Battersea Power Station has stood empty for years awaiting development and approval of plans. Now it’s been announced that in October 2013, conversion into new homes will finally begin thirty years after the power station closed. The Battersea Power Station Development Company is behind the venture and responsible for the restoration of the Grade II listed building.
The restoration project will encounter countless pounds and should include much major repair work before any renovation is clearly undertaken. The first phase of the building work is to repair the external brickwork, clean the towers, do work to the steel frame, repair and replace windows and defeat and rebuild the famous chimneys. The chimneys is likely to be reconstructed to exactly the same design but utilizing the latest safety and structural standards. The idea is to help keep the building looking exactly the same and as a tattoo of London.
A particular team has been put together to work on the webpage and the key developer for phase 1 as been announced as Carillion with the architect being Ian Simpson Architects and de Rijke Marsh Morgan. The contract for the first phase is rumoured to be worth around £400 million and is likely to be one of the largest in London at the existing time. Carillion is one of the UK’s largest construction firms and already has several high profile development schemes udder its belt such as for example Terminal 5 at Heathrow Airport and Crossrail and the Royal Liverpool Hospital Project.
The first phase is likely to be referred to as Circus West and is to the west side of the Power Station and will include around 850 one, two and three bedroom apartments, also town houses and luxury penthouses. There is likewise shops, commercial units, cultural buildings an d community spaces. When completed the complete development can provide more than 3,500 new homes. It will also produce a large quantity of new jobs.
Battersea Power Station is the greatest brick building in Europe and was known for its Art Deco interior and decor. It’s an old coal-fired power station on the bank of the Thames river, in South-West London. It is clearly two individual power stations that were built at different occuring times but within one building. The first part was built-in the 1930’s and the 2nd part 20 years later. They’ve an identical design giving the iconic 4 chimney look. The power station stopped making electric in 1983 and has stood empty ever since. However appearances in a variety of music videos for the Beaatles, FFPOWER Take That and Judas Priest and importantly gracing the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals have made it a distinctive landmark for London.
Prior to the 1930’s it absolutely was for the neighborhood councils to produce electric and so there were small power stations to do the job for different districts and the power was employed for a particular factory or industry and excess was sold to the public. However as they were small places the standard and voltage and frequency of the power differed greatly. In 1925 the Government decided there must be a single power grid with uniform standards. The London Power Company was formed from many of small power suppliers.
Their first super power station was built at Battersea because the proximity to the river allowed for easy cooling of the systems and beneficial to delivery of the coal and was in the heart of London to produce electric to. There was much opposition on the lands that the building would be an eye-sore so the business brought in a famous architect to style the exterior. When it opened it absolutely was probably the most thermally efficient power station in the world. It absolutely was built-in 2 stage and by the time the 2nd phase was completed the UK’s electric supply have been nationalised and ownership was passed to the British Electricity Authority.
There have been several redevelopment plans over the years as different companies took over the site. In 2004 there is a redevelopment project in the pipe line but the existing debts of over £750 million, the necessity that any development must include a £200 million contribution to a proposed extension of the London Underground, the requirement for a waste transfer plant and cement factory on the banks of the river and the conversation required, made it an unattractive investment and a hard commercial project.
In 2006 it absolutely was bought by an Irish company for £400 million. They initially planned to refurbish your website into a public venue and housing. The plan was granted permission to go ahead but the Irish company’s debts meant the administrations were called in at the conclusion of December 2011 and in July 2012 it absolutely was sold to a Malaysian owned consortium for exactly the same amount because the Irish company purchased for. Most interested parties simply wanted to demolish the structure and redevelop the land and it’s took careful negotiation to locate a firm ready to undertake the conservation and refurbishment, while developing a commercial venture.