Battersea Power Station

Urban Exploration uk

info from www.batterseapowerstation.org.uk

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott was commissioned to design the building. His other buildings include Liverpool Cathedral, Bankside Power Station, Waterloo Bridge and the classic red telephone box.

The building is in fact a steel girder frame and Sir Giles designed the exterior brick cladding and the tower-like bases of the four chimneys. It is the largest brick building in Europe.

In effect Battersea is two power stations and the familiar silhouette of four chimneys did not appear until 1953 and for the first 20 years the building had a long rather than four-square appearance, with a chimney at each end. But even this appearance caused positive comments, described as a temple of power and to rank as a London landmark equal with St. Paul's Cathedral. In 1939 a survey of celebrities voted it their 2nd favourite building when canvassed by the Architects Journal.

The construction of 'B' Station was begun a few months after World War 2 to bring Battersea to a total capacity of 509 megawatts and the 3rd. largest power station in the U.K.

This huge project, begun by the London Power company 30 years before, was to be completed by the British Electric Authority when the electricity supply was nationalised in 1948. Battersea "B" station began operating in 1953 and had the highest thermal efficiency of all power stations and provided one fifth of Londons total electricity supplies, ( 28 other stations generated the rest )

Throughout the whole of its life Battersea has been a symbol of the electricity industry to the media and the general public alike.

Battersea Power Station ceased all production of electricity in 1983 leaving the Electricity Board with the problem of what to do with the building. They had planned, before the Grade 2 listing was conferred, that demolition and sale of the 15 acres of land would bring "welcome revenue" but they were now left with the high costs of preserving the building instead. To rid themselves of this responsibility they decided to offer the Power Station for any alternative use that they deemed financially viable. They held a competition in 1983 to encourage developers to submit ideas and from a short-list of 10 schemes, a panel of experts lead by Sir Hugh Casson chose an idea for a theme park based on episodes from Britain's industrial history as the only financially viable entry.

The Electricity Board had made a token attempt to involve the local community in the competition with a separate section for schools and other organisations to submit their ideas but there was no question that this section could win the competition.

Local people were allowed to vote on the different schemes through a self selecting ballot but the result was not to influence the panel, and an area of a mere 10,000 square feet was to be for the communities use in any winning scheme.

Local people had worked hard to make it the most efficient power station, many devoting their entire working lives to the success of the station. The surrounding area, largely housing estates for working people, would be affected by any new use for the station.

it still stands derelict

explored with various people including, siologen, Oxygen thief, Little Elvis and many more