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Buildings where the building is the reason to go: the inside-out, the Art Deco, the concrete, and the ones that make no sense at all until somebody explains them.
Giles Gilbert Scott's power station, hollowed out and left as raw as they dared.
IndustrialContemporaryYou can go insideFree
Bankside Power Station was built in two stages between 1947 and 1963 by Giles Gilbert Scott, who also designed Battersea and the red telephone box, and it was deliberately given a single chimney lower than the dome of St Paul's across the water. It shut in 1981. Herzog and de Meuron won the competition to convert it in 1995 by proposing to do less than anyone else: keep the shell, keep the turbine hall as one enormous empty room, and add a horizontal glass beam of light along the roof. The Blavatnik Building of 2016 is theirs too, a twisted brick pyramid at the back with a free viewing level on the tenth floor.
Step-free access
| Monday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
|---|---|
| Tuesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Wednesday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Thursday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
| Friday | 10:00 – 21:00 |
| Saturday | 10:00 – 21:00 |
| Sunday | 10:00 – 18:00 |
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Data is compiled from public sources including OpenStreetMap, under the ODbL. Hours change often, so check before making a journey.