please empty your brain below
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Rolling into Victoria on the train, I remain baffled at why people would want to live in such a cramped and crowded environment - and pay so much for the privilege. But, of course, it's not about people living in these prefab pile-'em-high slots; it's about people owning them, like a few gold bars stashed in a bank vault.
Waterhouse | 16.08.16 - 7:15 a.m. | #
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Observing the changes at Nine Elms and Vauhall over the years makes the train journey into Waterloo more interesting.
I remember the rows of terraced houses that were demolished to make way for council flats and houses in the 1970's.
Those old streets of houses, some were lived in by squatters until demolition forced them out. I got to know some of them.
One got a new council house when they were built.
The old Market Towers office building, which has now been demolished to make way for an even taller residential block, I watched Market Towers being built and watched it come down, I knew someone who helped build it.
As for Battersea power station I remember it in use, and also its night of "fame" in 1964 when it caused the opening night of BBC2 to go off the air.
I also used to enjoy going to Battersea Fun Fair and Pleasure gardens. The Rotor and Big Dipper, the Guinness clock, and the tree walk and Grotto. Nice to have memories.
John | 16.08.16 - 7:42 a.m. | #
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Will people buy these flats now, after Brexit?
Charles | Homepage | 16.08.16 - 8:53 a.m. | #
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@Waterhouse
People don't want to live in a cramped and crowded environment, but they want to be near to central London.
@Charles
Yes, the price has dropped by nearly 20% for USD-based people.
John | 16.08.16 - 9:02 a.m. | #
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Was amazed by the changes when I recently went through here on the 344 bus from Liverpool Street. Started me thinking of the Peter Sellers' film The Optimists of Nine Elms. Naturally excerpts from this can be seen on You Tube.
Joan | 16.08.16 - 9:28 a.m. | #
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VNEB Opportunity Area, says it all really.
Thanks for the post though, enjoyable and depressing at the same time.
Thanks for the Paradise Road nod too, I'd not heard of it, but copy duly ordered.
Lorenzo | 16.08.16 - 9:59 a.m. | #
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Loads of these high 'residential' tower blocks going up in London, Stratford for instance. Who wants them, utter crap?
Some of these appartments cost more than my house is worth but you can keep them, I'd much rather have my house on the ground with a street front door and garden any day.
Agent Z | 16.08.16 - 10:02 a.m. | #
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"Their residents are about to get a direct tube service to the West End"
The area is of course currently out in the sticks. Victoria is nearly five minutes away, whilst Waterloo is takes a whole seven minutes. And a skeleton service on each route of just eight trains an hour..........
[/irony]
timbo | 16.08.16 - 10:05 a.m. | #
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I like NLV.
| 16.08.16 - 10:41 a.m. | #
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I don't mind growth and regeneration - I just think it's criminal that what they choose to do never does anything to solve London's housing problem. Quite the opposite in fact.
Cornish Cockney | 16.08.16 - 11:01 a.m. | #
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Frankfurt has one too!
Battersea am Main: https://flic.kr/p/FGnn6e
IsarSteve | 16.08.16 - 12:37 p.m. | #
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The flats aren't that small, there are some very expensive units in there. Yes it is a lot flats, 16,000 in total. But that is how many are needed to build a tube line extension and if you think adding a couple of more buses would have worked for that number of flats I don't think you've really thought about it, other to have some knee jerk reaction.
It's a bit severe at the moment, but that's because it's mostly still a construction site and it won't start to jell for another five years or so. It will be 10 years before we enter the final stages of development. Come backin 20 years and retail and restaurants will have settled in and only then will you be able to tell how it all turned out.
The area will have a long linear park running through it and two clusters of activity either at the Power station or near Vauxhall, where cinemas and possibly a theatre will rise along with commercial and restaurant space etc.
If the developers pull it off we might have something interesting at Battersea
rational plan | 16.08.16 - 1:29 p.m. | #
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I had a bike saddle stolen from that Sainsbury's car park once.
Kevin | 16.08.16 - 1:29 p.m. | #
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Blade Runner reinvented by Hello Kitty
HoosierSands | Homepage | 16.08.16 - 3:25 p.m. | #
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Kevin - I bet that made for an interesting ride home....
Anyway, having seen the lack of any sort of community atmosphere in new builds near me (Millennium Village, Kidbrooke etc) I fear that Battersea/Nine Elms will remain a place not to visit in the years to come.
| 16.08.16 - 4:37 p.m. | #
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Yay, more posh "luxury" flats. Clearly something London needs more of...
Red Cardinal | 16.08.16 - 6:06 p.m. | #
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A tube extension built to serve unaffordable flats, paid for by unaffordable flats.
It'll rescue a much-loved power station, but it's not London's finest hour.
diamond geezer | Homepage | 16.08.16 - 6:21 p.m. | #
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My father worked at most of the London power stations in the 1950s. Battrersea was not "much loved" by him. On the contrary.
(Fulham was his favourite - possibly because that's where he was working when he met my mother)
timbo | 16.08.16 - 8:53 p.m. | #
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Rolling out of Victoria recently and nearly missing the power station as it was almost completely hidden by the new development, I do wonder if in practice we've pretty much lost the building anyway despite all fuss over keeping it.
Andrew S | 16.08.16 - 9:52 p.m. | #
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If you want to see what the Nine Elms area was like around 1970/71, watch the film Melody (aka SWALK), starring Jack Wild and Mark Lester. The final scene is a huge pupil/teacher fight on what was then derelict land north of the railway, which is now the US Embassy site. Still visible are the old cold stores and the Mieux/ Double Diamond Brewery. Great for other footage shot on location around Kennington.
JD | 16.08.16 - 11:36 p.m. | #
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To me, Battersea Power Station is no more. With so many 'heritage' buildings, often there is very little of the original building left, just a facade. I suppose replicating the chimneys is better than nothing, but it will not be the same.
Around 1970, I arranged a visit to the power station and was taken around every nook and cranny by one of the engineers there. Certainly not H&S by today's standards, but a very informative tour by a very helpful member of staff.
In the early 70's, I lived at Clapham North for 3 years, then for about 2 years off Linford St (10 mins from the Dogs Home) and so I got to know the Battersea / Clapham Junction area quite well. Whilst there will always be changes, I find it sad that so much of the area around Battersea is being ripped apart just to (mainly) provide very expensive flats. What's happening in the middle of London reminds me of what happened to Paris where, in most areas, the locals have been pushed out in favour of big spenders / renters.
Rogmi | 17.08.16 - 11:58 a.m. | #
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The view from the train of the power station was one of the iconic views in London. This has been lost to a wall of shiny glass, I hope the purchasers like watching SouthEastern trains.
I'm also partially sure that the flats will not be too pokey, and the sound proofing should be excellent. That is what the purchasers will demand at the price they are paying.
Me, yes, I prefer a house with a garden, but not everyone wants a garden or stairs or direct access from the street into their living room. Especially people who won't be around to maintain said garden or check nobody uninvited has visited because they are using it as a foreign investment.
Still, the price of regeneration these days. Is it worth it? It does little to actually solve the housing crisis within London.
Sykobee | 17.08.16 - 12:11 p.m. | #
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I'm not an absentee Dubai-based landlord/investor, yet I prefer flats. For one thing I don't have the time and the interest in maintaining a garden. But also surely flats are a better use of land.
In most large cities in Europe people live in flats, raise children in flats, and they seem to be doing ok. To me this fixation for your own front door and garden suggests a very Brexity inability to share communal space with others.
| 17.08.16 - 11:25 p.m. | #
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I wandered round this area with my camera earlier in the year and by your report things have really galloped on., I must revisit although my real reason - the tube extension - is unlikely to have anything to photograph for a while yet!
NLV made me smile. Keep up the great work DG.
David Kirwin | 18.08.16 - 9:59 a.m. | #
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