Battersea Power Station, newly restored by WilkinsonEyre, has announced it will open its doors to the public for the first time in history from Friday 14th October 2022, allowing visitors to enjoy the first shops, cafes, restaurants and leisure experiences on offer.
WilkinsonEyre was appointed in 2013 for the refurbishment of the iconic Grade II* listed Battersea Power Station.
Battersea Power Station, ©Hufton&Crow
The proposed designs are consistent with and sympathetic to Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s masterpiece, with the chimneys and turbine halls remaining the dominant features of the building.
Retaining the Power Station’s sense of scale and visual drama is key to the project and is achieved through design features such as a full-height glass void behind the southern wall, a vast central atrium and open, unobstructed turbine halls.
Battersea Power Station, ©Hufton&Crow
The designs respect the integrity of the historic landmark whilst also creating a new state-of-the-art events space; shops, restaurants and cafés; a public viewing platform; large open-plan office spaces, and a series of villas, apartments and penthouses positioned around a garden square above the Boiler House, and to either side of the Power Station.
The careful expression of the contrast between old and new is vital to the success of the project, so that wherever the user is within the building they are reminded of the existence of its original fabric.
Residential
The residential elements are a mixture of new build apartments and villas, and conversion units located within the existing fabric of the Power Station.
Battersea Power Station, ©Hufton and Crow
The accommodation occupies both Switch House West and Switch House East, on either side of the Power Station, as well as centrally on top of the Boiler House roof, framing an open landscaped garden square.
Residents of the converted Switch House homes enter the building walking through one of two piazzas while occupants of the Boiler House properties access the building via the wash towers, arriving at their apartment levels via a glass lift at the base of the iconic chimneys.
The properties within the development are all made unique simply through their physical location within the converted structure and will be among the most impressive and exclusive addresses available in London.
The regeneration of Battersea Power Station celebrated a major sectional completion with residents moving into the apartments at Switch House West in late May 2021.
Retail
Utilizing the magnificently restored Turbine Halls, open to the public for the first time, the power station will be one of London's most exciting retail destinations. Through the preservation of the existing fabric and finishes, the major volumes within the building are used to their best advantage. Spanning over three levels, a wide array of restaurants, shops and event spaces will create a vibrant and positive atmosphere.
Battersea Power Station - Turbine Hall A, ©Backdrop Productions
Office
The provision of high quality, flexible office space will be served by the Northern Line extension to Battersea. Set across six floors within the Boiler House, the design will attract creative tenants interested in new ways of working, open plan spaces and an industrial aesthetic. Apple will be the largest office tenant occupying more than 46,000m² across six floors.
Battersea Power Station, ©Hufton and Crow
At the heart of the office environment will be one of the world’s largest atria, at six-storeys high it will filter light to all office areas whilst allowing views of the chimneys above.
Chimney Lift
Carrying up to 30 passengers, it emerges 109m later from the top of the 50m-tall chimney to reveal 360-degree views across London. The attraction will be open to the public as well as for private events, with the experience beginning with an exhibition on the Power Station’s history in turbine hall A.
Battersea Power Station, ©F10 Studios Ltd
Control Rooms
The Power Station’s two Control Rooms, which managed the distribution of power from Carnaby Street to Wimbledon – even powering Buckingham Palace and the Houses of Parliament, have also been fully restored. Control Room A is set to become a unique events space and Control Room B has been transformed into a new all-day bar concept operated by Inception Group, where patrons will be able to get up close and personal with the Control Room’s original dials and controls.
Control Room A 2022, ©James Parsons
Control Room B at Battersea Power Station, ©James Parsons
Also opening inside the Power Station will be a host of entertainment venues which will cement Battersea Power Station as one of London’s go-to leisure destinations, including The Cinema at the Power Station – whose sister site The Cinema in the Arches is located under the railway arches in Circus West Village. It will play host to a private members club alongside showing the latest blockbusters in their state-of-the-art screens. Lift 109, a glass elevator experience which transports visitors 109 metres up to the top of the building’s north west chimney, will also form part of this unique offering.
Electric Boulevard, a new pedestrianised high street, which runs from the south of the Power Station, between Frank Gehry’s Prospect Place and Foster + Partners’ Battersea Roof Gardens to Battersea Power Station Underground station, will open on the same day.
Almost 40 years after Battersea Power Station’s lights were switched off, the icon is back and set to become one of London’s most exciting retail and leisure destinations. The building’s retail offering is housed in the Power Station’s two newly restored, historic Turbine Halls, which although identical when viewed from the building’s exterior, are completely unique in their interior design. Turbine Hall A reflects the lavish Art Deco glamour of the 1930s when the Power Station was built, whereas Turbine Hall B which was completed in the 1950s, has more of a brutalist, industrial look and feel.
78
comment