Can I just tell all you brits how much I like your Battersea Power Station?

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http://www.spookshows.com/beatles/london/battersea.gif

http://detritus.net/steev/europe2000/photos4/battersea.jpg

http://www.goldstreetstudios.com.au/images/80goldst/JohnP2004/Battersea.jpg

http://www.afwphoto.com/battersea.jpg

http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1157_art_deco/img/about/p_battersea.jpg

http://www.christopherholt.com/photos-2002/00_london_galleries/bw_battersea_power_07.jpg

it's so spectacular.

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:04 (twenty years ago)

http://www.providenceri.com/richardbenjamin/powerplant.jpg

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago)

http://www.fellwalk.co.uk/thame345a.jpg

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:07 (twenty years ago)

Yup, it's very cool.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago)

where is this place waynerd

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:08 (twenty years ago)

http://www.industcards.com/Battersea-lg.jpg

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:10 (twenty years ago)

Jon, it's right on the Thames in London

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.exet.nu/html/bildarkiv/bilder/snut/snut4.jpg

― TITS.JPG (ex machina), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:13 (twenty years ago)

... uh

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:13 (twenty years ago)

The clue is in the name 'Battersea' which is in London. They also filmed lots of 'Aliens' there, fact fans.

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:14 (twenty years ago)

I much prefer the Battersea Power Station to the Robert Palmer Power Station.

― Nemo (JND), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:15 (twenty years ago)

Battersea: home to aliens, dogs and electricity.

― Kevin Gilchrist (Mr Fusion), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:16 (twenty years ago)

...and 'Brazil'.

I love Battersea Power station. They're redeveloping it now, I will probably not like it so much after it gets niceified.

― sgs (sgs), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:16 (twenty years ago)

... and Pink Floyd's 'Pigs' cover.

― sgs (sgs), Thursday, 2 December 2004 21:16 (twenty years ago)

I knew all of those facts!

also, I was reading about the redevelopment.

I kind of like it run-down
it reminds me of worcester where I live now.

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 22:02 (twenty years ago)

Are they developing it in terms of 'the builders are in' or 'there are plans afoot'?

― Dave B (daveb), Thursday, 2 December 2004 22:05 (twenty years ago)

and there's even an (old) Hooverphonic song about it!

at least, I think it's about it.
It's named after it at least.

well the song is good.
Probably not terribly related, though.

shut up, it's still a nice building.

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:12 (twenty years ago)

You're in Boston, right?

Can I just tell you how much I like your...oh, never mind.

― adam... (nordicskilla), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:18 (twenty years ago)

JW, is that the point street bridge??

― the krza (krza), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:19 (twenty years ago)

oh shush you
Boston has plenty of nice things

― LORD OF ALL THINGS HOMOELECTRONIC (trigonalmayhem), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:20 (twenty years ago)

Dave the work has apparently started. Wandsworth council dropped a publication through our letterbox months ago detailing the (architecturally rendered) plans. It was all a little too sanitized-looking...I dunno, I like decaying things, especially this one, although I wouldn't want it to decay into oblivion. Better that it's saved in some form rather than torn down entirely.

― sgs (sgs), Thursday, 2 December 2004 23:39 (twenty years ago)

Twoo. Ihad visions of it beinga grebt sports centre, but there is no gold in them there hills.

― Dave B (daveb), Friday, 3 December 2004 01:27 (twenty years ago)

I too am a huge admirer of the Battersea Power Station (being a recovering Pink Floyd fan....and it's Animals that was the cover, btw). What surrounds it? Is it all industrial park?

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 02:56 (twenty years ago)

i think it is juts scrub and derelict empty shit. i wouldnt call it an "industrial park", but thaen thats mainly cos i have nevver got any closer than being on the train. There is some dumb Bungee Jump crane near by though, and offices selling crappy flats in Chelsea. They always have concerts "at the Power Station" but what that actually means is on a stage outside the power station eg John Michel Jarre. Not that i can think how it would be possible to stage a conceret inside it in its present state.

― ambrose (ambrose), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:03 (twenty years ago)

They always have concerts "at the Power Station" but what that actually means is on a stage outside the power station eg John Michel Jarre. Not that i can think how it would be possible to stage a conceret inside it in its present state.

I believe that was the site of the infamous Stranglers' set featuring multiple strippers during "Nice'n'Sleazy".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:06 (twenty years ago)

http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/johnnymoped/punk/webpunk/imagesofpunk/stranglers/stranglers_onstagebattersea.jpg

http://pages.eidosnet.co.uk/johnnymoped/punk/webpunk/imagesofpunk/stranglers/stranglers_strippers.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:07 (twenty years ago)

The official station site is quite something:

http://www.thepowerstation.co.uk/bps_site_001/

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:09 (twenty years ago)

http://www.fotosearch.com/comp/corel3/COR568/460006.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:11 (twenty years ago)

http://www.stufish.com/Photographs/Pink%20Floyd/Pink%20Floyd/Pink%20Floyd%20Pig%20D01.gif

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:13 (twenty years ago)

http://www.archined.nl/oem/reportages/kerst03/kwis/animals.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:14 (twenty years ago)

http://digilander.libero.it/charlief/images/bps1.jpg

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Friday, 3 December 2004 03:15 (twenty years ago)

one year passes...

I went to this http://www.serpentinegallery.org/2006/08/china_power_station_part_i_8_o_1.html yesterday and actually went inside the place. It's still very run down inside, but by 2010 they reckon it's going to be sparkly and full of amenities - we spent a few minutes before the tour being given a hard-sell CG mock-up of what it's going to look like.

The art works might have been interesting, but we got herded through so quickly that it was impossible to do them justice. Still, the vast majority of punters were really only there for the venue.

Photos to follow.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:17 (eighteen years ago)

Dude I was there yesterday too. Went for the 3.30-6.30 window. Shame we missed each other. Agree with everything you said anyway.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:35 (eighteen years ago)

The CGI presentation shows how a big glassy building will be built between the railway and the power station itself which presumably will obscure train travellers view of the station as they pass by (south of the river at least) which is annoying. The developments will end up enclosing the station in a way that does not really look good and takes a lot of it's power away. Pity, even if it is defunct otherwise.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:38 (eighteen years ago)

You're right an all counts, Steve. Shame we missed each other, and shame the people in charge are going to fence the power station in with big office blocks. Why??? [rhetorical question]

I'd queued for an hour, and the thought crossed my mind, with the benefit of hindsight, that I'd rather have queued for longer and been given more time inside. To give you an idea of how annoying the 'herding' process was, we got to level 3 and were told we had ten or twelve minutes. We timed it, and the next group came in, and we had to move on, after we'd been there for just two minutes! Irritating. I wonder if the artists are aware that public are given so little chance to engage with the art.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:47 (eighteen years ago)

It's not a good place for that sort of art. Some of the video art looked interesting but much of it was placed badly. The artist has some connection with the owners of BPS now and it just seemed like a cute gimmick rather than an effective environment for the works. PLus with water dripping down everywhere I'm surprised they passed H&S standards at all. One alternative highlight was being able to see a intact mural (from 30s judging by style) on the inside of the western wall of the building from the other side, three or four floors up.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:51 (eighteen years ago)

I dunno, I felt I wasn't there long enough to judge whether the works were nicely configured or not! I've been to other site-specific exhibitions in some fairly run-down warehouses and railway arches, and they're often very effective. As for H and S, I'm sure the powers that be would not have passed the exhibits if they'd been in any doubt - the UK is an ultra-careful country when it comes to stuff like that. I think I saw the mural you're talking about.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 09:58 (eighteen years ago)

http://static.flickr.com/115/264308426_f4ece3396d.jpg

have a thing for reflections lately. more on my flickr.

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 10:34 (eighteen years ago)

Can you post a link to the set, please? I'd like to see it. (Even though we're not going for another few weeks yet.)

― Three In A Bed Socks Romp (kate), Monday, 9 October 2006 10:35 (eighteen years ago)

Wow, Steve, what a photo! I tried to some some reflection shots in that puddle, but none were as nice as that. Ditto about the link as well.

― Daniel Giraffe (Daniel Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 11:17 (eighteen years ago)

There was no photography allowed once inside the building although not sure how enforced this was with so many phones and cameras about. To be honest there wasn't anything that interesting inside worth photographing anyway (couldn't close enough to the aforementioned mural). This is an unexciting one of the entrance where they had a soundscape piece installed (mostly made up of v irritating sounds, high pitched frequencies, drilling etc.):

http://static.flickr.com/91/264307903_7022cb06d8.jpg

― Konal Doddz (blueski), Monday, 9 October 2006 11:43 (eighteen years ago)

http://pics.livejournal.com/danielgiraffe/pic/0002gf2t

― Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:44 (eighteen years ago)

inside the first turbine:

http://pics.livejournal.com/danielgiraffe/pic/0002aypf

― Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:45 (eighteen years ago)

Looking into the main body of the interior of the power station from the eastern side:

http://pics.livejournal.com/danielgiraffe/pic/0002b42b

― Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:47 (eighteen years ago)

ihttp://pics.livejournal.com/danielgiraffe/pic/000282dy

― Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:48 (eighteen years ago)

Sorry about the last one. I was doing so well.

Anyway, there are more at my livejournal: http://danielgiraffe.livejournal.com/

― Giraffe (Japanese Giraffe), Monday, 9 October 2006 19:51 (eighteen years ago)

God, that's incredible. It really is nothing but a shell.

― Three In A Bed Socks Romp (kate), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 15:38 (eighteen years ago)

omg it is beautiful.

― emsk ( emsk), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 16:10 (eighteen years ago)

I was all lined up to go, and then remembered that I have no brother in London whose house is fit to stay in, and then realised that the weekend I wanted to go was the Bank Holiday, and so there would be major expense involved in the flights, and so now I am not going. Bah.

― accentmonkey (accentmonkey), Tuesday, 10 October 2006 16:25 (eighteen years ago)

two weeks pass...

It is so beautiful. Emsk wanted to move right in, and I could understand that. Just the stunning, massive, monumental sense of space, so big you cannot really get a fix on it - you can count windows to measure it, but you just cannot comprehend its massiveness.

And inside... oooh, inside. Nothing but a shell, but still trying to figure out where all the bits of machinery went from the strange holes in floors and ceiling.

And all the doors! At all different levels, where there may have been floors once. All numbered, some in sequence, and some totally out of sequence.

It is so beautiful and awe-inspiring and powerful. Art? what art. I couldn't be bothered with the art. Imagining machines was far more interesting.

...though it was all too depressing to finish walking about it, and end up with that HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE FILM of what abominations they planned to do to it.

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Monday, 30 October 2006 12:35 (eighteen years ago)

If anyone's interested (the weather was a lot bleaker than when Steve went - somehow it seemed fitting):

http://www.flickr.com/photos/21373331@N00/sets/72157594339870608/show/

― === temporary username === (Mark C), Monday, 30 October 2006 12:41 (eighteen years ago)

None of us had a camera. But our weather was beautiful, utterly perfect golden autumn light, just as the sun was starting to set, sending beautiful rays across the huge hall. It could not have been more perfect.

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Monday, 30 October 2006 12:45 (eighteen years ago)

It is criminal what they plan to do with it. Some of the new buildings are quite good and quite sympathetic to the modernist edifice. But the fact that they are building a fortress wall around the site out of 8 story buildings and the post-modernist nightmare of the work to be done on the power station itself is horrendous. Who ever thought of the red spiral needs stringing up.

― Ed (dali), Monday, 30 October 2006 12:55 (eighteen years ago)

it is more beautiful than any cathedral i have ever seen in my life.

― emsk ( emsk), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

It is like a Cathedral to Progress.

(though that says something about the Abomination, too, I suppose.)

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Monday, 30 October 2006 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/battersea_power_station/

aaaahh, aaaahhhhh... 360 panorama views!

I did not realised that it wasn't closed until 1983. And its roofless state is a result of demolition, not nature. Grrrr. :-(

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:03 (eighteen years ago)

Imagining machines was far more interesting.

Imagining Machines, that's a good name for an exhibition/ album/ whateva

― The sun sets on twelve tons of pickled onions. A dynasty is dying... (Dada), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:08 (eighteen years ago)

Imagining machines... the opposite of the Boring Machines?

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:10 (eighteen years ago)

(There are pictures of the original machines, on that BBC site linked to above.)

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:10 (eighteen years ago)

Not a very good table, originally:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/pop_ups/05/uk_battersea_power_station0s_past/img/2.jpg

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:11 (eighteen years ago)

An Imagining Machine:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/uk_battersea_power_station/img/6.jpg

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

the Control Room looks fantastic and I'm disappointed there was no access granted to it (other than to the BBC)

you could see glimpse of the posters in this pic
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/uk_battersea_power_station/img/2.jpg
but they are obscured by more scaffolding now i think - seemed to be when i visited at least

also unaccessible was the main entrance hall which looks great:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/nol/shared/spl/hi/picture_gallery/05/uk_battersea_power_station/img/3.jpg

― ;_; (blueski), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:13 (eighteen years ago)

That reminds me of that Hawkwind album with all the machines on it (xpost)

― The sun sets on twelve tons of pickled onions. A dynasty is dying... (Dada), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:14 (eighteen years ago)

It's the same machine!

http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/hawkwind/cover_quarkstrange.gif

― The sun sets on twelve tons of pickled onions. A dynasty is dying... (Dada), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:15 (eighteen years ago)

Ha ha, no wonder it looked so familiar!

― Going Through The Motions (kate), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:17 (eighteen years ago)

The guys from Hipgnosis were obviously big Battersea PS fans!

― The sun sets on twelve tons of pickled onions. A dynasty is dying... (Dada), Tuesday, 31 October 2006 13:18 (eighteen years ago)

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