Writers Owen Hatherley (A Guide to the New Ruins of Great Britain, The Ministry of Nostalgia) and Peter Watts (Up in Smoke: The Failed Dreams of Battersea Power Station) debate the merits of the ongoing regeneration of Nine Elms, exploring the significance of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment in the context of the immediate area and London as a whole.
The power station has been the subject of numerous schemes since it was decommissioned in 1983 – why were these unbuildable and what has now changed? What impact will its redevelopment have on the neighbourhood? Will anything of the old Nine Elms be allowed to remain? Should the building have been allowed to remain a ruin? And what does its role as the centrepiece for a new community tell us about property, power and politics in London today?