The forecast was considerably better for today so we decided to take the chance to catch the train up town (despite a rail strike). We were given tickets to Battersea Power Stations 'Lift 109’ and also a route that one of the photo club members had planned for a walk so we decided to follow the same route.
After coffee and a biscuit on Vauxhall bridge we found the Thames path. Everything is so new in this area and it’s somewhere that neither of us have visited before. The apartments were very impressive as was the exterior of the American Embassy. I made a point of photographing this area knowing full well that I would be on a number of security cameras!
Nearby there is a swimming pool suspended high in the air, linking two of the high-rises and it was amazing to see people swimming above us through the glass bottom of the pool. The area has been really well landscaped with large ponds with stepping stones with nature planting and dragonflies flying around. In-between another couple of buildings was a shaded fern filled garden with little trails between the trees.
We continued walking past the new ‘super sewer’ works and then towards the power station. This was the closest I have ever been and it really is impressive. Inside had been gutted after it became redundant in the early 1980’s but now it has been redeveloped with shops and restaurants, museum areas and some of the original power house rooms complete with dials and controls from the 1950’s.
We decided to use our vouchers and despite a lack of help from the shop and desk I redeemed and booked our placed on the 14.20 lift up the chimney! There was an intestine information display followed by an interactive room before walking to the lift. This was very fast and I wasn’t sure if it was actually moving. We had to get out and walk up a few stairs before going into the final glass lift which travels to the top of one of the iconic chimneys where we had 8 minutes to view London from 360 degrees along with another dozen or so people. It was a stunning view and was over too quickly before we started descending back the way we had come up.
Afterwards we had our first ever ‘poké’ bowl which was also good before we walked out to the river front for an external view of the power station. We were flagging now and so took the brand-new extension of the Northern Line from Battersea direct to Waterloo and with some brisk walking we caught a train which departed for Teddington about 2 minutes after we sat down!
