How to visit Battersea Power Station’s new viewing platform

It’s taken more than 10 years, 1.75 million new bricks and a £5 billion investment to date, but the Battersea Power Station area in south-west London is starting to look like a booming micro-neighborhood within Battersea. A stroll on the main thoroughfare, Electric Boulevard, passes coffee trucks, restaurant patios and a colorful playground by landscape architects LDA Design – all part of the 42-acre brownfield development encompassing Battersea Power Station, which is slowly revealed in stages. openings. On the north side of the district there is a pier on the River Thames allowing boats to deliver visitors via a small riverside park dotted with deckchairs which will serve as an ice rink at Christmas, and a shed for indoor padel courts which opened its doors in September.

All of this is a fitting introduction to the red-brick power station itself, a six-acre art deco behemoth that operated from 1933 to 1983 and once supplied electricity to a fifth of London. To put things into perspective, the Tate Modern on the South Bank – another of London’s now-defunct coal-fired power stations – has an engine room; Battersea has two and is about twice the size. Inside, this “cathedral of power” now houses more than 100 shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, as well as a 24,00 m² catering hall in the former boiler room, the Turbine Theater and a cinema, as well as Apple’s new UK headquarters. It is one of the most visually striking developments in the world, and also one of the most ambitious architectural renewal projects London has seen in decades. His visit offers a window into the past and future of the capital.

The climb up the chimney

Battersea’s four cream-colored chimneys are such a distinctive feature of the Thames skyline that Historic England has stipulated that no other building on the 42-acre site can be built higher than the base of the chimneys. The owners used this to their advantage by opening Lift109 in the art deco Turbine Hall A. Its glass elevator rises inside the dramatically lit northwest chimney like a cannonball and emerges at the top at a height of 109 meters (358 feet). providing a 360 degree viewing platform over central London. Before the ride, there is a small interactive exhibition on the mezzanine about the building’s heritage, using original documents to explore its architectural pedigree and its role in British pop culture. Over the years, the station has been used as a filming location for everything from The Beatles. 1965 film Help! to the 2008 Batman hit The Dark Knight, the latter at a time when its turbine halls were still a rubble-filled dystopian vision.

When the circular glass elevator emerges from the top of the chimney, you have around seven minutes to visit landmarks such as The Shard, the BT Tower, the London Eye and Chelsea Barracks. It’s worth planning your trip with one of the station’s organized tours: your guide will show you original remains like the art deco bathroom tiles on some walls, the steel beams lining other walls and the huge porticos, on the ceilings of the two engine rooms. , which would have once moved heavy equipment. Tours also provide a peek inside Control Rooms A and B, where the original buttons, levels and monitors have been integrated into what is now a bar and event space.

Where to stay

From the Art’otel’s steaming rooftop infinity pool, it’s possible to swim on your back, keeping an eye on the south-facing chimneys of Battersea Power Station. Heated to 28°C, the pool is usable all year round and offers an unprecedented bird’s eye view of parts of the power station that other travelers cannot see; come sunrise, you might even have the deck to yourself.

This hotel, the only one at the gates of Battersea Power Station, overlooks the monument from many angles. Behind the pool is the open-air JOIA rooftop summer bar, and one floor below is JOIA’s pastel-paletted Iberian restaurant, where the monument can be seen through huge glass windows. Tozi Grand Café, on the ground floor, is another dining option, serving well-prepared Italian dishes, opposite the main entrance to the power station. As its name suggests, this boutique hotel brand is a champion of the arts; Guests will see it in the bold, playful bedroom furnishings and stylish living rooms.

Three other unusual viewpoints in London

1. Sky Garden
The capital’s highest public garden, reaching 155m, is located in a contemporary glass tower overlooking the City of London. Head to the palm-filled atrium for sunrise breakfasts, lunches or weekend DJs with cocktails overlooking the Gherkin and the Leadenhall Building’s distinctive “cheese grater” corner, among others.

2. The standard
Pizza and cocktails fuel parties at this grass-covered rooftop bar at the Standard Hotel, a stylish American import with views of King’s Cross station and the gothic spiers of the St Pancras Eurostar terminal near the project regeneration project at Coal Drops Yard on the canal side.

3. The portrait of Richard Corrigan
The little-known fourth-floor dining space above London’s National Portrait Gallery was redeveloped into a restaurant and bar by Irish chef Richard Corrigan in 2023. Don’t forget to ask for a table near the wall of windows overlooking on Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column.