Battersea’s chimneys will return, vow developers

The developers of Battersea Power Station have applied to demolish and replace three of its chimneys at once to speed up restoration of the building.

The original planning permission granted by Wandsworth Council in 2011 included a legal agreement that the crumbling concrete chimneys, which are badly corroded by sulphur and carbon gases, could only be knocked down and rebuilt one at a time.

The requirement was included to stop developers knocking down all of the chimneys — between which a giant inflatable pig floated on the cover of the 1977 Pink Floyd album Animals — and then refusing to replace them to save money.

However, the Malaysian consortium which own the Grade II*-listed former generator — decommissioned in 1983 — has now asked the council for a “deed of variation” to the deal.

This will allow them to knock down and partially reconstruct one tower to “prove” that they are committed to full restoration. The other three could then be demolished at once, knocking up to two years off the £15 million chimney replacement schedule.

In exchange for this concession, the developers are offering to provide Wandsworth with a bond for the full value of the chimney works before the project even starts.

The new chimneys would be replicas of the originals, except for the internal linings which were installed to protect them from corrosive gases produced in the power station’s vast boilers. The only possible alternative is a temporary “patch-up” that would last about a decade.

The removal of the 103-metre high chimneys is one of the most sensitive aspects of the entire £8 billion redevelopment of the “temple of power” and the 38 acres of wasteland that surrounds it. Campaigner, Keith Garner, of the Battersea Power Station Community Group, said: “It is entirely plausible that the owners will take the chimneys down and then contrive some reason why they can’t be rebuilt.”

But Rob Tincknell, chief executive of the Battersea Power Station Development Company, said it was “absolutely preposterous” to suggest that the chimneys will disappear.

“The chimneys are what Battersea Power Station is all about. They are on all our branding and are an internationally recognised iconic image.