From John Broome’s idea in 1983 to turn it into a theme park, to recent owners Parkview’s masterplan involving the Ron Arad-designed ‘Upperworld Hotel’, complete with pods travelling between its four famously fluted towers, Battersea Power Station has been the subject of various proposals united by their conspicuous failure to come to fruition. Little wonder, then, that the most recent plans for the site – drawn up by Uruguayan architect Rafael Viñoly for current owners Real Estate Opportunities – were greeted with a degree of apathy, summoning in this silver jubilee year of the building’s decommission little more than the image of a pig flying over the power station from the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album ‘Animals’.
Still, new plans mean another chance to take a look around Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s Grade II-listed building, which we haven’t been able to do since the tail end of 2006, when the Serpentine Gallery ventured to Battersea for an off-site show of video and installation art from China. Back then, the tours were conducted at lightning speed and photography wasn’t permitted.
These tours, by contrast, are self-guided walks and you’re encouraged to bring along your camera. Having visited the Consultation Suite to see films detailing Viñoly’s plans, you’re left to wander a demarcated route that takes in the exterior and parts of the interior of the Art Deco building. You can’t fail to be awed by the scale of this London icon – or be saddened by its condition. In his bid to create SW8’s answer to Alton Towers, Broome didn’t get much further than ripping off the roof, which explains why it rains indoors.
