Battersea power station: timeline of a modern classic

Battersea power station was built in two phases, as a collaboration between the architects Theo Halliday and Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Halliday was responsible for the overall shape and the interior.

Scott – who also designed the red telephone box and Bankside power station, now home of Tate Modern – was responsible for the exterior.

1929

Construction begins on the first turbine hall.

1933

Electricity generation begins.

1937

Construction of turbine hall B begins.

1983

The power station is decommissioned.

1987

John Broome, one of Margaret Thatcher’s favourite businessmen and chair of Alton Towers, pays £1.5m for the site, with plans to transform it into a theme park.

1993

Broome sells the site to the Hong Kong developer Victor Hwang, whose Parkview company enlists Nicholas Grimshaw, the designer of the Eden Project. His ideas include a railway station, luxury flats, a home for the circus troupe Cirque du Soleil, a cinema and two hotels.

2006

The Irish property tycoons Johnny Ronan and Richard Barrett acquire the site through a subsidiary called Real Estate Opportunities. Plans include a futuristic 300-metre glass funnel and atrium rising from a transparent dome, designed by the New York-based architect Rafael Viñoly.

2011

Battersea power station goes into receivership.

2012

Chelsea FC publishes plans for a 60,000-seat stadium in the power station, despite not being selected as the preferred bidder.

2012

A consortium of Malaysian investors buys the site for £400m from the receivers.

2013

Work begins on phase 1, Circus West Village, a collection of flats, shops and restaurants next to the power station.

2014

Phase 2 begins, with work on the power station including chimney replacement.

2017

Circus West Village is completed and the first residents move in.

2021

The power station’s first residents move in in May; the new tube station opens in September.

2022

The power station opens to the public on 14 October.