Question - Anyone who visited Battersea been to the new development? If so, what did you think?

[zombizza]

I visited today and thought it was fairly grotesque.
A sterile, boring, cliche creation that is an insult to the original architecture and function. It was just like a Westfield, with super expensive flats stuck on top and around laying empty, owned by investors im sure.
I could just picture a posh interior designer coming in with mood boards and colour schemes to match modern taste and delightfully picking fashionable aesthetics of today at great expense.
It made me feel very sad and actually think for me, it would have been better bulldozed.
I looked up at the plasticky, freshly painted control room A through the windows and longed for that first glimpse of the weathered and history worn view I had back in the day.
To be fair though, there wasnt any real way it could go that would make me happy.
What do you think?

 

[mookster]

I know a few people who have been who enjoyed it, and were pleased with the restoration and renovations of the control rooms - the fact you can still get up close and personal with them is a big draw.

If you go in knowing however it looks you won't be happy to see it, then don't be surprised if you are disappointed! Instead of looking at it through the rose-tinted glasses of the good old days when it was derelict and a playground for people like us, look at it as though the iconic building has got a brand new lease of life. The only thing I'd fuck off from there is the new apartment blocks surrounding it but that's just regular developers greed to make as much of a return as possible.

 

[zombizza]

Well control room A is only for private parties which is annoying but maybe that would have made my anger more if id seen it lol
Yes, i know i have the wrong attitude and wasnt going to be easily pleased. I just wondered if anyone else felt the same.
I just don't like the tacky feel. Maybe Im the grumpy sod lol

 

[Speed]

I didn't really agree with the need to 'restore' the A control room but I guess the rest is as good as you could hope for. Kind of wish I'd nicked a syncroscope from B now tho.

 

[mockney reject]

I really loved it. I consider it better that we still have it rather than it be a pile of rubble.

There’s a series of short clips on YouTube from the company that restored the control room. They are well worth a watch, just to see the level of detail they went too.

 

[Bingolo2]

Im really upset that its no longer abandonned as i never got a chance to explore it. The new development is OK as they dis leave some of the macinery there but its a bit too much like coal drops yard.

 

[Wastelandr]

To be honest I thought it was a pretty impressive restoration and glad to see its genuinely taken off rather than dying fast. Yes it's a shopping centre on the surface and lacks the gritty decaying aesthetic but the architecture is still there and the history has been accommodated. Considering parts were just a hollow shell they've done well. Plus the control rooms have been done well, the restoration of A looks sublime even if you can only see it from afar. I do wish I gave it a crack whilst abandoned though.