Battersea Power Station revamp: First phase approved
Plans for the first phase of the Battersea Power Station redevelopment have been approved.
Work can now begin to build 800 homes, a hotel and a complex for cafes, restaurants, bars, a gym, pool, spa, theatre and office studios to the west of the famous landmark.
Renovation of the decaying 1933 grade II* listed power station in south-west London will also begin in phase one.
It was decommissioned in 1983 and has since been vacant.
'Hundreds of jobs'
The £8bn masterplan includes 3,500 homes, a new Tube station, riverbus pier, pedestrian squares and a park.
Earlier this month, the government agreed a loan of up to £1bn that will allow London Underground to fund an extension of the Northern Line to Nine Elms on the South Bank.
The latest planning decision was made on Thursday.
Wandsworth Council's planning chairman Nick Cuff said the site's "vast empty spaces will be gradually brought to life" and support "hundreds of jobs".
The phase one site includes the former South Lambeth Goods Yard and Spicer Cowan warehouse, the original location of Dalkia boiler house, the Grade II-listed former Battersea Water Pumping Station and a four-storey former Thames Water warehouse.
Planners said residents in Chelsea Bridge Wharf buildings to the west would face the biggest impact.
They added that some will lose views of the river and the power station buildings but there will be no undue loss of privacy or sunlight.
Battersea Power Station is one of 27 major development sites located in the Opportunity Area of Nine Elms on the South Bank.
Nine Elms includes the Albert Embankment and parts of Vauxhall and Battersea.
A Malaysian consortium, comprising S P Setia, Sime Darby and the Employees Provident Fund, bought the 39-acre site in July for £400m.
The first phase of the redevelopment, designed by Raphael Vinoly, is expected to be completed by 2016.
Two new Tube stops are planned - one on Wandsworth Road, the other at Battersea Power Station.
If planning approval is obtained, then construction of the Northern Line extension could begin in 2015. Trains could start running in 2020.