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Another Power Station? Yes, But It’s in Chelsea

While everyone’s attention was on the conversion of the iconic Battersea power station and its surrounding area, across the Thames another power station has been slowly receiving a makeover

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The power station’s two brick chimneys will be matched by two sleek modern skyscrapers, designed by the architect Sir Terry Farrell

Farrells
The power station’s two brick chimneys will be matched by two sleek modern skyscrapers, designed by the architect Sir Terry Farrell
Farrells

The Lots Road power station is less well known than its neighbour; after all it hasn’t appeared on a Pink Floyd album cover or featured in numerous films or fashion shoots. Neither is it as well visited as Bankside power station, the site of the world-renowned Tate Modern art gallery. It is possible that few people outside southwest London have heard of the Lots Road power station in Chelsea. Although at one time the power station, with its iconic two chimneys — there were four until it converted from coal to oil in the 1960s — was more famous than either Battersea or Bankside. It was the largest power station in the world when it was built and generated the power for London’s Underground system from 1905 until 2002. When the power station was decommissioned in 2002, it was bought by the Chinese property group Hutchison Whampoa, but it wasn’t until recently that building work began on the eight-acre site. The recession over and a full-scale regeneration of the local area under way, Hutchison has been quietly selling the first of its super-sized apartments.

The Lots Road Power Station in 2005.

Adrian Pingstone

Chelsea and Fulham don’t immediately strike you as places in need of regeneration, but the neighbourhoods around Lots Road and Sands End have, until recently, been woefully neglected. Yes, there are the upmarket Chelsea Harbour apartments, the chic gym and spa at the Harbour Club and numerous auction houses and interior design studios, but these sit alongside a council car pound, gas cooling towers and, until recently, the abandoned power station fringed by wasteland. The area has changed tremendously since the former British Rail coalyard was converted into Chelsea Harbour in the mid-1980s. Adjacent brownfield land was developed by Berkeley Group into the apartment blocks of Imperial Wharf in the mid-2000s, which was followed by the arrival of the overground train station in 2009. Now Berkeley Group is converting the area behind the station into homes at Chelsea Creek, and many of the surrounding Victorian terraced houses of Sands End have been gentrified.

Hutchison’s Lots Road site — half of which is in Kensington and Chelsea and half in Hammersmith & Fulham — is being marketed, quietly, as Chelsea Waterfront. The first phase, released in the summer, sold out ahead of schedule, its 3,000 sq ft, five-bedroom apartments selling for up to £6 million, almost all to British owner-occupiers. The second phase of two to five-bedroom apartments, priced from £1.55 million, was launched this week. The entire scheme of 706 homes (275 of which will be affordable housing) is due to be completed in 2019 with the main turbine hall providing the social hub of the ten buildings in the development, with cafés, restaurants and shops lining its 100-metre length. Robin Gevell, Hutchison’s senior marketing manager, explains that the power station development will be the largest façade retention in Europe. He adds that while the building is not listed, the company is working closely with English Heritage to preserve its Victorian warehouse character, although residents will have access to a full package of modern amenities, including concierges, spa, swimming pool and underground car parking (albeit at £85,000 per space). The power station’s two brick chimneys will be matched by two sleek modern skyscrapers, designed by the architect Sir Terry Farrell, in front of the old building on the riverfront at the head of the creek, both of which will be topped with a 7,000 sq ft, three-storey penthouse with spectacular views down the Thames to the Shard. The two slender glass towers will be clearly visible to those taking up residence in Battersea power station’s new neighbourhood and, on a good day, to the art lovers in the members’ café at the top of Tate Modern. This article originally appeared on The Times of London.