The restored control room A at Battersea Power Station
(Picture: James Parsons)This is the first look inside Battersea Power Station’s newly restored Art Deco Control Room familiar to film fans from its use in hit movies including The King’s Speech.
It has been restored to it’s original pre-war glory as the landmark building prepares to re-open in Autumn.
Originally built between 1929 and 1931, the room belongs to the building’s historic heyday when it powered the capital from the Houses of Parliament to Buckingham Palace.
Experts from Historic England helped restore the room which will be used as an events space within the regenerated site and which boasts a teak parquet floor laid in a herringbone pattern, marble wall tiles and a gold painted glass ceiling.
It has already played a starring role in The King’s Speech standing in for the BBC studio where Colin Firth’s character spoke to the nation and was also a location for a typically surreal scene in Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life.
The work on the control room is part of the wider regeneration project which will see its Turbine Halls open to the public later this year and a glass elevator take visitors 109 metres up its northwest chimney for a panoramic view of the capital.
Simon Murphy, Battersea Power Station Development Company (BPSDC) CEO, said: “The unveiling of our completely restored Control Room A is another pivotal moment in the regeneration of this iconic Grade II listed building.
“It has been a key objective to bring these historic areas back to life, whilst remaining true to their original forms. We are looking forward to bringing a new purpose to this piece of London’s history upon our opening this Autumn and to showing the public all of the incredibly detailed restoration work undertaken over the past decade to open this landmark up for all.”
The Power Station will be home to 254 apartments as well as more than 100 shops, bars and restaurants as well as a cinema and offices.
Almost all the apartments have already sold and more than three quarters of the retail and leisure space is either under offer or has been exchanged on.
