“It’s only after we’ve lost everything that we’re free to do anything.” – Fight Club
Battersea Power Station was actually built in two halves. The first, what we call “A side”, was built in 1933. “B side” was built in the 1950s. The building is often identified by it’s four ‘identical’ chimneys, but inside the power station the two sides actually rather architecturally unique. Most people don’t know this because most people haven’t gone inside to see it. This is disappointing – it’s not very difficult and it will very soon be gone, at least in the form we’ve known since 1983 when the chimneys stopped bellowing. The power station has changed hands five or six times since then and “redevelopment” plans always seem to be cursed. However, it’s far from neglected – it’s been one of the most well-trod derelict playgrounds in London – we’ve given it a lot of love and attention over the years, including watching the 5th November fireworks from the base of the chimneys four years in a row.
A few months back, we snuck in with Matthew Power when we were working on a GQ article together. Marc Explo had wanted us to climb the chimneys with ropes. It wasn’t the first time it had been done. But we backed out due to tiredness, sketchiness, and cold.
I got a call from Marc the other week – he simply said, “the rope is up, it’s awesome.” I hopped on the next train to London. When I got there, we jumped the fence with our bags full of SRT kit, climbed the iron girders inside the brick bit of the power station to get on the roof, went up the highest scaffolding to the southwest stack, suited up, and got to climbing.
With the rope in place, we invited our friends who we knew would appreciate it, including Matt Hussey from Time Out wo really wanted to go adventuring with us, and went back climbing again. The second time was as terrifying and wonderful as the first. Matt wrote up a beautiful piece which you can find in today’s Time Out. Bizarrely the first batch of 200,000 magazines full of our photos ended up getting burned in a fire started by a forklift explosion in Bicester, just down the road from my house.
This was our goodbye to Battersea Power Station. It’s new life will be as a storage space for foreign investors to dump their excess money into “secure real estate investment portfolios”. There will be no low-income housing. There will be no more derelict playground. Flat prices will range from £340,000 for a studio to over £6m for each of the nine penthouses. The company has already made £675 million from the sales. All indications look like in a few year’s time, the iconic chimneys will be piles of rubble in a dump somewhere, replaced with replicas that contain no historical authenticity, no memory of the love we’ve given them over the years, no essence of it’s working life. But of course, new London stories will be attached the new chimneys. And, when the time comes, you know where to look for them.
