A large multifunctional complex. This will become the famous London powerhouse of Battersea, which with its 4 white towers appears in Hitchcock's 'Sabotage' and Nolan's 'The Dark Knight', but also in the film 'Help!' by the Beatles and on the cover of Pink Floyd's 'Animals'. Its new owner, a Malaysian consortium formed by SP Setia, Sime Darby and Employees Provident Fund, which bought it for 400 million pounds, has announced the start of the works by mid-2013.
He is about to end up run over, his mother saves him
A large multifunctional and eco-sustainable complex. This will become the famous London powerhouse of Battersea, which with its 4 white towers appears in Hitchcock's 'Sabotage' and Nolan's 'The Dark Knight', but also in the film 'Help!' by the Beatles and on the cover of Pink Floyd's 'Animals'. Its new owner, a Malaysian consortium of SP Setia, Sime Darby and Employees Provident Fund, who bought it for 400 million pounds, in fact announced the start of the works by mid-2013.
For the Art Deco power plant, built by Giles Gilbert Scott in 1933 and closed in 1983, comes a mega-redevelopment project 15 years long and eight billion pounds, which it foresees the realization of 3.400 apartments, 500 of which for social housing, two hotels, a public park, a cinema, a theater, 1.7 million square meters of offices and a new underground station (Northern Line). By betting everything on energy efficiency, renewable energy and sustainable mobility.
“London is a global city, Battersea Power Station is a global project,” explains Rob Tincknell, CEO of Battersea Power Station Development Company, “so we look to the whole world to find new residents, business people, merchants. I'm sure the question is there. This will be a new cultural district. The recent interventions along the Thames have been purely residential while we have in mind to create a new center for London “.
Abandoned for thirty years, the brick building saw various conversion projects fail one after another, from the transformation into a theme park to that of Chelsea, who dreamed of making his own here new stadium, passing through the creation of a chic restaurant in a chimney. Nothing was ever done about it and several times a demolition was thought of. But now comes a new life, with the first batch of houses on sale from next spring. The consortium aims to sell 800 apartments by September: "I think selling 800 homes is ambitious," commented Ravi Govindia, Ravi Govindia, Wandsworth Town Borough Head on the sidelines of a project launch event, adding that he will be keeping an eye on sales rates.
The Battersea area, therefore, looks promising. "Regeneration - continues Govindia - - will be one of the greatest sources of work in the coming years", since it will create, between construction site and related industries, 26 thousand seats. Pity though, as the Ansa points out , which the four towers will be demolished and replaced with reinforced concrete copies. For the Malaysian consortium they would be too dilapidated to be refurbished, with all due respect to the Beatles and Pink Floyd.
Roberta Ragni
