Behind the Scenes : Battersea Power Station

Sarah Pellereau​ words and photos
Dominique Staindl photos
Members of The Architecture Club

It is hard to think of a better or more engaging way to learn about a project than by hearing directly from the minds involved in its design. Jim Eyre’s tour of the iconic Grade II*-listed building, originally designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, was no exception and it was a privilege to learn about the history and new interventions that are transforming Battersea Power Station.

Over nine years, the WilkinsonEyre team has clocked up over half a million hours preserving a future for Battersea Power Station, which will become home to new events spaces, shops, restaurants and cafés, large open-plan office spaces, and a series of sky villas positioned around rooftop garden squares.

Key challenges
With the outline masterplan in place and outline planning permission granted, some of the decision-making had already been finalised by the time WilkinsonEyre took over the reins.

One of the challenges the architects faced was to get as much natural light as possible into the building. Gilbert Scott’s architecture already emphasised vertical recesses in the brick work, so they opened these up to allow daylight to find its way through the otherwise solid brick façade.

Another key ambition was to maximise the use of the space while keeping the feeling of scale as visitors step inside. So, with both the north and south main public entrances to the original boiler house, the internal infill has been pulled back, so you feel the internal volume overhead when you arrive in the building.

The Tour
We began the tour externally, looking up at the nine million+ bricks that were used in the construction of the original building and 1.5million new bricks that have been added as part of the restoration.

We entered via the West Switch Hall, which was once the control centre for the power station. With its parquet flooring, cream, and black marble walls, the old controls importance was highlighted with the beautiful glass roof light over.

From the control room you could look down through the original double-glazed bay windows to the west turbine hall. From this vantage point you could pick up some of the small detailing that might pass you by at ground level, such as the old balustrade pattern that has been translated in a subtle way into the new compliant balustrades.

As a structural engineer, I always enjoy seeing the exposed structure of old industrial buildings. With the red brick and blackened metal, you can see the thread to the new material palette and express structure.

WilkinsonEyre broke away from the closed hollow sections they have often adopted for a more practical ‘I’ beams. With the use of brass handrails, crittall-style windows and modern terrazzo floor, the material palette was complementary to the industrial past. The team tried to highlight Gilbert Scott’s original verticality elements by pulling the structure away from the brick piers and then breaking up the floor with highlighting timber bands.

The old lifting cranes have been utilized in both turbine halls in different ways. One to hang an elegant little glass linking bridge. The other to hang a movable marketing pod.

Where the ends of the boiler house were once braced by floor and then scaffolding, a lightweight tension frame has been installed to the south end with a similar but different steel horizontal fin beams used on the north side.

We finished our tour in the newer east turbine hall, looking at the smaller control room this time in shiny stainless steel. The feel in this half of the building, due to the original solid roof and a change in level across the hall, meant they approached the link bridges in a different way with tapered beams to pick up on the level change.

My thanks to Jim Eyre for an insightful tour of this newly invented London landmark.