dg comments

please empty your brain below

Chelsea Fringe? Just makes me think of the Chelsea Smilers - although did they ever make it out to Bromley by Bow?

Darryl | Homepage | 20.05.13 - 1:35 a.m. | #

I am trying to find the origin of the names on the buildings proposed for Circus West. I think Phillip Dawson, John Ambrose Fleming and
Michael Faraday may give the names of the buildings Dawson, Faraday and Ambrose, all three were involved with electrical engineering. That still leaves me wondering who Bessborough, Fladgate, Pearce, Haliday, and Scott were or are, (assuming the names are to be electrical or engineering based). No doubt someone out there knows.

John | 20.05.13 - 8:58 a.m. | #

Thanks to your tweet I went along on Saturday - just missed the planted people, but as you say, only actually went to see the power station.

The new developments are going to be really ugly, the usual glass monstrosities hemming in the power station from three sides. Once the new buildings are in place, the striking elegence of the station is going to be greatly reduced (so go see it while it's still surrounded by rubble).

Simon W | 20.05.13 - 11:07 a.m. | #

I remember when BPS was working, every time I came back on the train to Victoria as a child. When we saw BPS my mother would say to start getting ready because we were nearly at Victoria Station.

Michael in the Netherlands | 20.05.13 - 11:14 a.m. | #

I have found the sources for some of the names after browsing through the developer’s brochures. It seems that the Ambrose they have in mind is not Ambrose Flemming but a John Ambrose who worked at Battersea Power station. He was there in 1933 and switched the station on when it first started producing power. The brochure for Faraday house does not seem to give the source for that name so I assume might be Michael Faraday. Dawson it seems was not the Phillip Dawson I had guessed, but Bertrand Edward Dawson a medical man who wrote a letter to "The Times" newspaper in 1929 about health problems that might ensue from smoke emission from the planned new power station and that the smoke might blow over the Houses of Parliament!. The result was that Battersea Power station installed the worlds first Flue Gas Desulphurisation system. Scott was consultant architect for the power station. Fladgate, Francis was a solicitor and a chairman of the London power Company. Pearce, Standen was Chief Engineer for the London power Company and designed the system to remove sulphur fumes from Battersea power station. Bessborough was Vere Ponsnby, the Ninth Earl of Bessborough, who was a Director of the London Power Company and has his name on Battersea Power station foundation stone.
I wonder if the new, probably foreign owners, of the apartments will care much about the history of the site and the names of the buildings they will come to live in.

John | 20.05.13 - 11:21 a.m. | #

I'm beginning to wonder if its really worth the struggle to keep the power station shell? Its a massive white elephant, and if its going to be sorrounded by fairly tall housing blocks, whats the point?

On another matter, its not a "pop up park" its a park, or a temporary park. "Pop up" is PR speak!

Ian Brooker | 20.05.13 - 1:18 p.m. | #

It's probably worth the struggle to keep the shell, if only as a symbol to future developers of heritage sites, that when they are told that something must be preserved, it must be preserved. End of.

Malcolm | 20.05.13 - 1:28 p.m. | #

As the building is literally just a shell I to wonder why it is kept, it was not built originally as a four chimney power station but had a second set of chimneys added when Battersea B was attached in the 1950's (I remember it opening). Battersea Power stations night of fame was that it was responsible for BBC2 postponing their opening night in April 1964 as a problem at Battersea caused a major power failure in West London, including the Television Centre. BBC 1 was not affected as in those days it was on the 405 lines TV system and had some studios at Alexandra Palace in North London. The opening of BBC2 had to take place the following day.
If they had kept the old generating equipment it would have been an interesting heritage site, but alas now it is just a lots of bricks around a void.
You can see another example of the architects work at the Salvation Army Officer Training Centre at Denmark Hill, South London.

John | 20.05.13 - 3:09 p.m. | #

There are many examples of 20th century London architecture which are worth preserving but I really don't feel this is one of them.

For thirty years, one developer after another has tried - and failed - to come up with any commercially viable use to which such a vast space could be put.

The net result has been that a large tract of prime riverside frontage has been kept off limits to us all, while the fabric of its centrepiece steadily, and expensively, deteriorates. As outcomes go, this cannot be considered a good one.

Nightmale | 20.05.13 - 6:33 p.m. | #

Plus ca change.

I got to see the north end http://www.flickr.com/photos/by_lionheart/2642614563/ in 2008 (I think there were a few opportunities that year).

That was also part of a developer's efforts to show off their grand plans http://www.flickr.com/photos/by_lionheart/2642611683/

I wonder if this scheme will fare any better?

Steve | Homepage | 20.05.13 - 7:24 p.m. | #

I was fortunate, many years ago, to be able to visit Battersea Power station when it was still working and being given a long tour all round everywhere by an enthusiastic engineer who obviously took an interest in the building and knew it and its history well. The tour covered all sorts of nooks and crannies, including looking into the boilers through the view window (no hard hats or health & safety in those days!).

It was a wonderful building, a little of the inside can be seen in Monty Python's Meaning of Life. It's a disgrace that it's been left to rot. One might even think that was the idea – leave it to disintegrate then say “there’s no option but to pull it all down”. I don’t see the point in replacing the chimneys. It may end up looking the same, but it won’t be the original place, just a meaningless brick shell.

Rogmi | 21.05.13 - 9:55 a.m. | #

Thamesside used to have many power stations - Kingston, Fulham, Lots Road, Battersea, Bankside, Deptford, Greenwich, Stepney, Blackwall, Woolwich, West Ham, Barking. Between them, my mother, father and two uncles worked at most of them at one time or another. None of them thought Battersea was anything special.

| 21.05.13 - 10:22 a.m. | #

What's happened to flicr?
Improvements? Upgrades? It's terrible!

Karl, Dover | 21.05.13 - 12:05 p.m. | #

I grew up with BPS outside my bedroom window, from across the river in Pimlico. I passed it every day to/from school and have even drawn it during bored school holidays. I have an interest in architecture, who wouldn't living in London?, Moderne or art deco being high on my list of favs but for the life of me I can't see the attraction or merit of this eyesore. Same goes for bankside (exterior). Ugly, overscaled, dark, depressing, is it me?

John szwenk | 22.05.13 - 4:41 p.m. | #

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