Latest plans for London's Battersea Power Station

The proposal reveals a stripped-down scheme to rejuvenate London?s Battersea Power Station.

Terry Farrell and Partners has revealed a stripped-down scheme to rejuvenate London’s Battersea Power Station, a derelict landmark on the banks of the Thames.

The art deco classic has been the subject of several grandiose redevelopment plans, including a 1983 proposal to turn it into a theme park and a more recent ‘eco-dome’ scheme by architect Rafael Viñoly.

By contrast, Terry Farrell’s vision is far more simple and actually involves the demolition of two walls. The design will preserve both the front and back sections, complete with the trademark chimneys.

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In Farrell’s scheme, the famous structure will be surrounded by housing and parkland. An open colonnade screen will connect the two side walls, while the area in between will be roofed over and redeveloped at a later stage.

Farrell added: ‘This is a pragmatic and incremental approach to enable the redevelopment of this famous landmark sitting in one of the largest and most valuable regeneration sites in Central London. In many ways, this strategy is already on its way to being realised as there is one long flank wall missing as well as the roof itself.”

The derelict coal-fored power plant was built in the 1930s and decommissioned in 1983. It is a Grade II listed building, which limits its future uses. There were plans by the group that owns and runs Alton Towers to convert the area in to a theme park in the 1980s. The project fell through when costs spiralled out of control - but not before the power station's roof had been removed to extract power generation machinery. Since then, the building's steel work and foundations have been exposed to Britain's climate and weather.