Strolling through a landmark... Battersea

Apparently Battersea Power Station has been voted one of London's favourite landmarks -
and from the outside at least, it's not hard to see why...

The four chimneys are visible across the city and stand almost in defiance of time. At the time of World War Two, only two chimneys stood (two more were added in the 1950s), and - we were told by our rather enthusiastic guide - were lucky to survive several bombs that landed… but miraculously did not explode.















Inside it's a whole other story. It's almost like there's air space which has, for some reason, been enclosed by walls. It's less a building than a scaffold, decaying sadly, slowly, damply, beautifully.















We were there to see an exhibition of Chinese art - and as we walked through narrow corridors, water dripped over head ("the rain stopped two hours ago, but it's still raining inside" said our guide) and puddles surrounded our feet.

We watched films, covered our ears because of the loudness of a sound installation, and saw an uncommonly large amount of apples stored behind wire mesh, perhaps symbolising something… until they start to decay too, presumably.















We ended up watching a video of the planned changes to the site. We can expect hotels and apartments, offices and galleries, commercial and leisure spaces… it all looked rather too hi-tech, futuristic and swish for my liking.















When all the work's done, when the site becomes 'economically viable' again (!), I'll be the one standing there feeling a bit disappointed...

...wishing all the puddles and dripping decay could come back again.