Try Battersea Power Station's new viewing platform on a unique London getaway

It’s taken over 10 years, 1.75 million new bricks and a £5bn investment to date, but the Battersea Power Station area in southwest London is starting to feel like an up-and-coming micro neighbourhood within Battersea. A walk down the main artery, Electric Boulevard, passes coffee trucks, restaurant terraces and a colourful playground by landscape architects LDA Design — all part of the development of a 42-acre brownfield site encompassing Battersea Power Station, which is slowly being revealed through phased openings. On the neighbourhood’s north side, there’s a Thames pier allowing boats to deliver visitors via a small deckchair-strewn riverside park that will be used as an ice-skating rink come Christmas, and a hangar for indoor padel courts that opened in September.

All of this is a fitting introduction to the red-brick power station itself, a six-acre art deco giant that operated from 1933 until 1983 and once provided electricity for a fifth of London. To put it in perspective, Tate Modern on the South Bank — another of London’s defunct coal power stations — has one turbine hall; Battersea has two and is roughly double the size. Inside, this ‘cathedral of power’ now houses more than 100 shops, restaurants, bars and cafes, plus a 24,00sq ft food hall in the old boiler room, the Turbine Theatre and a cinema, as well as Apple’s new UK headquarters. It’s one of the most visually arresting developments in the world, and also one of the most challenging architecture revival projects London has seen for decades. Touring it offers a window into the capital’s past and future.

The ride up the chimney

Battersea’s four cream-coloured chimneys are such a distinctive part of the Thames skyline that Historic England has stipulated that no other buildings on the 42-acre site may be built higher than the chimney bases. The owners have used this to their advantage by opening Lift109 in the art deco Turbine Hall A. Its glass elevator shoots up the inside of the dramatically lit northwest chimney like a cannonball and emerges at the top at a height of 109 metres (358ft), offering a 360-degree viewing platform over central London. Before the ride, there’s a small interactive mezzanine exhibition about the building’s heritage, using original records to explore its architectural pedigree and its role in British pop culture — over the years, the station has been used as a filming location in everything from The Beatles’ 1965 film Help! to the 2008 Batman hit The Dark Knight, the latter at a time when its turbine halls were still a dystopian vision piled high with rubble.

When the circular glass lift pops out of the chimney top, you have roughly seven minutes to check out landmarks such as The Shard, the BT Tower, the London Eye and Chelsea Barracks. It’s worth timing your trip with one of the station’s organised tours: your guide will point out original relics like the art deco bathroom tiles on some walls, the steel girders lining other walls and the huge gantry cranes, on the ceilings of the two turbine halls, which would once have moved heavy equipment around. Tours also allow a peek inside Control Rooms A and B, where the original knobs, levels and monitors have been incorporated into what are now bar-event spaces.

Where to stay

From Art’otel’s steaming rooftop infinity pool, it’s possible to swim backstroke with one eye on Battersea Power Station’s south-facing chimneys. Heated to 28C, the pool is usable year-round and gives an unparalleled bird’s-eye view on the parts of the power station other travellers don’t get to see; at sunrise, you might even get the deck to yourself.

This hotel — the only one on Battersea Power Station’s doorstep — looks over the landmark from many angles. Behind the pool lies the JOIA al fresco summer rooftop bar, and one floor below, there’s JOIA’s pastel-palette Iberian restaurant, where the landmark can be seen through huge glass windows. Tozi Grand Cafe on the ground floor is another dining option, serving well-turned-out Italian dishes across the road from the power station’s main entrance. As the name suggests, this boutique hotel brand is a champion of the arts; guests will see it in the bold, playful room furnishings and lining the stylish lounges.

Three more unusual London viewpoints

1. Sky Garden
The capital’s highest public garden, at 508ft (155m), is in a contemporary glass tower looking out over the City of London. Head to the palm-filled atrium for sunrise breakfasts, lunches or weekend DJs with cocktails overlooking the Gherkin and the distinctive ‘cheesegrater’ wedge of the Leadenhall Building, among others.

2. The Standard
Pizza and cocktails fuel the parties at this astroturfed rooftop bar at The Standard hotel — a stylish US import with views over King’s Cross station and the gothic spires of St Pancras’s Eurostar terminal, close to the canalside Coal Drops Yard regeneration project.

3. The Portrait by Richard Corrigan
The little-known fourth-floor dining space above London’s National Portrait Gallery was revamped as a restaurant and bar by Irish chef Richard Corrigan in 2023. Be sure to ask for a table by the wall of windows looking out onto Trafalgar Square and Nelson’s Column.