Are you planning a visit to London? Are you wondering what is to see in Richmond and Battersea Power Station? On this post I will tell you what we did on a weekend visiting Richmond and Battersea Power Station in London.
Over the summer we went to visit our friends that live in St Margaret’s, London. This time we took our dog Bambino with us. We spent the Saturday walking around St. Margarets and Richmond and on Sunday we went to Battersea Power Station.
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We arrived at their place at around 12 o’clock and had some lunch with them. After lunch we went for a walk.
We started the walk at Marble Hill Park passing in front of “Marble Hill House”. This time we did not enter the house as we have visited it previously. We went straight to the river and to the Hammerton’s Ferry to cross to the other side of the river.
Check this post from a previous visit to my friends in St Margarets. I include information about Marble Hill House, Ham House and various other places in the area.
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Below is a map showing the places we visited on this weekend in London:
Once on the other side we passed in front of “Ham House and Garden”. Continuing the walk, we went in the direction of Petersham Nurseries.
We entered the nursery to see the garden ornaments and plants for sale. It is a lovely place, and you can easily spend many hours there buying, browsing or eating at their wonderful restaurant. We love to go there, and we always stop by if passing in front on our walks. They also have 2 restaurants and a café in Covent Garden that are the same standard as the one in Richmond.
After looking at the nice merchandise on sale at the nursery we continued our walk to Terrace Gardens and climbed to the top of Richmond Hill. There are beautiful views of the river and the valley from the top.
It was a lovely sunny day, and we stopped at the Roebuck Pub to get some drinks. We then sat in one of the benches on the pedestrian walkway in front and enjoyed the fabulous views and atmosphere of the area.
After the drinks we went down Terrace Gardens, which is a very well looked after garden, and admired the full bloom flower beds and plants until we got to Petersham Road. From there we went down to the riverbank and walked all the way to Richmond Bridge. We crossed the bridge and headed back to St. Margaret’s.
Dinner was with them at their house, and we stayed up talking until late before retiring for the night.
Next day after breakfast we got ready for our visit to Battersea Power Station. We opted to use public transport instead of going by car. We took bus 110 to Richmond and from there took the train to Vauxhall. From the train we could see the building with the floating swimming pool when we were approaching the station. We took another bus from there just for a few blocks.
Battersea Power Station is close by, and we walked from there passing through new residential high-rise buildings that looked very attractive. The area has been re-developed and is looking very trendy now. Bambino was very well behaved on the bus, tube and train!
BATTERSEA POWER STATION
Battersea Power Station was built in two stages, Battersea A was completed in 1935 and Battersea B completed in 1955. The main architect was J. Theo Halliday with the involvement of Sir Giles Gilbert Scott as well. They designed it in an Art Deco style interior and exterior, in brickwork with 4 rounded chimneys on each corner of the building.
The interior had lavish Art Deco fittings such as Italian marble hall, parquet floors and wrought-iron staircases. It was a very impressive building, huge and dominating in the London landscape.
The station operated until 1975 when Battersea A closed following on with the closure of Battersea B in 1983. It was awarded Grade II listed status in 1980 and was upgraded to Grade II* in 2007. However, it remained unused and deteriorating for three decades after its closure.
The station was bought by some developers that wanted to re-purpose its use and re-develop the site, but it changed hands many times, and the projects never progressed from paper. Finally in 2012 it was bought by a Malaysian developer and the re-development plans started in 2013.
Phase 1 was completed in 2017. After forty years the works were completed and the new station opened to the public in October 2022. Besides many retail shops, restaurants, bars and offices, 254 apartments inside the station were also created, complete with roof gardens.
Today the station is also used as an event venue and a shopping and leisure destination. The shopping centre combines designer shops, high-end bars and restaurants, cinemas as well as apartments commanding a value of £18,000.000 each!
One of the iconic chimneys was refurbished to house a glass elevator that will take you up 109 metres where you can see panoramic 360-degree views of London. This is called Lift 109 and can be booked HERE.
When we arrived, we first looked at the shops and explored the free Power of Place Exhibition where we learned the history of the station on the last 40 years. We admired the imposingness of the building and its details.
Later, we went for lunch at “Leon”, a popular chain that serves natural fast food of very good quality. They also accept dogs and because we had Bambino with us, we were a bit restricted on choices. But we had a nice lunch there and everybody was happy with their choices.
After lunch we went to a decking area full of benches in front of the river where we had an ice cream and watched the activity going on. They also have a children’s playground where my friend’s kids were entertained for some time.
We spent some time there enjoying the sun and talking. When the kids got tired of playing, we decided to get our way back to their place.
We walked to the train station on Queenstown Road and went straight to Richmond. Once we arrived at their place, we took the car and drove back to our home after spending such a nice day out in a beautiful place with dear friends. We had the most enjoyable day out and weekend in London!
If you are visiting Battersea Power Station before Christmas, you are not only visiting a historic landmark in London but also a magical wonderland. The station is full of Christmas decorations, fairy lights and a forest of Christmas trees to make your visit even more special.
I hope this post will give you some idea of what can be done in a weekend in London and will help you plan your own visit there.
HOW TO MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR TRIP TO RICHMOND AND BATTERSEA POWER STATION
Below you will find a list of what to visit, where to stay and where to eat in London Richmond and Battersea Power House. I classified each place as follows:
BOLD – Visited, tried and recommended
NOT BOLD – Not visited or tried, but planning to visit or try and heard very good reviews
RED – Visited and tried but do not recommend, avoid or be cautious
*** – Excellent
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** – Good
* – OK
£££ – Expensive
££ – Fair and affordable
£ – Cheap
PLEASE NOTE: Every hotel, restaurants and attractions I mention on my blogs are not sponsored reviews and we always paid the full price when visiting. We give our own opinion of the place and detail our experience, good or bad.
WHAT TO SEE
ATTRACTIONS
1 – Marble Hill Park – ***
2 – Hammertom’s Ferry – ***
3 – Ham House – ***
4 – Petersham Nurseries – ***
5 – Richmond Hill – ***
6 – Battersea Power Station – ***
7 – Power of Place Exhibition – ***
8 – Lift 109
WHERE TO STAY
ACCOMMODATION
1 – The Selwyn, Richmond – 4* – £££
2 – Harbour Hotel & Spa Richmond – 4* – £££
3 – The Petersham – 4* – £££
4 – Art’otel London Battersea Power Station – 5* – £££
5 – The Dutchess Belle Hotel – 4* – ££
6 – Victoria Inn, London – 3* – ££
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WHERE TO EAT
RESTAURANTS
1 – Roebuck, Richmond – ££
2 – The Botanist – £££
3 – Petersham Nurseries – £££
4 – Dishoom – Battersea – £££
5 – Gordon Ramsay Street Pizza – ££
6 – Leon – £
If you tried any of my recommendations above, please send me a message and tell me about your experience good or bad, so I can update the list accordingly. Thanks!
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