London: Battersea Power Station reborn, boom of luxury homes

The building made famous
by '30s cover Animals Pink Floyd

It's the fastest selling real estate of this kind recorded in London. 

In four days were sold real estate properties with a total value of 600 million pounds (nearly € 724 million) in the converted historic Battersea Power Station, the one with four colossal chimneys, in the south-west of London, the largest brick building in Europe remained unused for three decades.  An interesting example of luxury homes building boom.

They lined up starting at 6:30 am, reports the British press to grab a seat, large or small, preferably overlooking the River Thames, as this may become one of the largest urban corners 'cool' of the "new London" .

The building is considered one of the best examples of Art Deco architecture in the '30s and was made famous by the album cover of Pink Floyd's "Animals" of 1977, the one with the pig flying between the white chimneys of the plant.


The sale is open on Thursday and by Saturday had already been purchased all 600 units made available on the 800 in the project. From studios to 340 thousand pounds (415 thousand euro) in the attic of 6 million (over € 7 million). And the buyers belong to different classes: the bankers of the city to a former employee of the power plant. The company that operates the store is sure that soon all the 800 apartments will be sold, and in 2016 will begin the first tenants to live there. In fact, for the moment everything is on paper: the site has not yet been started, should start in the summer, but the project was assigned Uruguayan architect Rafael Vinoly and funded by a Malaysian company, it really makes my throat. 

The plant has stopped producing electricity in the early 80s and since then the industrial complex was designed for different locations, a Disneyland at one stage. To protect them, the four chimneys will be extracted and stored separately during the work. The conversion also foresees the creation of green spaces, swimming pools, gyms and commercial spaces, which will be used up to 15 thousand people. The enthusiasm did remove checks for Battersea Station Pawer the experts also explain the sudden increase in real estate costs and the coincident lack of housing in the surrounding areas such as Kensington.