• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • About
    • First Time Here?
    • Archive
    • London Blogs
  • Blog
  • Travel
    • London Theater Tickets
    • Shopping
    • Tips
    • Tours
    • Transport
    • Maps
    • Parks
    • Resources
    • Restaurants
    • Top 10 London
  • Culture
    • Art
    • Buildings
    • Food
    • London Books
    • Movies
    • Museums
    • Music
    • Pubs
  • Londonism
    • Reviews
    • Fun London
    • Iconic London
    • Life in London
    • London Realities
    • Moving to London
    • Politics
  • The Tube
  • London History
    • Great London Buildings
    • Great Londoners
  • Contact
  • Guidebooks
    • 101 London Travel Tips – Guidebook
    • 101 Free Things to do in London

Londontopia

The Website for People Who Love London

You are here: Home / Culture / Buildings / Great London Buildings: Battersea Power Station

Great London Buildings: Battersea Power Station

May 2, 2016 By John Rabon

Abandonded Battersea power station in London

For many years, Battersea Power Station has been an architectural icon of London, whether it was in use as a power station or not. Prior to the 1930s, power to the city was supplied by multiple smaller companies that supplied power to industries and sold the excess to the public.  Many of these small companies joined forces in 1925 to create the London Power Company.  At the same time, Parliament came to a decision that London needed a central power grid with uniform voltages and standards.  With this conglomerate of corporations ready to take up Parliament’s plan before they were forced into public ownership, they began to form a plan to power the city with a few large plants rather than many.

The proposal to build the city’s first superstation came in 1927.  Battersea Power Station would be built in two segments and, once complete, would be able to generate 400,000,000 watts of electricity.  Located on fifteen acres on the south bank of the River Thames, the proximity to the river provided an easy source for cooling and transporting the coal that would power the station.  However, Parliament’s proposal immediately caused protests that the station would be an eyesore and that its smokestacks would harm the artwork at the National Gallery of British Art (now known as the Tate Britain).

These fears were slightly assuaged with the hiring of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, already a well-known architect who had designed many famous British buildings, including the Liverpool Cathedral, Clare College, Cambridge’s Memorial Court, and the nation’s iconic red phone boxes.  The main architect was Leonard Peace, while Scott was hired to enhance the exterior and consult on the construction.  Scott designed the exterior brick cladding as well as the tower bases of the chimneys.  As to the pollution problems, permission to build was granted on the basis that the plant’s emissions would be treated so that it would be “clean and smokeless”.

Construction on “A” Station began in 1929 with Sir William Carrol & Co. erecting the steelwork and John Mowlem & Co. working on the remainder of the building.  “A” Station was not completed until 1935, but began generating power in 1933.  As construction of “B” Station did not begin until after World War II, for many years, the eastern wall of the boiler house was covered in corrugated metal.  The construction started only months after the war ended in 1945 and would continue on until “B” Station was fully operational in 1955.  This brought the station’s capacity up to 509,000,000 watts and made it the third largest power station in the United Kingdom.  By this point, the London Power Company was no longer in ownership of the building as the electric companies had been nationalised.

Only twenty years later, “A” Station would stop generating power after having done so for forty-two years.  In 1977, Battersea Power Station would feature prominently on the album cover for Pink Floyd’s “Animals”.  The year after that, under rumours that the government intended to close “B” Station, a campaign began to save Battersea for national heritage.  In 1980, Michael Heseltine, the Secretary of State for the Environment, awarded the station Grade II listed status, thus preserving it from any demolition plans without Parliament’s approval.  In 1983, “B” Station would shut down for good.

Throughout the Eighties, Nineties, and the early 21st Century, Battersea Power Station sat vacant while several development proposals came and went.  In the meantime, it became a popular filming location, where “A” Station’s control room was used for the “Find the Fish” scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life, the interior was used as a derelict warehouse for The Dark Knight, and the whole of the station became a manufacturing plant for a parallel world’s Cybermen in Doctor Who.  Today, developers SP Setia and Sime Darby from Malaysia are in the process of preserving the station and converting the surrounding area into a mixed-use development that will provide shops, homes, and offices to accommodate London’s growth.  In the middle of it all, Battersea Power Station will remain a feature of the city’s architecture.

John Rabon
Author: John Rabon

John is a regular writer for Anglotopia and its sister websites. He is currently engaged in finding a way to move books slightly to the left without the embarrassment of being walked in on by Eddie Izzard. For any comments, questions, or complaints, please contact the Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's haircut.

close

Free London News

Get the latest news on London history, culture, travel, exhibitions, and more right in your inbox!

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Share this:

  • Print
  • Email
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Pinterest
  • Reddit
  • Pocket

Filed Under: Buildings, Featured, Great London Buildings, History

Subscribe to Our Free London Updates

Free London News

Get the latest news on London history, culture, travel, exhibitions, and more right in your inbox!

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

About John Rabon

John is a regular writer for Anglotopia and its sister websites. He is currently engaged in finding a way to move books slightly to the left without the embarrassment of being walked in on by Eddie Izzard. For any comments, questions, or complaints, please contact the Lord Mayor of London, Boris Johnson's haircut.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Mihai says

    May 4, 2016 at 4:47 pm

    A good history lesson! I always imagine there a fish market.

Primary Sidebar

Subscribe to Our Free London Updates

Free London News

Get the latest news on London history, culture, travel, exhibitions, and more right in your inbox!

Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription.

Get the Anglotopia/Londontopia App

Our Advertisers

If you are a mobile gamer, you may want to take a look at UK’s new mobile casinos and slots reviewed by NewCasinoUK.

Join the London Forum

  • Mudlarking
  • MY FAVOURITE PLACE IN LONDON
  • What's Your Favorite Place in London?
  • Paddington Station

London Guide

  • Ten Cheap Things You Can Do in London on a Budget
  • Ten London Exhibitions to Look Forward to in 2023
  • London’s Non-Free Museums: Your Guide to London’s Museums That Charge Admission
  • Trip Planning: Top 10 Exhibitions To Plan Your 2018 Trips to London Around
  • London Guide: Our Favorite Restaurants in London – London Restaurant Recommendations for Americans – What’s Your Favorite?

Connect With Us

  • Facebook
  • RSS Feed
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter

Support Londontopia

Search our Extensive Archive

Top 10 London

  • Ten Unusual Exhibits to See in London
  • London Pubs: Ten Thameside Pubs for a Pint and a View
  • Top 10 London: Ten More Things to Do Along the River Thames
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Shopping Centers in London
  • Museums of London: Ten Overlooked London Museums
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Things to See and Do in Haggerston
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Things to See and Do in Haringey
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Things to See and Do in Redbridge
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Things to See and Do in Hillingdon
  • Top 10 London: Top Ten Things to Do in Canonbury

Recent Posts

  • What’s On in London Events for February 2023
  • Only Fools And Horses musical to close in West End after four years
  • Artist Ai Weiwei to launch first design-focused exhibition at London’s Design Museum
  • London Travel Alert: Staff at British Museum to walk out during half-term break
  • Poet Lemn Sissay ‘over the moon’ to receive Freedom of the City of London
  • English Heritage has unveiled six new blue plaques for London
  • National Portrait Gallery to reopen in June with two special exhibitions
  • Exploring The Cosmic House in London
  • Ten Social Media Accounts to Follow for Londonphiles
  • New Royal Academy Exhibition: Treasures from Spain and the Hispanic World

Best Posts on Londontopia

  • 101 London Travel Tips
  • Top 100 London Attractions
  • How to Find the Cheapest Airfares to London
  • 10 Things NOT to do in London
  • Best London Guidebooks
  • 101 Free Things to do in London
  • London Lingo – A London Word Dictionary
  • Top 7 Tips for Doing London on the Cheap
  • Top 11 Myths American Believe about London
  • Guide to Eating in London
  • Best Times of Year to Travel to London
  • London Packing Tips
  • Top 11 Movies Set in London
  • Top Attractions off the Tourist Track
  • Top 5 Most Amazing London Hotels
  • Top 10 Hostels in London
  • Best Views in London Restuarants
  • London Taxi Ettiquette
  • Top 12 London Views
  • Great Fire of London
  • A Guide to Five of London’s Bridges
  • 10 Random Facts and Figures about Trafalgar Square
  • Top 100 British Slang Words

London Places to Explore

Bloomsbury Buckingham Palace Canary Wharf City of London Covent Garden Cutty Sark Greenwich Hampstead Hampton Court Palace Heathrow Houses of Parliament Hyde Park Imperial War Museum Islington Kensington Kensington Palace Leicester Square London London Eye London Transport Museum Museum of London National Gallery Notting Hill Piccadilly Circus Putney Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park Regent's Street Royal Academy Selfridges Somerset House Southbank Southwark St Pancras St Paul's Cathedral Tate Britain Tate Modern The City Tower Bridge Tower of London Trafalgar Square V&A Wandsworth West End Westminster Westminster Abbey

SIGN-UP FOR FREE LONDON WEEKLY UPDATES!

Please enter a valid email address
That address is already in use
The security code entered was incorrect
Thanks for signing up

Recent Videos

Walk Around London Virtually Right Now – Watched Walker is the YouTube Channel We All Need Right Now

Jason Hawkes Shares a Beautiful Video of London From Above That We All Need Right now

London Tube: You’ve Got to Watch This Amazing Mesmerizing Animation That Shows the Real Geography of the London Underground

Video: The Basics of Crossrail – London’s New Underground Line

London History: The Place Where Old London Double Decker Buses Went to Die

London Video: A Look at the Great Smog of London

Tube and London bus fares to rise by nearly 6% from March

What is Crossrail 2 and What is Its Current Status?

London Alert: Strike by London Underground workers to go ahead after last-minute talks fail

London Mayor hails Elizabeth line as direct routes and Sunday services begin

Elizabeth line fully opens and offers more direct journeys

Tube poet encourages writers to ‘bring who they are to the field’

Footer

About Londontopia

Londontopia is simply the website for people who love London. It was founded by Jonathan & Jackie Thomas from Anglotopia.net as a place to post articles solely focused on London and its environs. Keep up with all the latest London news at Londontopia! This site is geared towards people who love to visit London and our primary audience is North American but everyone is welcome!

When We’re in London Next

We don’t currently have any travel plans to London but hope to visit at some point in 2021.

  • SEO Backlinks
  • Travel Blog

SIGN-UP FOR FREE LONDON WEEKLY UPDATES!

Please enter a valid email address
That address is already in use
The security code entered was incorrect
Thanks for signing up

Copyright © 2023 Anglotopia, LLC · Website Developed by Anglotopia, LLC · Log in