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Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

batterseapowerstation.co.uk

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Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#21

Post by walrus01 »

ccity88 wrote: post #6

I grew up and live a short 5 minute walk from Battersea Power Station - I have some fond memories of playing in the (admittedly quite unsafe) industrial estate around that area. It's quite sad to see what it's become now; as much as I support the development of the local area, they had to add a bunch of shopping outlets, restaurants, and very expensive boutique outlets. It's completely antithetical to the local ident…

This is what happens when real estate developers and commercial landlord equity firms capture the interest and begin directing the activity of your local politicians.

The almost inevitable result is bougie commercialization of something into a bland market palatable shopping district. Look at the parts of NYC that are being gentrified for similar examples.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#23

Post by semi-extrinsic »

recursivedoubts wrote: post #9

"Art Deco style was of the moment with Control Room A boasting teak parquet flooring laid in a herringbone pattern and walls tiled in grey Italian marble offset by black Belgian marble detailing through the room, matched by a gold painted coffered glass ceiling." this was a power station what happened

There is a (IMO quite funny) conspiracy theory that there was a massive disaster at a leading architecture and design conference some time in the 1930s, such that almost everyone who knew how to make beautiful things died, and nowadays we actually can't design and build beautiful buildings anymore, it's all ugly modernist stuff.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#24

Post by Arrath »

samizdis wrote: post #10
camtarn wrote: post #2

With the beautiful art deco ceiling and walls, it almost feels more like a palatial monument to the power of electricity, rather than a mere control room. Imagine if we strove to make our industrial spaces as attractive nowadays! Modern control rooms are still breathtaking, but more through the sheer volume of stuff - blinking lights, giant monitors, diagrams, and so on - than through decoration.

The Victorians had a similarly grand take on public utility buildings, especially pump houses for water/sewage works. Probably the best example is Crossness Pumping Station [1]. The interior is stunning; this [2] is one image from the Wikipedia page/ [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crossness_Pumping_Station [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Crossness_Pumping_Station...

Wow that is gorgeous.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#25

Post by SoftTalker »

202206241203 wrote: post #12
detritus wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems to be the case across much of London, sadly. 'Synthetic' is the word that comes to mind whenever I see these developments. Frankly, as much as the effort impresses me from a technical point, I'm content enough only ever seeing it from afar when I pass vaguely nearby on a train going south. I suspect I'll never actually walk through it. Having 'argued' with people on HN about this sort of thing beforehand,…

In a second-world country, they would just demolish the building and maybe sell some of the control room knobs on e-bay. It might be as good as it gets in terms of involving private capital. I personally think that mid-century technological artefacts are underappreciated.

Yes I love this era of technology. Just look at the photo of the control room. It feels like it's really scaled to be usable by humans. The large dials, levers and switches, all styled artistically as well as functionally. The natural light, marble walls, all the detail in the ceiling, floor, and woodwork. It looks like a very comfortable room to be in.

Compare to the more modern sterile industrial control rooms, windowless, cold, everything run on screens and keyboards, no sense of a connection with the massive machinery being operated.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#26

Post by ncmncm »

mftb wrote: post #4

Battersea is the location for the start of one of my favorite books from childhood, The Borribles[0]. It has lived in my imagination all these years. Now if I ever get over there I guess I'll have something to go see. From what I heard in the old days, it was pretty rough. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrible_Trilogy

And, "Black Hearts at Battersea".

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#27

Post by gswdh »

detritus wrote: post #7
ccity88 wrote: post #6

I grew up and live a short 5 minute walk from Battersea Power Station - I have some fond memories of playing in the (admittedly quite unsafe) industrial estate around that area. It's quite sad to see what it's become now; as much as I support the development of the local area, they had to add a bunch of shopping outlets, restaurants, and very expensive boutique outlets. It's completely antithetical to the local ident…

This seems to be the case across much of London, sadly. 'Synthetic' is the word that comes to mind whenever I see these developments. Frankly, as much as the effort impresses me from a technical point, I'm content enough only ever seeing it from afar when I pass vaguely nearby on a train going south. I suspect I'll never actually walk through it. Having 'argued' with people on HN about this sort of thing beforehand,…

No post body was provided.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#28

Post by jaygreco »

s3ctor8 wrote: post #16

> Battersea Power Station has today unveiled the first images of its newly restored Control Room A. Where are the images? All I can see (on mobile) is the one at the top of the article. Am I missing something? Have I forgotten how to use the Internet?

My thought exactly! At least on mobile, it kind of defeats the purpose of the unveiling if there are no images to see…

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#29

Post by maxbond »

mftb wrote: post #4

Battersea is the location for the start of one of my favorite books from childhood, The Borribles[0]. It has lived in my imagination all these years. Now if I ever get over there I guess I'll have something to go see. From what I heard in the old days, it was pretty rough. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Borrible_Trilogy

It's also referenced(ish) in the gorgeous sci-fi novel Piranesi by Susanna Clarke.

Re: Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored Control Room A

#30

Post by gffrd »

walrus01 wrote: post #21
ccity88 wrote: post #6

I grew up and live a short 5 minute walk from Battersea Power Station - I have some fond memories of playing in the (admittedly quite unsafe) industrial estate around that area. It's quite sad to see what it's become now; as much as I support the development of the local area, they had to add a bunch of shopping outlets, restaurants, and very expensive boutique outlets. It's completely antithetical to the local ident…

This is what happens when real estate developers and commercial landlord equity firms capture the interest and begin directing the activity of your local politicians. The almost inevitable result is bougie commercialization of something into a bland market palatable shopping district. Look at the parts of NYC that are being gentrified for similar examples.

East New York is the new LES!
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