TUESDAY 7TH APRIL 2026

BATTERSEA POWER STATION - FOUR ICONIC CHIMNEYS

IAN SWANKIE

This is a talk about just one building. It has 60 million bricks, four chimneys and an amazing story to tell.  Planned in the 1920s, the massive power station operated for fifty years but was then abandoned for the next forty years while dozens of ideas were proposed for its use. It is now a Grade 2* listed building and has been brilliantly converted into a landmark development including residential, retail, offices and leisure which all still reflect its industrial heritage. In this sumptuously illustrated talk, Ian will take us on an armchair tour of this famous site.

A Londoner with a contagious enthusiasm for art and architecture, Ian is an official guide at Tate Modern, Tate Britain, Guildhall Art Gallery and St Paul’s Cathedral. He is also a freelance London tour guide. Since 2012 he has led a popular weekly independent art lecture group in his home town of Richmond in West London. He is an Accredited Lecturer of The Arts Society and a Freeman of the Worshipful Company of Art Scholars, one of the City livery companies.