An iconic Grade II listed London building and still the largest
brick built structure in Europe, Battersea Power Station was once a
coal burning generator that supplied a fifth of the electricity
required by the city of London for over fifty years. Originally a
single structure of two chimneys built in the 1930s named Battersea
A, the station was expanded with the addition of Battersea B twenty
years later to produce its current form.
Battersea ceased to produce electricity in 1983, and has since
fallen into disrepair, but still retains its status as a cultural
landmark, appearing across numerous media throughout its lifetime,
from iconic associations with Pink Floyd [and an infamous
inflatable pink pig] and The Beatles, to appearances onscreen
across its lifetime, from Alfred Hitchcock's Sabotage [1936] to
more recently in The Dark Knight [2008] and The King's Speech
[2010]. Since leaving active use many attempts at redevelopment had
been proposed and fallen through, until a Malaysian company
purchased the structure and surrounding area for regeneration in
June 2012.
Battersea Power Station A is used extensively onscreen in a
Scandal in Belgravia, including the beautiful Art Deco and marble
adorned turbine hall where John arrives, and the main switch room
where the meeting between John and Irene Adler occurs. During
filming, the crew all had to wear protective equipment thanks to
the possibly precarious nature of the building.
In addition to the interiors, the earlier scene in the episode
where Lestrade guides Sherlock and John to an abandoned car with a
body in the boot was shot on the station riverfront, in front of
two rusting cranes that were used to haul coal from ships docked at
the quayside onto vehicles for transport into the Power Station
itself.
Battersea Power Station is viewable from many locations in
London. The closest underground station is Vauxhall on the Victoria
Line, requiring a walk south west down Wandsworth Road and then a
right turn onto Nine Elms Lane, which will lead you directly to the
Power Station.
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