Apple's London headquarters to be housed at Battersea Power Station

I spent the summer and fall of 1984 in London (living in this council flat in Elephant and Castle), and I loved hanging out at a park near the Battersea Power Station. Built in the 1930s, the coal-fired power station in South London had ceased operations a year earlier, and I was spellbound by the combination of its almost incomprehensible massiveness, utter stillness, and the emptiness around it.

I haven't seen new photos of it for many years, and I was surprised to discover that a lot of commercial development has taken place next to it. Encroached upon by other large buildings, it no longer has mysterious grandeur. It looks like it has been caged and subdued. I hate it.

From The Standard:

[Apple] will move 1,400 staff from eight sites around the capital into what it calls "a new Apple campus" at the Grade II* listed former electricity generator.

Its employees will occupy all six floors of office space in the brick "cathedral of power," which is being painstakingly restored after 33 years standing derelict on the banks of the Thames.

[caption id="attachment_485146" align="alignnone" width="800"] Image: Battersea in 2008 Wikipedia[/caption]