Monday 24 January 2022

Light festival at Battersea Power Station.

Battersea Power station is one of those buildings that has always stood out on the skyline and became a London icon. It was built in 1929 and supplied one fifth of London's electricity. The Power Station was decommissioned in 1983 and sat derelict for years. Plans for different projects followed but for a number of reasons never materialised and in 1991 the building was added to the Heritage at Risk Register. It wasn't until 2012 that the building was bought by a property development and investment business from Malaysia. Overseen by Historic England, work began in 2014 to dismantle and carefully rebuild the chimneys to the precise specification of the originals. The programme used the original architects' plans to ensure the reconstructed chimneys were identical to their predecessors. One of the original methods used required over 25,000 wheelbarrows of concrete to be poured by hand into shuttered layers which were allowed to set one by one. When complete 25,000 people will live and work here creating one of London's largest office, retail and leisure developments. A new underground station opened here in September 2021 on an extension of the Northern Line making the area even more accessible.This week I went to have a look at a light festival taking place around the Power Station.



 























 I will be back to have a look inside the Power Station when the next phase is opened which should be happening sometime this year.

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17 comments:

  1. It is such an impressive building. I think we have seen it every time we have visited London. The light show looks great.

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  2. I remember when the Power Station was decommissioned nearly 40 years ago and I know it was left unloved for ages. But I don't understand why one or more of the plans did not go ahead. So it was a good idea to add the building to the Heritage at Risk Register because it really WAS AT RISK.

    What will Historic England being doing, apart from ensuring that the chimneys match the originals. I hope the citizens, once they are settled in, have plenty of private and public space.

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  3. It seems mildly ironic to be lighting up a power station that was de-commissioned so long ago. Probably using LED lights and other technology that was undreamed of in the building's heyday. I must admit to being a sucker for light shows, though I doubt I'll be making a journey to London in the near future.

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  4. It is staggering the work put into such buildings and always reassuring when historians have an opportunity to add authenticity to renewal projects.

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  5. Seen the place many times but never been there, no doubt will be an expensive place to live

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  6. 25,000 people will live there! Must be an incredibly large space. Light show looked fantastic.

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  7. I'm so glad it was saved and rebuilt. What a magnificent light show.

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  8. Isn't that light show exactly what is needed during these dark months (not to mention dark times figuratively)!! And saving the iconic building is worth celebrating in itself.

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  9. Magnificent light show and awesome photos ~ Xo

    Wishing you lots of laughter in your days,

    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

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  10. Wonderful light displays and some very interesting pics!

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  11. Wow thats an amazing building and light show.

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  12. That is amazing. What a great light show! Thanks for the photos!

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  13. I really like how the power station is going to be reused, I hate when old buildings get unnecessarily pulled down.

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  14. The light show is quite wonderful and another great attraction for victors to London. Such a shame that it takes Malaysian property developers to do what we should be doing for ourselves. Seems like it's not just the Russians and the Chinese taking over London.

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  15. What an amazing light show, your photographs showed it very well.

    All the best Jan

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