‘Hand Battersea to campaigners’
Battersea: soaring price tag.
Commercial uses doomed to fail, says London’s former planning chief
The redevelopment of Battersea Power Station will never be a success for commercial developers and should be handed over to campaigners, the Mayor of London’s former planning chief said.
Giles Dolphin, who retired in January, said the derelict landmark should be put in the hands of people who love it because their passion and ability to tap into lottery-type funding was its only hope. He also warned that allowing the decades-long stalemate to continue threatened other critical development in the area.
“There’s no development company in the world that will succeed,” said Dolphin, who added that commercial uses were doomed to failure because they had to make a profit. “It’s wrong to leave it in the hands of people who don’t care about it. Nothing positive is going to happen until the power station is handed over to people who want to preserve it.”
The most recent plans for the grade II*-listed landmark, which include planning permission for a Rafael Viñoly-designed scheme, went into administration in December and it is now for sale through Knight Frank.
As developers finalise bids for the May 4 deadline, Terry Farrell, who has designed a speculative scheme, said the “entry ticket is so high it’s stopping development”.
And Graham Morrison, director of Allies & Morrison which teamed up with Save Britain’s Heritage on a rival approach, said all the failed commercial plans placed the revenue-generating phases too far down the line.
Paul Finch, chair of Design Council Cabe, dismissed the idea that a commercial project would never succeed but said the building’s soaring price tag and repair bill necessitated massive over-development.
The beauty of the Farrell and Allies & Morrison schemes was that they did not involve development and thus avoided the levies, he said.
Dolphin was speaking at a Twentieth Century Society conference on Friday called Battersea Power Station: Conservation and Regeneration.
Indian consortium sees ‘merit’ in site
The first group to go public on its intention to bid for Battersea is a secretive Indian property consortium calling itself BPS Acquisition.
Three representatives stood up in the final minutes of the Twentieth Century Society’s conference at the Building Centre and announced their plan to bid for the site by the May 4 deadline.
Pragnesh Ondhia and Nisha Patel refused to reveal details of backers but said their money came from property development in India, Pakistan and the Middle East.
“We’ve done a feasibility study and there’s some merit,” said Ondhia.
“Our focus at this stage is to acquire the site.”
He said they had examined Farrell’s plan and the consented Viñoly scheme and invited approaches from heritage groups.
Ondhia admitted one reason for attending the conference was to identify the “stumbling blocks”.
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Readers' comments (14)
Wait for a clear day and hand it to a flight of bombers. It could be a London heritage experience. Everyone could wear special hats ans watch.
Cant we just turn it into a sustainable eco-ruin?
Hmmm, sort of like Speer's long term plans for New Berlin? That after the empire it would eventually fall into romantic ruination..........
Sounds like a typical planning chief, to automatically condemn all those who might have the willingness to achieve something with the site...
What if the Battersea Power Station became Alain de Botton’s atheist cathedral ? Read about it here: http://wp.me/p2cyKZ-1a
"Bombers are a planners best friend" :)
The sale price is too high.
If commercial operators cannot make a profit, must I subsidise some "campaigners" to make a go of it.
Give it to me, free of charge, and no Planning Gain requirements, and I could certainly produce something cool
Give me the bombers and we can produce something hot
Could Robert Hodges just take his boys' toys and go and play somewhere else? Giles Dolphin's comments are the first intelligent remarks I've heard on this subject from any non-campaigner. And if it weren't for the campaigners we wouldn't have Barlaston Hall (SAVE's first case), most of Spitalfields (houses and market), Shurland Hall or many others.
If the site had been turned into a park 20 years ago we might be further forward than we are now. And I don't mean a parkin the traditional sense of the word. It needs to be something which starts off cheap and innovative and is capable of changing over time - a sort of large goody-bag of pop-parks, events and happenings.