A Birthday Day Out in Town

On Saturday, it was OH's birthday. To celebrate, we'd arranged to meet LB in town for lunch. The chosen destination this time around was Battersea Power Station.

In recent years, the disused power station and the area around it has been completely redeveloped into a part residential, part retail scheme. I'd heard about it from a friend who'd recently visited and I'd also seen lots of retail jobs there advertised since it opened last October, so I was interested to see it for myself.

We arrived at around 1pm. OH and I travelled in by train and underground, which in itself was a bit of a culture shock for us, as we so rarely take the underground these days. It took about an hour from where we live in East London.

Once there, stopped off for tea/coffee in Paris Baguette, a lovely patisserie in the mall, whilst we waited for LB to arrive. We then took a walk around the mall, which has been built into what were the two turbine halls of the power station. It's a very nice mall as malls go, with some very high end shops, but also some more recognisable brands too. It has been very nicely done and it wasn't too busy either so it was enjoyable to walk around. Here are a few pictures of one of the two turbine halls:

There are quite a few bits of machinery from the power station still on site here and there and some of the building's architectural features have been well preserved.

There was also a free exhibition of models and billboards telling the history of the power station from being built in 1929, until and beyond it's decomission in 1983. This was really interesting to read.

We wandered around inside and out, looking for somewhere to eat, but it was very busy and many restaurants were fully booked or there were queues to wait until a table became available.  

Here's a picture of the outside of the power station:

We eventually were given a lovely booth at Le Bab, a kebab restaurant inside the Power Station Mall. The staff here were super friendly and the service was impeccable, so we had a lovely meal for OH's birthday.

There is also a very interesting attraction in Battersea Power Station Mall, which is Lift 109. This is a lift that takes visitors up one of the power station's four chimneys which are over 100 metres high. Unfortunately, it was fully booked until 7pm on the day we visited and we weren't planning on staying that late, so we didn't manage to get up there on this visit. It has to be booked online ahead of your visit, so if you are ever interested in visiting, make sure you do this before you go.

We had a lovely afternoon out and we were really impressed with the results of £9 billion redevelopment of this Grade 2* listed building, which has created an interesting new destination that visitors to London can add to their itinery. It's definitely worth a visit.