Category Archives: Battersea Power Station

Activists fight plans to change Battersea Power Station’s iconic chimneys

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Angry activists are fighting plans to replace Battersea Power Station’s iconic chimneys.

The Grade-II listed building’s new owners plan to replace them with replicas.

Fears that corrosion could cause the existing chimneys to collapse led to the controversial decision.

Architect Keith Garner, 53, said it would cost approximately £10m to replace each chimney, four times more than to repair them.

He said: “Where is the logic in that? They’ll have destroyed the most famous part of the building – the chimneys. It’s a short step to say, the building is no longer special, de-list it and knock it down.”

The representatives of the Battersea Power Station’s developers strongly refute this £10m estimation, and claim the estimated cost to replace all four chimneys will be £11m.

Mr Garner, of the Battersea Power Station Community Group, has campaigned to preserve the art deco landmark since 1993.

“It’s an ugly, horrible scheme – a monoculture of private flats. I see nothing really for ordinary people in this part of Wandsworth at all.

“I was born in Wandsworth and have lived in Battersea since 1986. My parents met in Battersea Park, so I’m very closely attached to the area,” he added.

A Malaysian consortium of S P Setia, Sime Darby and the Employees Provident Fund bought the 39-acre south-west London site in July for £400m.

Construction will begin by mid-2013, they announced this month.

The £8bn project includes an extension to the Northern Line, restoration of the power station site and the construction of 3,400 homes.

A public six-acre park, linked to Battersea Park, is also on the cards.

The revamp is expected to take up to ten years to complete, creating 26,000 jobs.

Phase one includes plans to build 800 homes above a commercial complex featuring shops, offices and restaurants.

A disgruntled Twitter user, @SaveBatterseaPS, tweeted: “Profit, profit, profit! Where do they mention heritage, heritage, heritage?”

Wandsworth Council granted outline planning consent for the scheme in 2011.

Council Leader and co-chair of the Nine Elms Vauxhall Partnership Ravi Govindia said: “The district-wide regeneration programme will be one of the greatest sources of new jobs and homes in the country over the next few years.

“The redevelopment of the power station site has an important role to play and is key to funding the Northern Line Extension.

“This is the most exciting development in London and will deliver a massive boost to the economy,” he added.

The power station was built in 1933 and has not generated power since for over 30 years.

A detailed application for the first phase of the project is expected next month.

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“Profit, profit, profit! Where do they mention heritage, heritage, heritage?”

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Disgruntled Twitter groups such as SAVEThe4Chimneys!, in support of preserving Battersea’s iconic Power Station, are campaigning online against plans to knock down and ‘replace’ the Power Station chimneys.

A Malaysian firm, Sime Darby – responsible for the deforestation of the Orangutan habitat for palm oil – was one of the organisations that bought the 39-acre south-west London site in July for £400m; they are now putting forward plans to destroy these British historical icons. Read more

In November 2008, Red Apes Org, a respected group that campaigns to protect  the orangutans of Malaysia described Ahmad Zubir Murshid as ‘evil’. The group says that oil palm cultivation is a grave threat to the survival of orangutans and that Sime Darby is a part of the problem. Read more

Pink Floyd’s next album cover perhaps?

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Battersea Power Station: A Mighty Fall

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Jeff Nevil has produced this insightful presentation, exploring and discussing the history and potential future of the iconic, Battersea Power Station.

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Buro Happold behind Battersea

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Buro Happold have joined the team behind the redevelopment of Battersea Power Station.

The consultants have been involved in some of London’s most iconic buildings and structures in recent years, including work on the Millennium Dome, The Great Court at the British Musuem, and The Globe Theatre.

The group was also part of the consortium which designed and constructed the Olympic Stadium, so large-scale, high-publicity projects are very much their field.

Buro Happold principal Justin Phillips said “We are truly delighted to have been appointed to the Battersea Power Station development… We look forward to dramatically changing this significant part of central London, all within a mile of Westminster.”

Questions are still being raised over the longevity of this project, and whether or not the chimneys will be rebuilt after the owners have insisted on bringing them down in the name of ‘safety’.

The consultation held last week at Battersea Power Station outlined the plans, and showed thousands of flats to be squeezed into the small spaces around the power station.

The Battersea Power Station Community Group have raised numerous issues around these plans, a video will follow…

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Kevin Murphy on Battersea Power Station

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Battersea Power Station is the focus of other people’s work as well as ours; one notable example of this is Kevin Murphy, director of the 2004 film ‘Battersea: Its Past, Its Future’.

Kevin has been featured on IPINglobal discussing the history and potential future of Battersea Power Station. His personal connection to the building is something that resonates with many locals, as are his thoughts on the disrepair it has callously fallen into in the years since its decommission.

As a youngster traveling in and out of Victoria Station I was always amazed at the sight of the Battersea Power Station every time I passed by. Famous for not only its unique architecture it has also become a popular landmark with the help of movies and popular music, most notably on the cover art of Pink Floyds concept album ‘Animals’. I never thought that one day I would be creating film documentaries regarding its present condition and future…

To read the full article, click here.

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Keith Garner on Rob Tincknell

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Keith Garner, local architect and member of the Battersea Power Station Community Group, has laid out a tyraid of questions to the chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company, Rob Tincknell.

In an article described as ‘sycophantic and uncritical’ by Garner, Tincknell answered a series of questions about his involvement with the new plans for the regeneration of Battersea Power Station.

Garner responded strongly to the article, posing probing questions that still need answering. For example;

Why did Treasury Holdings not complete any substantive work in the five years they owned Battersea Power Station between 2006 and 2011, when you were in charge?

Why is the river walk connecting to Battersea Park still not built when your colleagues at Treasury Holdings promised at a meeting in 2011 that this would be done?

Why are you currently carrying out a “public consultation”, when it is clear that you have no intention of responding to any of the concerns raised?

The list ended with Garner asking, ‘Perhaps you would put some of these questions to Rob Tincknell as well?’

We can’t see the Architects Journal being so bold, but are keen to have these questions answered ourselves.

If you have any questions you want answering, let us know and we’ll try to pose them to the companies behind Battersea.

You can read the article itself, and Keith’s full response here, http://www.architectsjournal.co.uk/news/daily-news/rob-tincknell-committed-to-battersea/8635755.article

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Brian Barnes Skeptical of Latest Battersea Plans

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Brian Barnes has publicly said that he’s continually doubtful of the new plans set out by Sime Darby to regenerate Battersea Power Station.

Barnes, the driving force behind the Battersea Power Station Community Group that he begun 29 years ago, has seen many plans come and go in his time and is sure the recent proposal from the Malaysian giant will be just another in a long list of failed plans.

He has also criticised the plans for not having enough affordable housing, claiming that no-one from the local area will be able to afford to live there, especially young people looking to get onto the property ladder.

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Battersea Plans Unveiled

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Sime Darby have released their plans for their regeneration of Battersea Power Station. This Friday (14th) 10:00am-6:00pm and Saturday (15th) 10:00am-4:00pm will see an exhibition of these plans at the Consultation Suite, Battersea Power Station (Gate 2).

These plans have been reported to involve the demolition of the chimneys, and replicas being constructed as the degredation of the current structures is said to be too much to allow a conservation effort.

Around 3,400 homes, including 500 classified as “affordable” will be built on the 29-acre site, as well as two hotels, 160,000 sq ft of offices and dozens of shops and restaurants in a new “high street”. This work is part of their 12-year development project, with a park and walkway projected for completion as early as next April.

Visit www.batterseapowerstation.co.uk for more information.
Email powerstation@batterseasociety.org.uk with your thoughts on the proposed plans.

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
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Battersea Buddleia Returns

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A picture of what is believed to be Buddleia growing beneath Battersea Power Station’s south east chimney taken earlier this month shows the continued degradation of the grade 2 listed building. English Heritage seem to be blasé about the upkeep of the iconic building, having allowed such a large plant to take hold amongst the scaffolding.

Photo courtesy of Keith Garner

Sime Darby, the Malaysian Company who bought the aging building earlier this year, finalised the contract last night. With their plans to regenerate the power station set to start within months.

Despite Sime Darby’s history of global deforestation ( see Friends of the Earth report)  in relation to their Palm Oil business, they have had put little effort into the removal of this particular plant.

Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, leader of the consortium, has claimed that the regeneration will produce up to 26,000 jobs. But how long will these jobs remain, and at what expense to the power station itself will this take over cause?

Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin claims they will build “a vibrant, accessible and functional town centre for Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea area”. A town centre completely privately owned.

We aim to interview English Heritage about Battersea Power Station, do you have any questions you want posing to them?

Brian Barnes on London Today

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Tonight, Brian Barnes will speak on London Tonight, ITV, discussing the proposed plans for the regeneration of Battersea Power station.

The plans outlined are to demolish the chimneys first, then build 800 luxury flats, starting in 2013. Work would start, initially fairly soon, though as a riverwalk has been planned for completion next April.

Sime Darby, the Malaysian company set to undertake this project, has been named by Friend of the Earth as one of the worst contributors to deforetation worldwide.