Battersea Power Station Visit

[floydraser]

Due to a weather forecast which favoured going to London for the day, we did. 

I've been interested to see the renovation of the old power station and now it's all finished and open we thought we'd give a go. Box ticked but we won't be going back for a while. Firstly though, access to it it very easy as it has it's own tube station with trains direct from Euston on the Northern line, no changes. From the outside it's an amazing place. As you walk up to it you think are close until you realise the scale of it all. 

Inside are three floors of very high end shops and eating/drinking places. First port of call though were the very clean toilets (an age thing) which - wait for it - were free!

Unfortunately for anyone interested the old main control room is a venue so inaccessible although you can see a bit of it. "Control Room B" is a cocktail bar with a few of the old panels at the back of it where they'll let you have an audio tour (that's a flashing pair of headphones while you walk about 10 yards past them all) for £12.50! 

Or you can see it all from behind a glass screen for nothing as they charge you £15 each for a G&T.

There's a lift up to a view from the top of one of the iconic chimneys but that'll set you back over twenty quid each.

Yes it's all a bit high end and I wondered why we were the only ones in there until I got the bill. Most of the shops didn't seem to have any customers. Fish and chips at Gordon Ramsey's would have been £23 each but we didn't bother. However, outside the main building is another area with eating/drinking places which were very busy so I guess we got caught by not looking around fully first. There's also a sitting area next to the river with a public screen showing live Wimbledon. Eating and drinking in London is expensive, we get that and you should expect the best, but this was a bit over the top we thought. I'm glad we went and had a look and I would recommend the same to anyone else, but take sandwiches!

Or go to Horniman's by HMS Belfast. We went close by there to the open area near the "Beehive", had a very reasonable double cone ice cream for a fiver and watched Wimbledon on the big screen there.

[Aboattime]

Thanks for the heads up, we have tickets to go,just have to take plenty of money.

[Matt]

We went for an afternoon/evening last summer and really enjoyed it. Plenty of places to eat at what these days are pretty standard London prices. We had lunch here and it was pretty good https://www.eatlebab.com

The lift is pretty unique 😃

And we spent the evening out on the jetty with a drink or two.

[grendel]

I went on the last private (in company) tour of greenwich power station, and learned some interesting facts- like why 2 chimneys are shorter (interfered with the astronomers) and that it was the backup power for the whole underground