Sheep

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  Seven Songs for the Week #99 - 26th Feb 25

  Jason Carty

  The other significant thing I did in London was visit the renovated Battersea Power Station. Like many people, I have found the building fascinating for many years. I first went to see it in 1997 and it was a bit of a trek, as I recall, tubing down to Pimlico and walking down to the north bank of the Thames to see it. When I lived in London 20 years ago, it was in a permanent state of not being developed, and had become cordoned off and dilapidated, having gone out of service in 1983. Following the global financial crash in 2008 planned development stalled again, and there were further changes in ownership. The Irish Government owned it through NAMA (look it up!) when the plans collapsed in 2011, and it was sold to Malaysian developers in 2012 for enough to cover the debt secured by NAMA and a spare £100m to build the Northern Line out to the Station itself.

  There is still some development on site, but the main works ended in 2022 with the reopening of BSP with shopping, food and apartments. If you look at the cover of the 2018 Remix version of Pink Floyd’s Animals shows the shell of the building being renovated. Fundamentally, the whole building was stripped right back and rebuilt. The results are spectacular, but the main attraction was being able to go up the north west chimney. A circular glass elevator delivers you up the body of the chimney where you emerge on top and the lift becomes a panoramic platform. Would recommend.

  So here’s a song from Animals!