A red brick power station with four white chimneys on the Thames, its brick shell used by Nineteen Eighty-Four, The Dark Knight and Sherlock.
What Battersea looks like
's four white chimneys rise from a red brick block on the south bank of the Thames in Wandsworth. The brick shell dates from the 1930s to the 1950s, with two chimneys at each end of the building. Glass residential towers now stand close behind it on both sides.
Inside, the Boiler House rises through several floors as a shopping arcade, with a steel gantry crane still hanging under the glass roof and olive trees planted on the ground floor. The open volume is tall enough to fit St Paul's Cathedral inside it.
A paved path runs along the river in front of the building, past a passenger pier. , a pedestrianised street beside the power station, runs between the chimney base and a row of curved glass apartment blocks.
To the south, runs along the river, with a zoo and the gold inside it. The pagoda's tiered wooden roofs and gilded spire rise over a gold Buddha figure set into its base.
South of the park, terraced streets continue toward Clapham Junction, two storey Victorian houses with chimney pots along the roofline and cars parked along the curb. Shops sit under flats along Battersea Park Road, with a cycle lane painted along it.
On Lavender Hill, is a red brick and stone former town hall with a clock turret and a carved pediment over the entrance. , a short walk from the park, has a curved glass reception building and a green shuttered gatehouse across its courtyard.
Shot in Battersea
Battersea Power Station's brick shell stood empty for decades, and productions used it as a ready made ruin during that time. Battersea Dogs and Cats Home, a short walk from the power station, has supplied a different kind of screen credit since 2012.
Nineteen Eighty-Four, 1984
Battersea Power Station
Played Victory Mansions, 1984
Michael Radford's Nineteen Eighty-Four used the empty power station as the facade of Victory Mansions, Winston Smith's tower block. Other shots of the same derelict shell appear elsewhere in the film as ruined background.
The Dark Knight, 2008
Played Gotham City, present day
Christopher Nolan filmed The Dark Knight's Gotham City warehouse scene at the power station, both inside and outside the building, where Rachel is held hostage among barrels of gasoline. A false wall was built and rigged with explosives in front of the real, listed structure to protect it. Nearby residents called emergency services, believing the explosion was real.
Sherlock, 2012
The BBC series Sherlock filmed at the power station for its 2012 episode A Scandal in Belgravia. An exterior shot opens the sequence, and John Watson meets Irene Adler inside the building.
Children of Men, 2006
Played the Ark of Arts, near future
Alfonso Cuaron used the power station's exterior only for the Ark of Arts, a fictional near future art repository, with a digital Thames bridge added that does not exist in real life. The interior of the same sequence was filmed at the other Giles Gilbert Scott power station on the Thames, Bankside, now Tate Modern.
For the Love of Dogs, 2012 to present
Battersea Dogs and Cats Home
The ITV documentary series For the Love of Dogs has filmed at Battersea Dogs and Cats Home since 2012. It follows the dogs and cats that come through the home, using the site's own kennels, courtyard and reception building.
What Battersea can double for
Lots Road in Chelsea, London, United Kingdom
Lots Road Power Station sits a mile and a half upriver in Chelsea. It is built from the same red brick as Battersea, though only two of its original four chimneys still stand, the other two removed in the 1960s. Completed in 1904, it has been redeveloped into flats, finished a few years ahead of Battersea's own conversion to shops and offices. Two chimneys instead of four gives the building away in any wide shot that takes in the roofline, so frame close on the brick and one chimney rather than shooting a full establishing shot. Try searching red brick two chimneys now.
Bankside Power Station, the other Giles Gilbert Scott design on the Thames, is now Tate Modern. Its brick Turbine Hall stood in for Battersea's own interior in Children of Men, cut directly against Battersea's exterior shots. Bankside's single central chimney tower looks nothing like Battersea's four, so never show its own exterior and call it Battersea. Frame the Turbine Hall's brick walls and steel trusses on their own, tight enough that the mismatched chimney never enters the shot. Try searching brick Turbine Hall now.
Kraftwerk Berlin, a former East Berlin heating plant on Köpenicker Strasse, is now an events venue inside a raw concrete shell with two chimneys rather than Battersea's four. The stripped turbine floor and unfinished walls read closer to Battersea's own pre-2022 derelict state than to the glass and shopfront building standing there today. The two chimneys and bare concrete give the building away in any wide shot that includes the roofline, so use this for tight interiors and close exteriors rather than a full establishing shot. Try searching raw concrete chimney now.
