See? I told you the roof was off! The main bulk of the building really is just a shell held up by scaffolding, and the the thing that really struck me was how much small it seemed from the inside. I mean, it’s *not* small, not by any reasonable standard, but it’s an iconic building that looms very large when see from outside, and they you get into the boiler house, and suddenly it doesn’t seem that vast at all.

Shockingly, this is the interior of one of the two turbine halls at Battersea – the only bits of the building that still have a roof on them, and quite a dramatic roof it is too. It’s the combination different kinds of line, and the colour palette that sell this one to me.

This photo looks better larger, so I’d suggest clicking through to flickr, and looking at the largest option in the all sizes section.

This was taken in the tiny bit of the main boilerhouse we were allowed into. A previous redevelopment effort has gutted the place, leaving the building a huge shell, the middle section of which is open to the sky. I wanted to a get a shot that spoke of what had been done to the building without going for the obvious shot of the sky and chimneys from inside (although yes, I have one of those coming later, too).

Here’s the most normal, straight up shot I’ve got of the power station. It’s an absolutely gorgeous piece of Art Deco architecture designed by Giles Scott, and I thank fuck it is a a listed building, and must therefore remain visually intact during any redevelopment of the area. Amusingly, though, one of the redevelopment task will be to swap each of those 4 iconic chimneys with an identical replacement, as the concrete they’re made from is decaying badly, and they’re in danger of falling off…

I spent the morning round Battersea Power Station (and ran in to several people I know while there, all clutching cameras – quelle surprise), and will be posting a number of photos (some better than others) from there to my photoblog in the next few days. This one is not one of the finer ones, but it amuses me to start with one that has no discernable connection to the iconic building – you’ll just have to accept my word that it was taken in the power station grounds.