It's quite the year for opening big stuff in London because not only do we get Crossrail but also the reawakening of Battersea Power Station. It seems almost no time since it was a decaying shell awaiting salvation and suddenly here it is about to spring forth as London's latest 'dearstination'.
Previous bloggage 2006: I can't believe they let us inside this wreck to see some 'Chinese art'. 2011: Heavens, Boris wants to extend the Northern line here. 2012: Eek, the Malaysian owners intend to rebuild the chimneys. 2013: Ooh, a chance to peer inside during the consultation phase. 2016: It must be serious, a forest of cranes has shot up. 2017: Aha, Circus West Village is now open with access to the riverside. 2021: Hey presto, the Underground has arrived.
Over the last five years the power station site has been inexorably opened up, starting with the waterfront and bordering flats, then a pier for Thames Clipper services, then an unlikely service road with public access weaving past the front of the building, then a somewhat peripheral tube station. In recent months the entire loop road encircling the power station has become accessible, and during the last few weeks a boulevard linking the tube station to the main development has opened providing a very welcome shortcut.
It has some ghastly marketing slogans plastered along it...
Electric Buzzing Vibes This Way
Walk And Talk Through Our New Buzzing Circuits
Walk Wander And Wheelie This Way For Electric Experiences
Step Into Brightness You Lovely Glow Getters
...and yes, Gehry's flats look just as disturbingly awful as the artist'simpressions always suggested they would. The site's Malaysian owners needed to squeeze in as many flats as possible to ensure some return on their investment, hence the high-density hutches they've been trying to flog ever since the BPS project launched. At present they only have one apartment available under £600,000, a studio flat with no view of the Thames or the power station, which sounds like it'd be ideal for any investor who doesn't actually intend to live here.
The latest newly-opened public space is a stepped bowl at the southern entrance to the main building. It's here because you can't just knock down listed walls willy-nilly so visitors will be expected to descend from the access road and enter at what used to be ground level. The bowl is an astonishing bit of public realm resembling an empty swimming pool, a bearbaiting pit or an intergalactic vortex, and is not yet bedecked with signs warning 'Beware - Trip Hazard'. It'd make a very decent amphitheatre were it not essential to keep it clear for shopping mall ingress, so I expect the steps will end up being covered by daytrippers eating over-priced streetfood whilst perhaps being entertained by a lone bearded guitarist playing cover versions.
Staff in yellow helmets are busy all round the perimeter of the building affixing signage, watering plants and readying doors. One panel is so new it doesn't yet have its map, but it does have a legend exulting the facilities not yet open within.
Battersea Power Station is a cultural icon with a special place in Londoners' hearts. This historic landmark stands proud today filled with incredible restaurants and bars, shops, entertainment offerings, offices and homes.
Think Westfield, specifically the West London annexe rather than the downmarket Stratford offering, strung out across multiple levels and incorporating a lot more places to eat and drink. Think brand cathedral, somewhere to nose round boutiques and showcases before sitting down over a matcha tea and ordering the latest labels online. Think tourist destination, even default day out, but very much a honeytrap welcoming visitors willing to spend as much as possible. Here's everything they've announced will be opening so far...
» Ray-Ban, Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger, The Kooples, Aēsop, Calvin Klein, Hugo Boss, MAC Cosmetics, Space NK, Watches of Switzerland, Jo Malone, Zara
» Le Bab, Where The Pancakes Are, Poke House, Clean Kitchen Club, Gordon Ramsay’s Bread Street Kitchen & Bar, Paris Baguette, Joe & The Juice, Starbucks
» The Cinema at The Power Station
» Bounce, ‘the home of ping pong’
» a 20,000 sq. ft Food Hall offering an all-day dining experience
» Apple campus (500,000 sq. ft of offices across 6 floors)
» 109m elevator emerging at chimneytop with 360° views
The power station is due to open its doors in September, at least to its food options and scenic elevator. It's obviously going to be amazing, and to wander round and gawp in wonder will be entirely free. But the timing's not great - post-pandemic when the number of foreign tourists has yet to recover, and during a cost of living crisis when most Londoners' disposable income will be at a record low.
The exterior of BPS is already buzzing because the developers were careful to do some initial placemaking, and because hundreds of people live in the apartments squished over by the railway. You can already watch a film, get your hair done, flex your muscles, buy a bike, crack open a lobster, sip some wine or recline in a deckchair, even before the main attraction unfurls. But it's not so busy that opening the Northern line extension a year early looks to have been a wise financial decision. I checked passenger numbers during the last two weeks of March and the extension is only attracting about 13,000 passengers a day.
Average number of passengers using Battersea Power Station station daily: 8500 Average number of passengers using Nine Elms station daily: 4800
The number of passengers using Battersea Power Station is comparable to those using Bow Road or Bromley-by-Bow, both bogstandard inner suburban stations. The number of passengers using Nine Elms is comparable to those using outlying Watford or Totteridge & Whetstone, and is lower than totals at Lambeth North which was previously the least used zone 1 station. They're not dreadful numbers but they do bring into question why it was thought a good idea to build a tube line to a shopping mall in a former power station, or at least to open it a year before the site was ready.
Whatever, if you've not been to Battersea Power Station recently I recommend having a look sometime before the transformation completes to see what's been wrought, and so you're not entirely shocked when everyone else turns up.
