Battersea Power Station might be Wandsworth’s answer to Southwark’s Shard or the City’s St Paul’s (even, whisper it, Nine Elm’s American Embassy) – the architectural talisman of the borough. And, that’s saying something, now Battersea, as of 2021 is a starchitectural playground brimming with slinking, scintillating Norman Foster’s and Frank Gehry’s (the masters behind the Gherkin – aka 30 St Mary Axe – and Bilbao’s colossal Gugenheim).
At last, after over three decades in development, four owners and billions and billions of pounds splurged, the Gilbert Scott masterpiece is open – in parts – for business. By that I mean, residents, many of whom snapped up dwellings long, long ago (around 2014) were finally permitted to move in last year. These deep-pocketed buyers made a punt on the dream never having set foot in the place (dubbed ‘the Everest of building projects’). The dream, undeniably, is the chance to live out your days in a grade II* listed London power station, complete with all the trimmings, chimneys, control room et al. And while it’s a clear draw for midcentury enthusiasts – with all that voguish exposed brickwork – it is also proving a draw for the Chelsea crowd just across the river. The ‘I’d never dream of moving south’ stigma wearing thin now it has a brand sparkling new Zone 1 tube station.
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There’s Bear Grylls who, having lived in Battersea for years, snapped up a sought after, highly luxurious apartment in 2015; with a source at the time anticipating: ‘this will be one of the most impressive apartments in London’. Then, of course, there’s Sting, music royalty, who was among the first to take the plunge and buy an apartment within the development when they went on sale in 2014 (describing the scheme as having ‘a kind of austere beauty’). Belgian designer supreme, 74-year-old Axel Vervoordt, the king of serenity – and whose clients include everyone from Bill Gates to Kanye West – was commissioned to design the space. After moving in early doors – in 2018 – amid construction, Trudie Styler, Sting’s wife, said: ‘It’s very quiet on the inside and then you look out on to this almost Blade Runner-esque landscape, seeing up to 30 cranes moving at night’.
Then, anecdotally, Tatler knows families who have upped sticks from their Belgravia townhouses into multi million pound power station apartments now the kids have flown the nest. Certainly, those creamy white, svelte Belgravia palazzos with flights and flights of stairs are no good when the knees start to buckle inwards – whereas a one button concierge service with lifts at every corner is ideal. When the first apartments went on sale in 2013, £600 million worth of property sold in a four-day stampede, the fastest time on record in the UK.
If Axel Vervoordt has ritzed up Sting’s, the other apartments in Switch House East have been done up by design and architectural firm, Michaelis Boyd, the practice behind Soho Farmhouse and a swathe of other glamorous developments. Alex Michaelis, one of the eponymous founders, a lofty Harrison Ford lookalike, is a minimalist enthusiast. His taste is exquisite as the apartment’s attest: sleek tiles, industrial details, dark floorboards, all meticulously thought through and gesturing back to Gilbert Scott’s original 1933 and 1955 designs in two distinct palettes. While Michaelis Boyd has done the interiors; architectural practice WilkinsonEyre have worked on the bones of the building. On a hardhat tour, I asked the lead architect Sebastien Ricard, a discerning, brilliant French man, if this is a career-defining project: ‘I have worked on many interesting projects and I hope to do more,’ he replied rather matter of factly.
And if it could get any more Belgravia-like, the private gardens, immaculate rectangles of lawn, bordered by pristine, freshly-clipped hedges interspersed with Scandi benches, have been designed by Andy Sturgeon (he of the many Chelsea Flower Show gold medals) in conjunction with LDA Design. Not just residents, there’s been some grand visitors: the King of Malaysia swung by (which makes sense given the whole project has been spearheaded by a consortium of Malaysian investors and the 42-acres site now has a ‘Malaysia Square’ at its heart). Although Malaysia’s king is just the second royal to visit given the Princess Royal came for a look in 2017. Next the power station will be expecting Tim Cook, after all, that’s where the new London hub will be – and where 1,400 Apple employees from eight sites across the capital will congregate, at the freshly named ‘Apple Campus’. This relocation will up London’s status as an Apple Powerhouse just down from their European HQ in Cork, Ireland which is second only to their Silicon Valley HQ.
If in Belgravia, the townhouses get more expensive the closer they are to Grosvenor Crescent, in Battersea Power Station, it’s the higher up they go – reaching the apex at the sky villas which are luxe-in-excelsis with London-wide views and bordered by majestic topiary balls and the odd chimney backdrop. The glossiest high-up apartments have been retailing at just over £8 million (and the most expensive sale so far has been listed at £16 million). As the largest brick building in Europe, it’s a place of history and superlatives: part-1930s, part-1950s, that once appeared on the cover of a Pink Floyd album and in The King’s Speech, it’s been a multi-decade long, high rolling transformation and finally central London’s glossiest new Zone 1 ‘village’ is on the map. Watch out Belgravia – there could well be a mass exodus across the river.
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