The Power Station London

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The Power Station logo

The Power Station London is the name given to the redevelopment project for the Battersea Power Station in London, developed by Parkview International. The original power station building will be remodeled to hold retail, restaurant, club, café, bar and leisure businesses, while the 15 hectare (38 acre) site along the bank of the River Thames will be expanded to include two hotels, a conference centre, an event auditorium, and about 700 residential units.^[1] As of 2006, redevelopment work is in the very early stages.

The Battersea Park railway station is also scheduled to be modernized by the Costain Group, in order to better service the centre.^[2]

[edit] History

Main article: Battersea Power Station

The Battersea Power Station was still under reconstruction in 2004.

The Battersea Power Station building was designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, with the first hall completed in 1933 and the second in 1953. It remained in service as an active power station until it was decommissioned in 1982.

A 1984 competition for redesign of the site was won by a consortium including Alton Towers Limited, who proposed an indoor theme park, which received planning approval in 1986. Work in converting the site was begun but the project was halted due to lack of funding in 1989, leaving huge holes in the roof through which machinery had been removed from the building.

Hong Kong developers Parkview International began the process of acquiring the ownership and title to the site in 1993, and preliminary work on the foundations finally began in 2002. After receiving unencumbered possession in April of 2003, plans which were submitted in 1996 and received final consent in 2001 were put into action at last.

Parkview said that the project would create up to 9,000 jobs, and that it was making efforts to recruit locally. At the launch of a recruitment project in July 2005 Secretary of State for Work and Pensions David Blunkett said: "This development is good news for the people of East Battersea, indeed the whole of London, and I am very pleased to announce that Jobcentre Plus will be at the heart of the recruitment process, getting people back into work and changing lives."

In November 2006, Parkview owners Oriental Property sold the site to Irish company Real Estate Opportunities (REO), for £400 million. ^[3]

[edit] Opposition

Before the Parkview scheme was granted planning permission Battersea Power Station Community Group campaigned for an alternative community-based scheme to be drawn up, and it continues to criticise Parkview's proposals and to cast doubt on the financial robustness of the project. The group describes the plans as "a deeply unattractive project that has no affordable housing anywhere on the 38-acre site, no decent jobs for local people and no credible public transport strategy". The group also says "... this is just the last in a long line of planning applications from Parkview going back over 10 years that have gone nowhere. We fear that Parkview is merely proposing unrealisable projects while the value of the land increases and the power station crumbles."^[4]

On 13 October 2005, Wandsworth Council approved Parkview's plan to demolish and then rebuild the power station's chimneys, which the company claims are structurally unsound and irreparable. However, since Parkview is based in the British Virgin Islands, the company could refuse to rebuild the chimneys and the council would have no legal authority to force them to do so. The developers have been asked to deposit money in a bank so if they cannot finish rebuilding the chimneys, the council can use the funds to do so.