[HN Gopher] Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly ...
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Battersea Power Station in London unveils the newly restored
Control Room A
Author : davidbarker
Score : 93 points
Date : 2022-06-29 17:00 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (batterseapowerstation.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (batterseapowerstation.co.uk)
| TylerE wrote:
| For non UK readers, Battersea Power Station is the building on
| the cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals
| dtgriscom wrote:
| ... minus the pig.
| implements wrote:
| Also features as a government museum building in "Children of
| Men" (run by the protagonist's cousin):
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDEFgX-uFZc
|
| The floating pig makes a couple of appearances.
| Rodeoclash wrote:
| Here's a better quality video :)
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJO0n6kvPRU
| brandall10 wrote:
| Funny thing, this is the only reason I'm aware of this
| building, as a non-UK reader.
| InCityDreams wrote:
| ...an awful lot of non-London people aren't aware/ still
| don't care. The discussions on gentrification resound
| throughout the country, though. Andcthe world, too, it would
| appear.
| blueflow wrote:
| Oh, this is the 200 energy power plant from Red Alert!
| dtgriscom wrote:
| Here's the image used as a header on that page; there's a lot
| more than what the web designer decided to show.
|
| https://cdn.batterseapowerstation.co.uk/_default_upload_buck...
| WalterBright wrote:
| Saved for wallpaper! My favorite is the Apollo mission control
| room, with all the custom made consoles in it covered with
| knobs, switches, lamps, and weird displays.
| belter wrote:
| It's a thing of beauty. I hope they play Pink Floyd during the
| visits...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Animals_%28Pink_Floyd_album%29
| mftb wrote:
| 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
| maxbond wrote:
| It's also referenced(ish) in the gorgeous sci-fi novel Piranesi
| by Susanna Clarke.
| ncmncm wrote:
| And, "Black Hearts at Battersea".
| smm11 wrote:
| Which switch controls the pig?
| scrlk wrote:
| A segment from the BBC documentary "The Secret Life of the
| National Grid" talking about Battersea Power Station:
| https://youtu.be/vtixR7w7S0E?t=601
| dayofthedaleks wrote:
| The photographer Will Pearson documented Control Room A several
| years ago with a 360 camera [0]. Click 'Launch Project' for
| panorama.
|
| Control Room B is basically made of Cybermen [1].
|
| [0] https://www.willpearson.co.uk/battersea-power-station-
| contro...
|
| [1] https://www.flickr.com/photos/liamch/4222346877
| robocat wrote:
| Here's some 2015 photos from an urban explorer:
|
| https://adamxphotos.com/2016/03/20/explore-134-battersea-pow...
| klelatti wrote:
| These are great - thanks for sharing.
|
| One nugget is the amount of water boiled each day - 160 million
| gallons - an incredible number!
| WalterBright wrote:
| Too bad that too-clever site caused Chrome to crash. :-(
| recursivedoubts wrote:
| "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
| ceejayoz wrote:
| We realized that the 99.999% of the population would never
| visit the plant, and thus prefer a dollar or two savings on
| their bill.
| recursivedoubts wrote:
| libraries don't look like this anymore either
| ceejayoz wrote:
| Similar scenario, really; more books, computers, programs,
| and librarians trumps a fancy building in my book.
| semi-extrinsic wrote:
| 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.
| mortenjorck wrote:
| The funny thing is, there are still plenty of beautiful
| modernist buildings from the 1940s and beyond (look at some
| of Mies' 1960s office towers, for instance), and yet the idea
| that a power plant could or should have that level of care
| and quality put into it somehow fell (far) out of favor.
|
| Imagine a modern power plant control room with a look
| somewhere between an Apple store and the Parks' home in
| Parasite. _This_ is what they took from you!
| myself248 wrote:
| I've been watching a lot of Proper People urbex videos on
| YouTube, and they go out of their way to recognize the
| design that went into ordinary places, back when those
| places were somewhat extraordinary.
|
| You see, in the 1930s, electric power _was_ glamorous, even
| its generation. The idea of a municipal utility _serving
| the public_ was a big deal. All the modern miracles that
| enabled dense cities to grow upward, electric water pumps
| and elevators and inter-office telephones, were shiny and
| new and worth celebrating.
|
| So, celebrate they did. Telephone central offices built in
| the 1920s and 30s are cathedrals to the tamed electron,
| with ornate Art-Deco carvings and stone arches and tile
| inlay adorning their entrances. I've had the privilege
| (yes!) of working in quite a number of them, and while the
| asbestos precautions are a hassle sometimes, there is a
| palpable feeling, even a century later, of showing up to
| work somewhere respectable. Proud. Exalted.
| FabHK wrote:
| Zeche Zollverein is an industrial complex in Essen, Germany.
| Shaft 12, built in the 1930s in the Bauhaus style, has been
| called the "most beautiful coal mine in the world":
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zollverein_Coal_Mine_Industria...
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zollverein_Coal_Mine_Industria...
| camtarn wrote:
| 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.
| biofox wrote:
| Scott Alexander wrote an interesting post on this:
|
| https://astralcodexten.substack.com/p/whither-tartaria
| samizdis wrote:
| 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...
| camtarn wrote:
| Wow! Absolutely gorgeous.
|
| I wonder what the motivation was for such over-the-top
| decoration? Lots of money sloshing around and a desire to
| make things beautiful for beauty's sake? Individual or
| governmental prestige?
| jesterpm wrote:
| I assumed that the gap between the cost to do the bare
| minimum and the cost to do some elaborate was smaller at
| the time. If you're already laying each brick by hand, it
| seems like the incremental cost to work a pattern into the
| bricks would be small compared to modern (bland) poured-
| concrete buildings, where we lay a whole floor in one go.
| Likewise in other trades.
|
| We invented machines to build large amounts of simple
| things cheaply, so we designed simpler things.
| doovd wrote:
| Reminds me of metro stations in Moscow: https://www.theguar
| dian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2015/oct/31...
| Arrath wrote:
| Wow that is gorgeous.
| jl6 wrote:
| I find data centers to be attractive in a functional sense (and
| some are even "decorated" via color coding). Maybe functional
| is just our age's style.
| ccity88 wrote:
| 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 identity of the area - literally
| opposite a council estate. The area is essentially unaffordable
| and has transformed into a sort of camden/southwark esque
| hellscape of bourgeois gentrification. Everyone I know has been
| either priced out, or will be in the next couple of years. I
| anticipate having to move due to developers wanting to demolish
| this council estate - I get letters every day asking about
| private purchasing agreements.
| walrus01 wrote:
| 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.
| gffrd wrote:
| East New York is the new LES!
| walrus01 wrote:
| not to be confused with _west new york_ , which confusingly
| enough, is in new jersey
| fumblebee wrote:
| I'm reminded of the (fantastic) documentary about a building I
| once lived in: Aragon Tower in Surrey Quays [1].
|
| Since it was built in the 1960s, it was one of the tallest
| council estate buildings in all of London, but ~twenty years
| ago private developers bought it out and converted it into
| "luxury" flats. At the base of these flats however, is the
| notorious Pepys council estate, of which Aragon Tower was once
| a part of.
|
| The documentary aims to shine a light on the disparity between
| the varnished lives of glossy marketeers and new residents of
| those in the "upgraded" tower, with the folks forcibly removed,
| and those in the Pepys estate with exceedingly hard lives.
|
| Highly recommend.
|
| [1] https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4asu6x
| mmarq wrote:
| I'm not sympathetic at all with this idea.
|
| They shouldn't have built shops and restaurants because there's
| a council estate?
|
| On gentrification, if you own your flat then you have won the
| lottery, for its price is 8 times what it was 20 years ago.
| Similarly if you can use the so-called "right to buy". If you
| are renting privately, you should get you MP to vote the
| abolition of section 21, which is an uncivilised law. That
| should sort out all issues related to people being priced out
| of the area.
| OhyeahIfrgot wrote:
| My grandfather grew up in Battersea - just off Park Road - in
| the 1920s, and he told me that his first 'proper' job after
| leaving school was as a 'telegram boy' and that one of his
| first deliveries was to the base of the 'rear left' tower (as
| you look at it from the river) while it was still only about
| half way finished, to one of the stone masons. I have photos of
| him in his uniform and cap and its lovely to imagine him
| climbing up the scaffold to deliver the telegram.
| detritus wrote:
| 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, I know that my view isn't exactly unanimous, so
| clearly some people like this sort of 'development'.
| gswdh wrote:
| flir wrote:
| It's cold comfort, but gentrification isn't an end-state it's
| a process. Large parts of London have reached their soulless
| peak, and are going to start sliding down the other side of
| the slope. In a couple of generations they'll be filled with
| the marginalised again, and the cycle will start over.
| astrange wrote:
| The counterfactual to gentrification (no investment)
| wouldn't help anyone; you'd just have some rotting empty
| buildings.
|
| Though, what people call gentrification is often just
| younger people moving into an area replacing older people.
| So maybe you could fight it by building senior housing and
| whatever it is old British people like. Model trains maybe.
| 202206241203 wrote:
| 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.
| SoftTalker wrote:
| 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.
| jl6 wrote:
| Synthetic is the right word. They are trying to package and
| sell authenticity. I just went to the website of the
| development. Sorry, the "village". They've even got a "street
| food festival".
|
| I don't really object to any of the commerce, but the fake
| brands and lifestyle are intense cringe.
| jonwinstanley wrote:
| Unfortunately this is the way of the world. This is a major
| redevelopment and has cost hundreds of millions of pounds. To
| do it they take on huge investment, the investors expect a
| return so obviously they've built fancy shops, restaurants
| etc.
|
| I understand that there are places where redevelopment has
| been handled more sensitivity but this area in particular has
| needed an enormous outlay to convert it such a primate area.
|
| Hopefully within a few years it will start to gain its own
| identity and start again.
| mmarq wrote:
| > Unfortunately this is the way of the world. This is a
| major redevelopment and has cost hundreds of millions of
| pounds. To do it they take on huge investment, the
| investors expect a return so obviously they've built fancy
| shops, restaurants etc.
|
| I always wonder what's the alternative to fancy shops. Is
| it the usual English high street with store signs made of
| rotten wood? Cheap minicab companies?
|
| > I understand that there are places where redevelopment
| has been handled more sensitivity but this area in
| particular has needed an enormous outlay to convert it such
| a primate area.
|
| There's nothing to preserve in that area. It was an
| industrial wasteland surrounded by council flats and dodgy
| pubs.
|
| > Hopefully within a few years it will start to gain its
| own identity and start again.
|
| Hopefully not, hopefully it will develop a new and better
| identity.
| stuaxo wrote:
| The template for most British town centres is terrible.
| detritus wrote:
| Quite. I suppose I'm ignoring the fact that London was
| developed in bygone years in similary large tranches that
| have eventually found their form.
| [deleted]
| pcrh wrote:
| I lived nearby for a few years many years ago.
|
| While I appreciate the sentiments you express, I can say that
| the site was all but abandoned for many many years. For a while
| it seemed likely that the iconic towers would be demolished, as
| there was no economic case to be made for keeping them. So I'm
| glad they were saved, somehow.
|
| Even so, I agree that the recent developments south of the
| river are rather soul-less. Areas such as 9 Elms and along the
| river towards Wandsworth are particularly lacking in visual or
| any other interest.
| easytiger wrote:
| Don't understand this view. For a start clearing up the area to
| make it buildable cost somewhere in the region of PS1bn. If you
| are harking back to a time when it was an undesirable wasteland
| I can't agree that that constitutes a better world.
|
| Much of London complaining about gentrification is complaining
| that the postwar desolation of London was a good thing; because
| that's what they are "benefitting" from.
| TheOtherHobbes wrote:
| The displaced people still have to live somewhere, even if
| the bougies like to pretend otherwise.
| [deleted]
| KptMarchewa wrote:
| There's no "displaced" people if the space was unused for
| 40 years.
| ChrisKnott wrote:
| It wasn't even residential it was an industrial area
| mmarq wrote:
| Yes, that area was an obscene wasteland, right in front of
| that monstrosity on the other side of the river: Churchill
| gardens.
|
| Before the power station was renewed, the only place with
| something to do in the entirety of the Wandsworth borough was
| Northcote road (and 15 years ago not even that).
| MrsPeaches wrote:
| Not to mention that the view of the power station from Chelsea
| bridge is completely gone due to the development. Such a shame,
| it was one of my favourite views in London.
| londons_explore wrote:
| The circuit diagrams above the control panels appear to be
| nonsensical...
|
| Do they use some notation I'm unfamiliar with, or are they some
| 'artists impression' by a non-technical artist?
|
| If the latter, I'm really disappointed. 80 year old steam systems
| and generators are understandable by anyone doing high school
| physics, and we really shouldn't be making museum pieces that
| have made-up nonsense to try and make things impossible to
| understand.
| dtgriscom wrote:
| I'm 99% sure they're real. They don't represent transistors and
| resistors; they're transformers, generators, switches, etc.
|
| Would love to get a technical tour, though.
| blueflow wrote:
| Its common to make up some other diagram systems for specific
| usecases.
| djaychela wrote:
| The article says that Lucas UK was part of the restoration
| team. I'd be suprised if they were just making things up to
| look nice - and while they don't make any sense to me in terms
| of normal circuit diagrams, it's quite possible they are using
| non-standard (or probably now extinct) notation.
| ceejayoz wrote:
| You can see the same diagrams in the pre-restoration photos
| (example: https://londonist.com/2013/02/panorama-battersea-
| power-stati...). They won't have made any modifications from
| the original state if they can avoid it.
| myself248 wrote:
| "Single line diagram" is common in utility power, because the
| electricity itself is 3-phase so drawing individual conductors
| and components would clutter the diagram with information not
| needed at a high level.
|
| Many discrete components are omitted as well; the idea is to
| give the operators an immediately-comprehensible sense of how
| much power is flowing where, and where the measurement and
| interruption points are. Little more is needed at that stage.
| s3ctor8 wrote:
| > 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?
| liketochill wrote:
| I wonder if my pihole is blocking them
| jaygreco wrote:
| My thought exactly! At least on mobile, it kind of defeats the
| purpose of the unveiling if there are no images to see...
| dublin wrote:
| I'm on desktop (Firefox) and the top image is the only one I
| see, too - I spent a minute or so hunting to see if they were
| hiding somewhere, to no avail...
| ChrisClark wrote:
| Even on desktop, there is only the header image.
| [deleted]
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