Website: http://www.batterseapowerstation.comToday I went along with ML and VB to Battersea Power Station. This former coal-fired power station has been disused since 1983 and its iconic building has been slowly decaying ever since. Located next to Battersea park its four tall chimney stacks are a famous part of the London skyline. There's an urban regeneration project which plans to transform the site into a huge entertainment complex with cinemas, bars, restaurants etc. Before that happens, however, the site has been opened, by popular demand and for a limited time only, to the public.
We arrived at about 1pm on our bikes and a steward told us where to lock them - a green wire fence that seemed deliberately designed to ensure the bike frame was kept at an unlockable distance from it. Finally, with grunts and heaves and two locks between three bikes, we managed to cram them in securely.
Pausing for a quick look at the dominating architecture we then entered a small white building at the edge of the power station grounds. This was an exhibition about the regeneration project which we wandered around:
There had been a regeneration project before funded by the then Alton Towers chairman which aimed to set up an indoor theme park. Unfortunately this ran out of money and left the building with no roof and no western wall.The current regeneration project involves making an environmentally friendly greenhouse-like complex next to the power station:
The old building would be restored and would house restaurants and cafes etc. Judging from the scale model on display the new building (with a huge chimney roof) will dominate the site. It reminded us of the Millennium dome project.After the exhibit we had to sign disclaimer forms before we could set off. These made the trip sound incredibly exciting - there was talk of machinery and rough terrain, dirt and dust everywhere, rubble etc.
We happily signed away all liability and then set off for the site. We handed in our disclaimer forms at desk outside and were given a free bottle of water. Considering that the whole trip was free as well this made us all very happy.We now got better views of the power station as we approached it from across the derelict site. Everyone had their cameras out and was snapping away. The people with zoom lenses and fancy cameras would labouriously set up their shots only to have someone else carelessly walk in front of them.
We arrived at the power station and followed the fenced-in route. All the time we were anticipating that we'd get to go inside and climb up and down ladders and gantries, pull levers, press buttons etc. Unfortunately the best we got to do was peer into the empty decaying power station halls from behind a fence at the outer wall. We peered into one hall and saw the chunks of wood and masonry scattered around:
We then walked around the back and looked in at another hall. It looked like a sad ruin with its roof ripped off and pigeons living amongst the girders.
Both VB and I spent a lot of time taking arty pictures:
One of the reasons Battersea power station is so famous is that it appeared on the cover of the Pink Floyd album Animals. 
During the photo shoot they tethered a huge inflatable pig to the power station which apparently broke loose and ended up crashing somewhere in Kent. (See here for more information and photos.)Summary: Good free fun but a little disappointing we couldn't climb around inside.
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