen through, this one appears to be financed and ready.
Battersea is one of the city’s icons, despite being only a bit over 80 years old and out of service for the past 30. Since its shutdown as a major polluter in the early 1980s, it has survived plans to dismantle it—it’s now a Grade II-listed landmark—and a series of failed plans to make use of the space around it. And there’s space around it, in part because as a coal-fired plant that produced 500+ megawatts it needed plenty of space to store the thousands of tons of coal delivered to it by river, and to handle its ash and cleanup needs.
When Battersea was first proposed, it was part of a plan to consolidate small generators into a small number of large and efficient plants. While few disagreed with that, there was widespread opposition to its location in the city, on the river. To overcome the opposition, plans for emission control were devised, and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was hired as architect. Among his other designs are the Bankside Power Station (now the Tate Modern Gallery), Liverpool’s Anglican Cathedral and…the iconic red telephone box.
The new buildings planned for the site include a hotel with rooftop pools and gardens overlooking the Station as well as exhibition and retail space; the residential Flower Building (above) designed by Frank Gehry and several other residential and retail sites, as well as a new station on London’s Underground.
For more information and views from The Telegraph (UK), click HERE
Battersea Power Station: Alberto Pascual / Wikimedia Flower Building: Battersea Power Station
