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Battersea Power Station: Interactive image provides chimney preview

Battersea Power Station Development Company Drawing of power station chimney viewBattersea Power Station Development Company
The lift inside the north west chimney will open to the public next year

An interactive "bubble image" allowing people to see what London looks like from the top of Battersea Power Station, has been released.

The immersive experience gives users a preview of the building's chimney lift.

The glass lift is situated inside the structure's north west chimney and will take people up 358 ft (109m) when it opens as a viewing platform next year.

The Battersea Power Station Development Company said it will "be an experience like no other".

Getty Images Battersea Power StationGetty Images
The main boiler house in the coal-fired station was large enough to fit St Paul's Cathedral inside

Having remained empty for decades, Battersea Power Station has been undergoing a £9bn regeneration project.

The Grade II* listed building, on the south bank of the River Thames, will contain apartments, shops, restaurants and other leisure facilities.

Technology giant Apple is also basing its new London campus across six floors of the structure.

Battersea Power Station Development Company Drawing of power station chimney viewBattersea Power Station Development Company
About 30 people will be able to ride in the lift at a time

The chimney lift will be run by events firm IMG and is part of a visitor experience looking at the iconic power station's history.

The first apartment residents will move into the building this year but it will not fully open to the public until 2022.

Sam Cotton, head of leasing at Battersea Power Station Development Company, said they were "creating a new destination in London".

Getty Images Battersea Power StationGetty Images
Before its redevelopment, the disused building had been empty for decades
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The history of an iconic structure

Getty Images Battersea Power Station in 1934Getty Images
Battersea Power Station initially only had two chimneys
  • Work began on the site in 1929. Initially it was proposed that the chimneys would be square not circular
  • The first stage of the station was completed in 1935. At the time the building only had two chimneys
  • The second phase was completed in 1955. When it was finished, the space inside the main boiler house was so vast it would have been possible to fit St Paul's Cathedral inside
  • An electrical failure at the station on 20 April 1964 caused power cuts across London including at BBC Television Centre, delaying the launch of BBC Two which had been due to go to air that night
  • In 1977 the structure featured on the front cover of Pink Floyd's album Animals. A giant inflatable pig was tethered between two of the chimneys, but it broke free closing the airspace to Heathrow Airport and leading to RAF jets being dispatched
  • Battersea Power Station was decommissioned and finally stopped generating electricity in 1983
  • The building was purchased by different developers in subsequent decades but lay empty until being taken over by current shareholders SP Setia, Sime Darby Property and the Employers Provident Fund
PA A giant inflatable pig flies above Battersea Power StationPA
The cover for Pink Floyd's album Animals was recreated in 2011, 35 years after the record was released