Formerly Irish-owned London landmark finally set to reopen after 10-year revamp

Life & Style

Battersea Power Station was owned by Treasury Holdings until the Irish company was wound up. The enormous building is about to be reborn at last

Julia Kollewe
Mon Oct 10 2022 - 05:00

A pair of peregrine falcons are nesting in one of the distinctive white chimneys rising from the vast edifice of Battersea Power Station, unperturbed by the construction work around them.

Ten years and several British prime ministers after developers first broke ground at a ceremony attended by David Cameron, one of Europe’s biggest brick buildings, on the south bank of the River Thames in central London, is set to open to the public on Friday, with 254 apartments, as well as restaurants, bars, offices and a glass elevator that takes passengers to an eyrie on top of the northwest chimney.

The Irish businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan, the founders of Treasury Holdings, bought the site in 2006, commissioning the renowned architect Rafael Viñoly to repurpose the power station

The redevelopment project was once led by the Irish businessmen Richard Barrett and Johnny Ronan, the founders of Treasury Holdings, who bought the site in 2006, commissioning the renowned architect Rafael Viñoly to repurpose the power station. But Treasury, effectively credit-crunched after the economic crash of 2008, was wound up, and some of the businessmen’s Battersea-related loans ended up being transferred to the National Asset Management Agency.

In 2012 Nama sold the high-profile development site to a consortium of Malaysian investors, led by SP Setia and Sime Darby Property, for £400 million, or about €450 million at current exchange rates. The new owners then embarked on a £9 billion revamp, divided into eight phases. About 1,600 of the planned 4,000 homes have been built so far.

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Animals: Battersea Power Station on the cover of Pink Floyd's 1977 album

Battersea Power Station: inside Turbine Hall A. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

Immortalised on a Pink Floyd album cover that featured flying pigs, and on screen in The King’s Speech and Ian McKellen’s Richard III, the building is an enduring feature of the Thames skyline, but until now its interior has been off-limits to most visitors.

A free “festival of power” will celebrate its latest incarnation, bringing to an end a long period of speculation during which developers variously proposed turning the derelict site into a giant theme park or a stadium for Chelsea Football Club.

Battersea Power Station: the north atrium retains some original features. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

For half a century, the power station burned coal to generate as much as a fifth of London’s electricity, keeping the lights on in Buckingham Palace (code-named Carnaby Street 2 in the control room) and the Houses of Parliament, before puffing its last plumes of smoke in 1983.

[ Nama shortsighted on Battersea decision, says developer ]

Now it is the centrepiece of a 17-hectare, or 42-acre, site, nestled beside apartment blocks designed by the US architect Frank Gehry in his distinctive style with fragmented forms, and one large, bendy structure designed by Foster + Partners.

Battersea Power Station: the site in 2008

The vast, cavernous spaces of the two turbine halls are now filled with restaurants and shops, including Ralph Lauren, Mulberry and Reiss, as well as Uniqlo, Mango, Superdry and Swatch. A floor above Levi’s, the former control room B has been turned into a slick bar, which has the original stainless-steel control panels and switch dials for managing the flow of electricity.

Apple will relocate more than 1,500 employees from offices around London to its new UK base inside the boiler house, across six floors. Apple’s chief executive, Tim Cook, who had a private tour of the building recently, said: “Once a source of energy for much of London, the transformation this building has undergone honours London’s past and celebrates its future. We’re so glad to be a part of it.”

Battersea Power Station: Control Room B is now a slick bar with the original control panels and switch dials. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

IWG, which operates the office-rental brands Regus and Spaces, will welcome tenants from next April in the art deco-inspired Engine Room, with river views. It expects “high demand” from hybrid workers.

Luxury apartments line both flanks of the main building, above the shops, and 90 per cent have been sold. They start at £865,000, or about €983,000, for a studio, while the 18 sky villas – three- and four-bed penthouses with private terraces arranged around a communal roof garden on top of the building – cost up to £7 million, or about €8 million. With only a handful of the villas taken so far, Battersea Power Station Development Company, was set up by the Malaysian consortium, is still marketing these pricier homes at full pelt.

Battersea Power Station: Turbine Hall B is filled with shops and restaurants. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

The first residents moved in during May 2021, and the new Battersea Power Station tube stop, which sits on a spur of the Northern Line, opened in September last year.

When the site is complete it is expected to house 25,000 people and attract between 25 million and 30 million visitors every year.

Battersea Power Station: Control Room A has art-deco flourishes and a herringbone parquet floor. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

When the architectural practice WilkinsonEyre embarked on the redesign, a decade ago, the power station had been reduced to a shell, without a roof. Grass was growing on the ground in the middle. Sebastien Ricard, the project director, says: “We were stunned by the scale of the building and wanted to retain it. We didn’t want to over-restore it.”

While the four chimneys had to be replaced, with reinforced-concrete replicas, many of the original features of the power station were retained – including the two control rooms, one with art-deco flourishes and herringbone parquet floor, the other in more brutalist, 1950s style, as well as ceramic wall tiles, exposed steel girders, remnants of staircases and the former directors’ entrance. Cranes have been incorporated into the design, with one holding a footbridge spanning Turbine Hall A.

Battersea Power Station: Turbine Hall A's giant art-deco fluted pilasters. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

Critics point out that there is little affordable housing, and none inside the power station. Aside from the luxury pads, the developer has built a block of 386 affordable homes, some distance from the power station on the other side of the main road. They make up less than a tenth of the total planned for the site. They range from studios to one- and two-bedroom flats, a mix of social rent and shared ownership, and are managed by Britain’s biggest housing association, Peabody.

Not everyone is impressed. Keith Garner, an architect based in Battersea, says: “Forty years to create a shopping mall! Battersea Power Station should have taken its place alongside other great cultural institutions of London: British Museum, South Kensington museums, Tate Britain and Tate Modern.”

Battersea Power Station: escalators in Turbine Hall B. Photograph: James Parsons/Backdrop Productions

Instead, alongside the shops and offices, there will be a boxing gym, cinema and private members’ club, and a glass elevator dubbed Lift 109 for the height of the chimney it serves. Passengers are meant to stay inside once it reaches the top, looking at the view for a few minutes, before descending again.

When reporters were given a sneak preview, however, the lift rose and then shot straight back down (twice). Something to do with the wind, apparently. The developers will want to fix that before the grand opening. — Guardian, with additional reporting