Battersea Power Station is one of the most recognisable industrial buildings in the world — a Grade II* listed Art Deco coal-fired power station that once supplied a fifth of London’s electricity, stood empty and derelict for nearly thirty years, and has since been transformed into a riverside shopping, dining and entertainment district built inside and around the original brick shell. Today you can shop across more than 140 stores, eat at dozens of restaurants, ride a glass lift 109 metres up one of its original chimneys, and stand inside the very Turbine Hall that once helped power a fifth of the capital.

History of Battersea Power Station

Sir Giles Gilbert Scott and a “Temple of Power”

When the London Power Company first proposed a huge new coal-fired power station on the Thames at Battersea in 1927, the plan sparked real public alarm — locals worried about pollution damaging nearby buildings, parks and even the paintings in the Tate Gallery upstream. To win over public opinion, the company hired the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, already well known for designing Liverpool Cathedral and, later, Britain’s iconic red telephone box, to design the building’s exterior. Scott’s brief was essentially to make an industrial power plant beautiful, and the result — a monumental Art Deco brick cathedral with soaring fluted chimneys — was popular from the moment it appeared, quickly nicknamed a “temple of power.”

Construction began in 1929 under engineer Leonard Pearce, with the steel frame going up first and the brick cladding following from 1931. Battersea A, the western half with its first two chimneys, was completed and began generating electricity in 1933, its interior turbine halls fitted out in the same lavish Art Deco style as the exterior — marble floors, wrought-iron staircases and polished parquet, a level of interior finish almost unheard of in an industrial building.

The Four-Chimney Silhouette and the Second World War

Construction of the mirror-image eastern half, Battersea B, began in 1937 but was interrupted by the outbreak of the Second World War, resuming afterwards and finally completing in stages between 1953 and 1955. The finished building’s distinctive four-chimney profile gave it the enduring nickname “the three-pin plug” among Londoners, though the fourth chimney wasn’t actually added until this final phase. At peak capacity, the station burned around 10,000 tonnes of coal a week to generate roughly a fifth of London’s total electricity supply, and its boiler house was famously large enough to have fit the entirety of St Paul’s Cathedral inside it.

The building survived the Blitz relatively unscathed, and for an unusual reason: the plumes of white vapour rising from its chimneys were used as a navigational landmark by both RAF pilots guiding themselves home through mist and, less helpfully, by Luftwaffe bombers finding their way toward London — a fact that may have discouraged the Luftwaffe from deliberately targeting the building itself.

Pink Floyd’s Animals and Cultural Icon Status

Battersea Power Station’s most famous cultural moment came in 1977, when it appeared on the cover of Pink Floyd’s album Animals, photographed with a giant inflatable pig floating between its two southern chimneys. The pig’s story became almost as famous as the album itself: during the shoot, it broke free of its moorings and drifted into the flight path of Heathrow Airport, forcing police helicopters to track it until it eventually landed in a field off the coast of Kent. The building went on to appear in numerous other films and television productions, including the Beatles’ Help! and Monty Python sketches, cementing its status as a genuine cultural landmark well beyond its industrial function.

Decommissioning and Thirty Years Empty

Battersea A ceased generating electricity in 1975, and Battersea B followed in 1983, bringing more than half a century of continuous power generation to an end. The building was awarded Grade II listed status in 1980, later upgraded to Grade II*, but listing didn’t guarantee a future: for nearly thirty years afterwards it sat empty, its roof removed during a botched 1980s redevelopment attempt that stripped the building for scrap and then collapsed financially, leaving the structure exposed to the elements and slowly deteriorating into what one architectural history later called “a romantic ruin.” Numerous redevelopment schemes were proposed and collapsed across the following decades, and the building’s future was genuinely uncertain for most of that time.

Regeneration and the 2022 Reopening

The building’s fortunes finally turned in 2012, when a consortium of Malaysian investors purchased the site and committed to a full restoration, appointing the architecture firm WilkinsonEyre to lead the repair and regeneration of the structure alongside a much larger 42-acre mixed-use redevelopment of the surrounding brownfield land. The first phase of the wider neighbourhood, including new residential buildings and shops, opened in 2017, with the Power Station building itself — the genuinely difficult, expensive part of the project — finally reopening to the public on 14 October 2022, and the surrounding site continuing to develop with new venues and public spaces in the years since.

The Chimney Lift

The building’s headline visitor attraction is The Chimney Lift (originally launched as Lift 109), a circular glass elevator built inside the restored north-west chimney that carries visitors 109 metres up to a viewing platform with 360-degree views across London. The experience begins in the Art Deco Turbine Hall A with an interactive exhibition on the building’s history — including a recreation of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s original office and a working model showing how coal was once turned into electricity here — before the ascent itself, which takes around 40 minutes door-to-door including the ride and viewing time at the top.

Standard tickets start from around £24 for adults and £17 for children, with timed entry slots that are genuinely worth booking in advance rather than turning up on the day. Children aged 15 and under must be accompanied by an adult, and under-2s go free. The National Rail 2-for-1 offer applies here too if you’re travelling in by train, and periodic midweek discounts also appear — it’s worth checking thechimneylift.co.uk directly for current pricing before booking, since promotional rates change fairly often.

Visiting Battersea Power Station: Practical Information

Verified against the official Battersea Power Station website, checked 5 September 2026.

Battersea Power Station Open Times

The public areas of Battersea Power Station are free to access at any time, but the shops themselves keep set hours: 10am to 8pm Monday to Saturday, and 12pm to 6pm on Sunday. Individual cafés, bars, restaurants, The Chimney Lift and the cinemas often open earlier and stay open considerably later than the shops, so it’s worth checking each venue’s own page if you’re planning an evening visit rather than assuming everything follows the same hours.

There’s no single closing time for the site as a whole — the riverside walkways and Power Station Park stay open well beyond retail hours, making an evening stroll along the Thames a genuinely pleasant option even after the shops have shut.

Battersea Power Station Car Park

Battersea Power Station has over 200 parking spaces across two on-site car parks, accessed via Pump House Lane (SW11 8BJ) and Circus Road West (SW11 8EZ). Both have a height restriction of 2.2 metres and include EV charging bays, available seven days a week; parking is charged at standard rates and can’t be pre-booked. Motorcycles can park free of charge — press the help button on exit to be let out by a member of staff.

A total of 45 Blue Badge spaces are available across the Circus West Village and Electric Boulevard car parks specifically, charged at the same standard rate and, like general parking, not bookable in advance. Given the site’s excellent public transport links, Battersea Power Station itself recommends the tube or train over driving where possible, particularly at weekends and during major events when a traffic management system is sometimes put in place to redirect visitors to alternative car parks nearby.

Battersea Power Station Tube & Getting There

Battersea Power Station Underground station, the southern terminus of the Northern line extension that opened in September 2021, sits directly beneath the site and is the simplest way in from central London — it’s the first major Tube extension since the Jubilee line extension in 1999, and was itself partly funded by the wider redevelopment. National Rail services also call at nearby Battersea Park and Queenstown Road stations, both a short walk away, and several London bus routes stop right outside the site.

River bus services from Thames Clippers also call at a pier close to the Power Station, offering a scenic alternative from central London stops including the London Eye and Embankment — genuinely worth considering if you’re combining the visit with a wider day along the Thames rather than a direct point-to-point trip.

Food & Places to Eat

Battersea Power Station’s dining scene spans everything from quick, casual bites to sit-down fine dining, spread across the historic Turbine Halls, the surrounding Circus West Village and the newer Electric Boulevard development. The Arcade Food Hall is the best starting point for a flexible group with different tastes, gathering a wide range of independent food stalls under one roof, while sit-down restaurant options range from familiar chains to destination openings from well-known chefs, alongside numerous independent and design-led bars and cafés dotted throughout the site.

Given how large and fast-changing the site’s food and drink lineup is — individual restaurants open, close and rotate fairly often — it’s worth checking the current full listing on batterseapowerstation.co.uk shortly before your visit rather than planning around a specific name, particularly for newer or more in-demand openings that may require advance booking.

Battersea Power Station Playground

Prospect Park, the site’s main playground, sits within the wider public realm around the Power Station and is free to use, making it a genuinely solid option for families breaking up a shopping or dining visit with somewhere for children to burn off energy. It sits alongside a riverside walk along the Thames and, on selected dates, a land train that runs around parts of the site — a small but popular add-on for younger children in particular.

Beyond the playground itself, the wider site is generally pushchair-friendly, with level access throughout the pedestrianised public realm and family facilities including accessible and family toilets signposted on the official site map.

Things to Do at Battersea Power Station

Beyond The Chimney Lift, Battersea Power Station has a genuinely broad spread of things to do beyond shopping and eating. There are two separate cinemas on site — The Cinema in the Power Station and The Cinema in the Arches — plus Bounce, a ping pong-themed bar and entertainment venue, and more than 140 shops spanning high-street names and higher-end fashion brands. The riverside Power Station Park and the wider walkway along the Thames make for a genuinely pleasant free wander regardless of whether you’re spending money elsewhere on site.

Anyone wanting to stay overnight can do so at art’otel London Battersea Power Station, located within the Battersea Roof Gardens part of the development, putting the whole site within a short walk of your room.

What’s On: Events at Battersea Power Station

Battersea Power Station runs a genuinely packed year-round events calendar, from seasonal markets and outdoor screenings to major ticketed exhibitions. The current headline exhibition is Ramses and the Pharaohs’ Gold, bringing 180 original treasures on loan from the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to the Power Station’s exhibition space — booking ahead is strongly recommended given the demand major touring exhibitions like this tend to attract.

The site also hosts private event and venue hire across several of its distinctive spaces, from the historic Turbine Halls to newer purpose-built areas, for anything from corporate functions to private celebrations. The best way to stay current on what’s actually running during your visit is to sign up to the official newsletter or check the events listing on batterseapowerstation.co.uk directly, since the programme changes regularly throughout the year.

How Long to Allow

A focused visit — a walk through the Turbine Halls, a browse of the shops and a meal — can be done in two to three hours, but the site rewards a longer, more relaxed visit given how much is spread across it. Add The Chimney Lift and you’re looking at closer to half a day, especially factoring in a timed entry slot that may not align exactly with when you arrive.

Accessibility

Battersea Power Station is a modern, purpose-redeveloped site and is broadly step-free throughout the public realm, with accessible toilets and family facilities signposted across the site map. The Chimney Lift experience itself is wheelchair accessible. Disabled parking is available in the Circus West Village and Electric Boulevard car parks specifically, with 45 Blue Badge spaces charged at the standard rate.

Managing Body

Battersea Power Station is privately owned and managed by Battersea Power Station Development Company, established by the consortium of Malaysian investors (Sime Darby Property, S P Setia and the Employees Provident Fund) who purchased and redeveloped the site from 2012 onward, working with architects WilkinsonEyre on the restoration of the historic building itself.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are the opening times for Battersea Power Station?

The public areas are free to access at any time. Shops are open 10am–8pm Monday to Saturday and 12pm–6pm on Sunday, though cafés, bars, restaurants and The Chimney Lift often keep different hours.

Is there a car park at Battersea Power Station?

Yes, over 200 spaces across two car parks accessed via Pump House Lane and Circus Road West, both with a 2.2m height restriction and EV charging. Parking can’t be pre-booked and is charged at standard rates.

What are the things to do at Battersea Power Station?

The Chimney Lift, two cinemas, over 140 shops, a ping pong bar, riverside walks, a free playground, and a year-round events and exhibitions calendar including major touring exhibitions.

Is there a playground at Battersea Power Station?

Yes, Prospect Park, a free public playground within the site’s riverside public realm, alongside a land train on selected dates and generally pushchair-friendly, step-free access throughout.

What is the nearest tube station to Battersea Power Station?

Battersea Power Station station itself, the southern terminus of the Northern line extension that opened in September 2021, sits directly beneath the site.

Battersea Power Station sits within easy reach of other Thames-side London landmarks. Browse the full Landmarks & Monuments collection for more of the capital’s iconic buildings, and see our England guide for the wider country this rebuilt skyline sits within.