Marketing carbuncle on Battersea Power Station

The new Battersea Power Station owners, like all the previous “flippers”, has barely spent a penny on taking care of the Grade II* listed building, which is in such a perilous state it is now listed as an endangered world monument, while gushing out PR about “restoration“.

What they have spent money on is clearing the site of any inconvenient obstacles to untrammeled profitable development – getting planning permission to demolish the listed Victorian Pump House, finding an excuse to remove and mothball the listed cranes, getting the gas holders a certificate of immunity from listing and removed.

They also like to spend money on themselves and their target customers- the rich foreign investor. So while the building rots and the cranes rust away the owners have put in a planning permission application to erect a “temporary” but very expensive and intrusive marketing suite on the corner of the roof of annex B- a decision will be made in January 2014.

Happily from this position prospective buyers will not able to see the adjacent Cringle Street waste transfer station. As we mentioned in a previous blog the Western Riverside Waste Authority’s second transfer station, Cringle Dock is situated next to Battersea Power Station and is capable handling over 5,000 tonnes of smelly refuse every week- all brought in by lorry.

Find below the planning application to erect a temporary marketing suite.

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Planning Application erect temp.-2597010

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Planning Application Lift -2597010

In the BPS Newsletter 13 – 12 the owners describe their planning applications as:

”In November 2013 a planning application was submitted to Wandsworth Council to erect a temporary marketing suite on the north-eastern corner of the roof of Annexe B of the Power Station. We expect a decision in January 2014 and hope to erect the structure soon after.”

So, there is plenty to object to the Battersea Power Station planning Applications

You can register your objections on-line now

Details of the planning applications can be found on the Planning pages of Wandsworth Council’s website by searching the applications database using reference numbers below or follow our links:

Ref: 2013/5757  Alter or Extend a Listed Building

Click here to object/comment on 5757

Ref: 2013/5690   Application for Full Permission

Click here to object/comment on 5690

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

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Oberhausen ‘Gasometer’ as an example for alternative use of Battersea gasholder

Battersea’s ‘listed’ gasholders are being demolished to make way for new homes, shops and business space. Wandsworth council approved the demolition of this and three other adjacent gasholders in Battersea in January 2013, as part of the regeneration of Nine Elms.

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The Evening Standard reported the following on this:

”Objectors say that alternative uses for the site should be examined. Architect Keith Garner says: “In the German city of Oberhausen, there is a gasholder with the same features and it has been transformed into a museum and a centre for art.”

The Gasometer in Oberhausen, Germany, is a former gas holder which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial landmark, and an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and the Industrial Heritage Trail.

In 1992 the city council of Oberhausen, with a margin of 1 vote decided to acquire the gasholder, gasometer in German, and convert it to an exhibition space. At the time, plans were being developed for building CentrO on an adjacent plot, and IBA Emscher Park planned to use the Gasometer for its exhibition. Ownership transferred to the city of Oberhausen, with Ruhrkohle AG paying 1.8 million DM in saved demolition costs to the city.

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Hopefully the owners of the Battersea site will reconsider the usage of the gasholders for a similar purpose. Unfortunately, work (on the Prince of Wales Drive) has already began on tearing the disused holders down and they are planned to be gone by the end of 2014.  The owners have planning permission to demolish the listed Victorian Pump House at any time.

Click Battersea Power Station for more blogs
See our Battersea Power Station project pages for more information and videos.
Or visit PlanA our general blog on urbanism, planning and architecture.

For more on Christo and Jeanne-Claude. visit Artsy Christo page

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