In London, the new life of the emblematic Battersea power station

Located south of the Thames, the rehabilitation of the power station built in the 1930s is the latest example of the transformation projects of former industrial sites in the British capital.

Started in July 2013, the work which will have cost 9 billion pounds (about 10,2 billion euros) ended and the site opens Friday to the public.

Its 16 hectares now host more than 250 shops, cafes and restaurants, more than 270.000 m2 of commercial space as well as apartments, a theater, a hotel, an event space and 24 hectares of gardens.

In total, the designers of the project estimate that 25.000 people will live or work on the site, the result of "the most painstaking project to restore a post-industrial building in London", according to Ben Walker, of the agency LDA Design who worked there. contributed.

Having become a cult since the group Pink Floyd made it the cover of its Animals album in 1977, the power station had previously been the subject of numerous criticisms. When it was first built, the stability of its chimneys had been questioned, and some skeptics called it "gigantic and unnecessarily ugly".

At the height of its activity, the plant produced a fifth of the electricity consumed in London, supplying Buckingham Palace and Parliament in particular.

But by the 1970s its usefulness had declined, with the rise of new sources of electricity generation in the Thames Estuary. A first unit of the plant was shut down in 1975, and the second in 1983.

Several aborted projects then attempted to rehabilitate the building, which gradually lost its roof and gradually fell into disrepair. Until its takeover in 2012 by a consortium of Malaysian investors.

The architects had to face many challenges to transform the plant, in particular to respect the vision of the architect Giles Gilbert Scott, who played a major role in its construction, by creating "new and immense spaces".

Art deco jewel

After spitting smoke for half a century, the four chimneys, 8,4 meters in diameter, suffered in particular from corrosion and had to be dismantled before being rebuilt identically.

From now on, visitors will be able to climb to the top of one of them via a glass elevator to enjoy a panoramic view of London.

Other elements of the original building have been preserved, such as the space that housed the turbine of the first unit of the plant, an Art Deco jewel.

Another trace of the site's past: the 133-meter-long wharf that was used to load coal from the river is now lined with shops and restaurants.

Battersea Power Station is the latest in a long list of refurbished industrial sites in the British capital.

Another London power station, Bankside, also designed by Giles Gilbert Scott, has housed the Tate Modern, London's modern art museum, since 2000.

For Tom Goodaal, a partner at Related Argent, a specialist in urban renewal and who has worked in particular on the rehabilitation of King's Cross station in London, Battersea will arouse great attraction because it is an example of what "the mix happy with the old and the modern".

But its long-term success will come from the "magic" that can happen in the way the public will take possession of its spaces. “It will be the ability of people to walk between buildings and enjoy it without needing to be part of a particular club that will give it its true value,” he adds.