Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station seen across the Thames in low sun, all four white fluted chimneys rising from the brick wash towers above the riverside jetty, with glazed rooftop additions and new apartment blocks beside it
Location: London, United KingdomType: Mixed-UseYear: 2022Architect: WilkinsonEyrePhotographer: Peter Landers, Jason Hawkes, Backdrop Productions, James Budgen, John Sturrock, Hufton+Crow
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Battersea Power Station by WilkinsonEyre

Battersea Power Station is the colossal brick landmark on the south bank of the Thames in London, restored and repurposed by WilkinsonEyre and reopened to the public on 14 October 2022, almost 40 years after it stopped generating electricity. Its four white chimneys, massive brick outline and Turbine Halls still dominate, while the Grade II* listed building now works as a mixed-use destination of more than 100 shops, restaurants and cafés, event spaces, Apple’s London campus and 254 homes.

Aerial view of Battersea Power Station on the south bank of the Thames, its four chimneys and brick bulk surrounded by new apartment blocks, riverside lawns and the jetty, with south London stretching to the horizon

A temple of power on the Thames

The station was built for the London Power Company to the design of its chief engineer Leonard Pearce, with J. Theo Halliday as architect of the building and its interiors and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott consulted on the exterior. Battersea A rose between 1929 and 1935; its near-identical twin, Battersea B, was begun in 1937 and completed in 1955, giving the building its four chimneys. Often called the largest brick building in Europe and hailed as a “temple of power,” it supplied a fifth of London’s electricity at its peak and starred on the cover of Pink Floyd’s Animals in 1977. The A station closed in 1975 and the B station in 1983, and the listed shell then stood empty for almost 30 years.

Symmetrical view down Turbine Hall A at Battersea Power Station, tiered shopping galleries between tall faience-clad columns under a glazed steel roof, a bridge crossing the hall towards tall windows at the far end

Turbine Halls turned into retail gallerias

WilkinsonEyre was appointed in 2013, after a Malaysian consortium bought the site. Everything outside defers to Scott’s soaring verticals and muscular wash towers, while new work is clearly contemporary. Inside, the two Turbine Halls became retail gallerias. In the 1930s Turbine Hall A, three tiers of shops sit within the restored faience-clad colonnade, under original roof trusses strengthened to carry a new roof garden and repainted in their original colour, found by paint analysis. The later Turbine Hall B is more industrial, with light tunnels replacing its circular extraction fans.

Escalators rising through Turbine Hall B at Battersea Power Station between steel-framed galleries of shops, pale stone walls with rows of tall windows and a white ceiling dotted with round lights

The Art Deco Control Room A

Overlooking Turbine Hall A is Control Room A, built between 1929 and 1931 and in use from 1933 to 1975. It is the building’s Art Deco jewel, with teak parquet laid in a herringbone pattern, walls of grey Italian marble with black Belgian marble detailing and a gold-painted coffered glass ceiling. Restored by the specialists Lucas UK, its switchboards, synchroscopes and the semi-circular control desk seen in The King’s Speech were brought back to life, using digital colour scanning to match the 1930s paint and 3D printing to replace missing dials and levers. It is now an events space for up to 220 guests.

Long bank of restored switchboards with rows of round dials and black mimic diagrams in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, under a gold-framed coffered glass ceiling above a herringbone parquet floor

Control Room B and the Boiler House

Control Room B, finished in the 1950s, is more austere, fitted out in stainless steel as money was short after the Second World War, and opens straight onto Turbine Hall B; it is now an all-day bar beside the original dials and controls. In the vast Boiler House between the halls, full-height voids open up behind the north and south entrances, and in the main entrance hall the original wall is retained and supported. Above, a suspended “box in a box” of offices keeps the historic elevations visible from inside and preserves views up to the chimneys. Apple is the largest tenant, with more than 46,000 square metres across six floors.

Control Room B at Battersea Power Station, curving banks of stainless steel control panels and two dial-topped instrument stands around a pale terrazzo floor, between square stone-clad columns

Rebuilding the four chimneys

The chimneys themselves had to be rebuilt. Their steel reinforcement had corroded, so between 2014 and 2017 all four were taken down and reconstructed using the original technique, with 680 tonnes of concrete hoisted to the top and hand-poured from wheelbarrows; the first was finished before work on the other three began. In the northwest chimney, the glass Lift 109 now rises 109 metres above the ground for 360-degree views over London. The homes fill Switch House West and Switch House East and a ring of glazed villas around a garden square on the Boiler House roof.

One of the rebuilt fluted white chimneys of Battersea Power Station rising from its stepped brick wash tower against a towering white cloud, glazed rooftop villas behind and green leaves in the foreground

Completion and credits

The Power Station is the centrepiece of a new 42-acre riverside neighbourhood. It won the Mixed-Use category at the World Architecture Festival 2023 and a RIBA London Conservation Award in 2024, and in September 2026 Apple opened the 600-capacity Apple Music Hall inside. WilkinsonEyre director Sebastien Ricard led the project for Battersea Power Station Development Company, with Purcell as conservation consultant, Buro Happold as structural engineer, Mace as construction manager and Michaelis Boyd for the apartment interiors. Photography is by Peter Landers, Jason Hawkes, Backdrop Productions, James Budgen, John Sturrock and Hufton+Crow.

Battersea Power Station gallery

Battersea Power Station seen across the Thames in low sun, all four white fluted chimneys rising from the brick wash towers above the riverside jetty, with glazed rooftop additions and new apartment blocks beside itSymmetrical view of Battersea Power Station from the paved plaza, two white chimneys crowning ribbed brick wash towers either side of the central bay, clipped hedges in planters along its baseAerial view of Battersea Power Station on the south bank of the Thames, its four chimneys and brick bulk surrounded by new apartment blocks, riverside lawns and the jetty, with south London stretching to the horizonBattersea Power Station mirrored in a dark reflecting pool, two chimneys and the brick wash tower rising against white clouds, people walking along the paved terrace beside the waterSymmetrical view down Turbine Hall A at Battersea Power Station, tiered shopping galleries between tall faience-clad columns under a glazed steel roof, a bridge crossing the hall towards tall windows at the far endProjecting glazed bay windows set between pale faience-tiled columns in Turbine Hall A at Battersea Power Station, beneath a riveted steel crane rail and warmly lit upper wallsEscalators rising through Turbine Hall B at Battersea Power Station between steel-framed galleries of shops, pale stone walls with rows of tall windows and a white ceiling dotted with round lightsRestored Control Room A at Battersea Power Station with polished timber desks, a curved control desk with rows of dials and switches, long banks of cream switchboards and a herringbone parquet floor beneath a coffered glass ceilingLong bank of restored switchboards with rows of round dials and black mimic diagrams in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, under a gold-framed coffered glass ceiling above a herringbone parquet floorClose-up of large round meters on the Generator 2 switchboard in Control Room A at Battersea Power Station, the glowing coffered glass ceiling stretching away aboveControl Room B at Battersea Power Station, curving banks of stainless steel control panels and two dial-topped instrument stands around a pale terrazzo floor, between square stone-clad columnsLooking up a full-height wall of exposed brick and gridded steel-framed windows inside Battersea Power Station, crossed by black steel bracing and lit by a glazed roofOne of the rebuilt fluted white chimneys of Battersea Power Station rising from its stepped brick wash tower against a towering white cloud, glazed rooftop villas behind and green leaves in the foregroundBlack steel walkways and a staircase bridging a tall void inside Battersea Power Station, past weathered brick walls with patches of old render and rows of gridded windowsRestored gantry crane with rusted steel trusses, winding gear and two hanging hooks inside a turbine hall at Battersea Power Station, beneath a white ceiling with a round skylightLooking straight up between two brick wash towers of Battersea Power Station to tall steel-framed windows and the bases of the chimneys against a pale skyBattersea Power Station at dusk from a planted path in the park, its chimneys uplit against a cloudy sky and windows glowing, a curved street lamp beside the walkwayRebuilt chimney of Battersea Power Station glowing pink at dusk beyond the long brick facade of a Switch House topped with glazed penthouses

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