Battersea Power Station Heralds End Of The Mall With Stunning Landmark

If this is the end, what a way to go.

It seems increasingly likely that London landmark Battersea Power Station will be the last of the great shopping centers to open in the U.K. when it throws its doors open on Friday October 14.

But if that is the case then it’s a fitting finale to five decades of building increasingly grandiose malls up and down the country.

Right now there is not a city or region in the U.K. with an obvious need for a new mall and many with an obvious requirement for a lot less retailing.

So while Battersea may open amid a global financial crisis and self-inflicted local political crisis it also finds itself pretty much full.

And that’s a fitting epitaph to both U.K. mall development and the colourful history of a building that once powered almost a fifth of London’s energy needs.

Battersea: A Long Tale Of Troubles

So how did we get to here?

While many may associate the building with Pink Floyd’s Animals album and a certain floating inflatable pig, its more recent history has been a sorry tale of unrealistic dreams and disastrously failed plans that saw the iconic structure stripped to its bare bones and crumbling in the decades following its closure in the early 1980s.

The Power Station is in fact only one part of a huge site in south west London, just a stone’s throw from the relocated U.S. Embassy.

In 2012 Malaysian money arrived and quickly outlined plans for a huge mixed use redevelopment of residential, offices and retail by the side of the Thames, with a refurbished Battersea Power Station at its heart.

Several phases of apartments, commercial and ground level stores and dining have since been completed and at its press preview on October 4 developer Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) said that 90% of the retail and leisure space is let or under offer.

For the official opening more than 60 new stores and dining outlets will be up and running, from a total of around 100 units which will eventually open inside the two turbine halls.

In addition, Spanish fashion retailer Zara and furnishing and homewares brand Zara Home will share a 48,800 sq ft store on Electric Boulevard, linking the underground station to the mall.

Most of the stores will debut before Christmas, while London fitness brand Third Space, and a 24,000 sq ft Arcade Food Hall will open in 2023.

Battersea’s Retail Ambitions

BPSDC Chief Executive Officer Simon Murphy played down the obvious threat that Battersea poses to London’s beleaguered Oxford Street and insisted that he wants to keep some of the “billion pounds of retail and leisure spend that leaks out of the borough of Wandsworth [it’s home district]” annually.

But the site’s 15-minute proximity to Tottenham Court Road station at the east end of Oxford Street via the Northern Line inevitably makes the West End a key target.

However, Murphy was keen to play down such rivalry and instead reflected that the first aim of the project is to keep residents within the borough and spending at stores and restaurants closer to home.

“We want to capture the essence of the 15-minute city,” said Murphy.

The retail provision at the Power Station will include an impressive range of fashion, beauty and athleisure brands but it’s the industrial interior architecture that provides the wow factor. While seemingly homogenous outside, the building was in fact constructed in two phases in the 1930s and 1950s.

The 1950s side is enclosed, moodily lit and echoes a kind of brutalist Cheronbyl chic, while the 1930s side exudes Art Deco finishing and has light flooding in from skylights.

Popular international brands will sit side-by-side with independents and those new to physical retail, while the Power Station’s two control rooms, which managed the distribution of power from Carnaby Street to Wimbledon – including Buckingham Palace (code-named Carnaby Street 2 on the control panel) and the Houses of Parliament – have been fully restored as a bar and events space respectively.

A boutique cinema, an array of leisure offers and a viewing experience called Lift 109 located in one of the 109-meter chimneys, offices – the notable tenant AppleAAPL
– and co-working spaces complete the mix.

BPSDC now has to fulfil the potential. Perhaps the greatest challenge will be to decide whether Battersea Power Station is a local mall, a London-wide center or an international tourist draw. Likely, it’s all three.

The end of an era? As Pink Floyd might say, Wish You Were Here.