Battersea Power Station

Giles Gilbert Scott gave the building its brick exterior from 1929, and it generated electricity until 1983, by which point its four chimneys had become one of the most recognisable shapes in London, helped considerably by Pink Floyd's Animals cover of 1977, for which an inflatable pig was flown between them and escaped into commercial airspace. After closure the building stood roofless and decaying for thirty-nine years through a series of failed schemes. The redevelopment completed in 2022 rebuilt the chimneys from scratch to the original specification, kept the two turbine halls with their control rooms, one art deco and one 1950s, and filled the shell with shops, offices and flats. A glass lift runs up inside one chimney to a viewing platform.

What you actually see

• The four chimneys - rebuilt to original specification during the restoration.
• The turbine halls - Control Room A in art deco, Control Room B from the 1950s.
• The chimney lift - a glass lift inside the northwest chimney to a platform.
• The Scott brickwork - the 1930s exterior kept through the rebuild.

When to go

Year-round; the site is indoors and open daily. The chimney lift is ticketed with timed slots and best booked. Evenings and weekends are busiest.

Honest expectations

The building is now primarily a shopping centre, and visitors expecting industrial archaeology find retail. The chimneys are replicas, not the originals, which were too degraded to save. The lift is expensive for the height it reaches.

Nearby

Battersea Park lies west; the Nine Elms development and the US embassy are alongside.