Debate Over That Building on the Front of Pink Floyd’s “Animals”
The cover image on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album, Animals, is less fantastical than you might think. Yes, the flying pig was added by the Hipgnosis, the famous album artwork design house, but the imposing montrosity of a structure below is a real building. The Battersea Power Station, a brutal relic on the banks of the Thames, was decommissioned a generation ago–and it’s still there, lying empty and rotting, a symbol of the rot that once threatened England.
Over the years there have been many proposals about what to do with the place and the debate has picked up again. Property developers want to knock it down and put residential developments in its place. After all, London’s super-heated property market shows little sign of slowing down. The land occupied by BPS could be worth close to a billion dollars.
There are other ideas. A retail complex. A space for Cirque du Soleil. And “eco-dome,” whatever that is. Chelsea FC of the Premiership floated the idea about converting the whole thing into a new stadium, but they’ve been short on details so far.
The site’s current owners–a Dublin company who feel they paid too much for the place in 2006–want to unload it. Their bankers must be encouraging it so they can get some of their 400 million pounds back. The Irish economy could use it.
Whatever the case, I hope they sort thing out in a way that the building’s lines are preserved. It would be a shame if the only place anyone could see it was on the cover of a prog-rock album from 1977.
