News: Battersea Power Station new plans
New plans have been announced for Battersea Power Station – one of the capital’s biggest and most shockingly neglected building sites.
This must be the third set of plans for the property, at least, and I’m amazed that in the current economic climate such a grandiose set of plans is being touted. It will cost at least £4bn (that’s about $8m US) and won’t be completed till 2020.
The plans envisage the creation of a huge glass and steel chimney which will dwarf the power station alongside. That just seems to me a massive piece of vandalism. The power station is a monumental building – not just in scale but also in the magnificent self-assertion of its fluted chimneys and the fine red-and-white contrasts of its brickwork against the creamy chimneys. Putting something square, big, and boring next to it is just wrong.
Apparently the new chimney/tower is actually a wind tower, which will provide ventilation through natural suction. Sustainability, tick. (Although in most countries which use this technology, like Oman and the Emirates, it’s high temperatures which drive the use of the wind tower. I don’t remember Battersea as a particularly warm borough.)
But the problem is that this tower – higher than the Gherkin – makes the power station look like a Dinky toy.
I don’t know whether this development will ever get off the ground. And I must admit to mixed feelings. I’d love to see the power station restored, refurbished, and given new life. But not, I think, next to this glass Leviathan.
Photo credit – Jon Bennett on flickr
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