Ever since I first saw the cover for Pink Floyd's 'Animals' album, I've been impressed with the monumental industrial architecture that is Battersea Power Station. That floating pig between the stacks, brilliant. The album chose the Power Station as a dystopian symbol of capitalism. Cruelly ironic to see what the place has become today as a celebration of capitalism. Read about the photo and the album here.
Now this iconic place has been turned into a very upmarket shopping mall, surrounded by apartments only the rich can afford. What a transformation. The last time I wandered around Battersea, it was a dark and forbidding experience. Not any more. Today it's filled entirely it seems with the new part time residents of rich arabs and asians and the Power Station itself is surrounded by high rise glass and steel skyscraper apartments for them to relax in. The district is more representative of New York than anything else.
But at least they have retained the massive brick edifice of the Power Station itself, and for that I can forgive all the avarice on display. I think. Without it and them, the building would have been demolished without a doubt.
So now, if you can afford the £20 it costs, you can also travel up a lift inside one of those wonderful chimneys to take in the view.
I spotted how the bollards of the new Underground Station echo the chimneys of the Power Station. Serendipitous for me as the photographer.
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