Battersea Power Station

We were incredibly fortunate to have the opportunity to explore the Battersea Power Station as a part of the London Open Doors weekend.

We (along with everyone else in London) thought it would be prudent to get there early to avoid the queues. By ‘early’, we thought an hour or so before the doors were due to open would well and truly do the trick.

No quite.

It soon became apparent the thousands and thousands of people had the same idea. We walked and walked and walked and walked before finally finding the end of the queue…about a kilometer back down the road.

After waiting patiently in the early Autumn cold for over two and half hours, we finally made our way inside. 

Thankfully, it was worth the wait. The iconic London landmark is due to begin being redeveloped, so we were lucky to see it in all its decayed and derelict glory. While it is hard to tell form the outside, it is essentially just a shell with no roof and no internal walls, just crumbling concrete and jagged metal supporting beams remaining.

While it sounds strange, it really is a stunning landmark.

On our way out, we walked past a lot of angry people who had been denied entry. After planning for 10,000 and not expecting the 20,000 that actually showed up, the Power Station closed two hours earlier than planned. Again, we were feeling very fortunate to have got there when we did.