The new owners of Battersea Power Station today unveiled their vision of a building that has served as the setting for Hollywood movies, album covers and pop concerts as a buzzing “new cultural district for London”.
The derelict "cathedral of industry" will be at the heart of an ambitious £8 billion regeneration of the last major undeveloped riverside land in central London.
But the four chimneys that dominate the skyline of south-west London are too badly decayed to be saved, according to the Malaysian consortium behind the scheme. They will have to be knocked down and replaced by reinforced concrete replicas at a cost of £12 million.
About 50 spectacular apartments will be built directly under the restored towers with views to Wembley stadium, Richmond Park and beyond.
The consortium paid £400 million for the 29-acre power station site in June.
Rob Tincknell, chief executive officer of Battersea Power Station Development Company, said: "This will be a new cultural district for central London. We want to buck the trend of other developments along the river which have been purely residential and make this a new town centre for London."
The work will create 3,400 homes, including 500 classified as "affordable", two hotels, 160,000 sq ft of offices and dozens of shops and restaurants in a new "high street" - which will link the development with a new Northern line Underground station - as well as a "spectacular public space" next to the Thames, two-thirds the size of Regent's Park's Inner Circle.
The park will be linked to a circular green boulevard incorporating an urban running track. There will also be a direct pedestrian and cycle path link to Battersea Park under Chelsea and Grosvenor bridges. Mr Tincknell said the park and walkway "will be open by next April".
The 12-year development project, which will create 15,000 jobs, will include exhibition, gallery and performance spaces as well as studios. Simon Murphy, chief financial officer, said: "We want to make this into a real cultural hub. More than £850 million per year of Wandsworth residents' spending gets spent outside the borough. There is a market there, we need to pull that spending pool back in."
