please empty your brain below
Readers interested in knowing more about the history of Battersea Power Station might enjoy the late Mike Horne's blog article written in September 2016 called "Battersea and the Slow Death of a Giant" which can be found here.

The Slow Death of a Giant | 15.04.22 - 7:26 a.m. | #

2:30 on 21st May 1990 was when the theme park at Battersea Power station was meant to open.

It has now been a building site for lonbger than it was a poweer station.

Battersea "A" power station was built in just four years, and was operational for 42 years, from 1933 to 1975, and has now been closed for 47 years.
Battersea "B", which added the two extra chimneys to complete the familiar "upside down table" was operational for only 28 years, from 1955 to 1983, and has been closed for 38 years.

Timbo | 15.04.22 - 7:52 a.m. | #

That “stepped bowl” entrance looks like the stuff of nightmares. Will there be some step-free access?
Until it has,this old gal will be giving it a miss, quite apart from the whole thing being an ugly mess.

Jo W | 15.04.22 - 7:58 a.m. | #

Crossrail - its late

Northern Line extension - its early

Perhaps those staff in yellow helmets find the extension being open useful.

I think having a dead end branch was a waste, and for those who argue about what the funding allowed - remember these are politicians, rules mean whatever they decide they mean, for example extending to Kensington would mean Chelsea could've had a tube station now, instead of whatever date Crossrail 2 opens.

Still Anon | 15.04.22 - 9:18 a.m. | #

Sadly when I visited it was just as depressing as I had imagined that it would be with apartments built so close together you can read the headlines on your neighbours newspaper across the yard.

fishislandskin | 15.04.22 - 9:19 a.m. | #

At least the public features have and are being built. Here it is not unusual for much public features and spaces to be promised but never appearing.

Andrew | Homepage | 15.04.22 - 9:33 a.m. | #

One reason why the NLX has low numbers is that its service is the most dreadful (ignoring Olympia) service for the tube outside of Green Belt areas.

When it becomes every 5 minutes after the Bank branch reopens, expect potential passengers to be much more willing to use it instead of alternatives.

Si | 15.04.22 - 10:02 a.m. | #

It was nice to walk past and around it along the Thames the other week, but what a claustrophobic place to live!
High-rise flats as far as the eye can see for many of those who can afford to live there.

Cornish Cockney | 15.04.22 - 10:47 a.m. | #

The NLX wasn't early. It was meant to open in 2020. Things only open early in dreams.

daveid76 | 15.04.22 - 11:31 a.m. | #

A rare example where the public transport infrastructure was ready for the residents as or before they move(d) in, rather than leaving them stranded, though BPS was already better served by buses than many of the spec developments on brownfield sites along the lower Thames reaches. Assuming anyone ever lives there, of course, rather than the properties just ending up on overseas balance sheets.

Labourer | 15.04.22 - 11:50 a.m. | #

A massive wasted opportunity to provide lots of much needed affordable housing.

I'll no doubt visit the Power Station when it reopens, though I doubt I'll spend any money at those upmarket establishments you mentioned. Especially as they're the same sort of bland shops and food places you find everywhere else in such developments.

Mikey C | 15.04.22 - 1:00 p.m. | #

Is that little heritage room a mini-museum still there, it was beneath the into-Victoria Station-railway tracks? Just a space about half a badminton court but it was full of industrial archaeology from the power stations heyday, knobs and switches and cautionary signs and boards of mysterious and rather beautiful dials. Back then one change to the settings and Hackney would have been in darkness. I'm hazy when I visited the BPS development last year maybe,I know I visited the nearby childrens' Zoo to admire the Ring-Tailed Lemurs a while back.

Noel | 15.04.22 - 2:06 p.m. | #

Not to everyone’s liking what they have done admittedly but at least someone’s finally put up the capital to sympathetically restore this engineering icon and it hasn’t be left to languish for another few decades.

Easter bunny | 15.04.22 - 5:45 p.m. | #

By Frank Gehry's standards those flats look almost conventional. Most of his buildings make you feel dizzy.

James Webber | 15.04.22 - 7:02 p.m. | #

The little museum is still there, although not always open. A friend had a sneak preview of the interior of the power station itself, and a lot of the Art Deco detail inside has been preserved and restored (although it wasn’t clear on what terms the public would be able to go and see it). I’m also going to be near the front of the queue for the lift up one of the chimneys. No doubt there will be tacky and expensive elements, but unlike the cynics, I’m really keen to have a look inside…

Baldassaro | 15.04.22 - 10:36 p.m. | #

This almost sounds like you were sponsored to write this.

Are you feeling OK?

Southern Heights (Light Railway) | 16.04.22 - 8:29 a.m. | #

I did see the NLX as a kind of 50/50 win. The owners needed to advertise the ease of travel to the site and provided the bulk of the budget to build it.
TfL realised it would aid the future split of the northern line into two separate stand alone lines, that could then be extended to Clapham Junction on completion of CR2 and once they had completed the necessary splitting work at Camden Town.
But as we now know covid shot a massive hole in the TfL budget - so this might not happen for a generation!

Having visited the area last year - yes, overwhelming. I will visit inside the turbine hall when completed, but that will be it, like the vast majority of Londoners, I won't be spending any of my money there.

Dave | 16.04.22 - 10:51 a.m. | #

i think you'd probably have to wait until the bank branch of the NL is re-opened to fairly jusdge the station openings, since it must tip the balance of usefullness away somewhat since it doesn't get you to london bridge etc. Plus once you've built it... you might as well run it.

Alistair Twin | 16.04.22 - 11:58 a.m. | #

The Battersea Brewery Taproom under the railway nearby is worth a visit - some nice beers on tap there.

Sykobee | 13.05.22 - 3:15 p.m. | #











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