Battersea Power Station

Battersea Park Road, London SW11
Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, 1932
Grade II listed

The status of Battersea Power Station status is different to that of most of the other entries on this ‘Buildings at Risk’ List. An iconic part of London’s skyline, it is both appreciated and (largely) loved by the public-at-large and by those who make decisions about the built environment at a local and regional level.

Battersea Power Station is, however, a concern for The Twentieth Century Society, because a pattern of delayed maintenance work has developed, which, if it continues, could cause permanent damage to the building fabric.

Battersea Power Station is owned by Parkview International; a development company that recognises that the significant amount of elapsed time since maintenance work has been done, has compromised the building. English Heritage believe that ‘the owner’s are now doing the best that they can’ for the power station, and that things are now ‘being done in the right order.’ Likewise, architects report that Parkview International is ‘keen to do a good job’ and committed to seeing the project through.

Recent conversations with Parkview International, English Heritage and some of the architects that are working on parts of the design suggest that restoration of the existing building fabric is now imminent. Some remedial work is planned for the beginning of the new year.

Firm proposals exist for the disused power station’s future that involve substantial investment in both maintaining the existing building fabric, as well as investing in converting the building into an inhabitable centrepiece of an ambitious redevelopment of the whole of the former power station’s thirty-eight hectare site.

Parkview International are confident that late in 2004 work will begin on the power station; it is to be hoped that 2004 will be the year Battersea Power station finally receives the investment that it needs.

As for now, the building features on both English Heritage’s ‘Buildings at Risk’ list and The World Monument Fund’s ‘50 Most Endangered Monuments.’

Tom Houston

Current Status
January 2006
While the redevelopment of the site and reuse of the power station as a conference centre have been approved by Wandsworth Council, there is now concern about the possible loss of the chimneys. The four structures, towering over the river, are the building’s most impressive and important feature. Developers Parkview commissioned a group of engineers to assess the chimneys’ structural condition. This investigation came to the conclusion that the chimneys must be replaced, and Wandsworth Council have granted permission for their demolition and rebuilding. But a group of experts working for the Twentieth Century Society is convinced that further tests might lead to a different result and that the chimneys might be repairable. This would mean the retention of historic fabric and could become an important example of concrete repair.

Further reading
‘Landmark of London, The Story of Battersea Power Station’, Rob Cochrane, CEGB, 1983
Architect and Building News, 13th January 1933
Architect’s Journal, 2nd November 1933
Architect’s Journal, 11th January 1934
Architecture Illustrated, November 1933

Contacts
Wandsworth Local Authority, Brian Bolam, Senior Planner, T 020 8871 6646
English Heritage, Sheila Stones, Case Officer in charge of Battersea Power station, T 020 7973 3785
Parkview International, Developers, Steve Kennard, T 020 7499 8888

Image credits
Photographs Nigel Sutton