Animals it is without a doubt one of the most iconic Pink Floyd albums. The concept album, released in 1977, is a harsh criticism of British society at the time, allegorically divided into pigs (the powerful), dogs (social climbers) and sheep (the masses). On the album cover – a photograph by Storm Thorgerson – you see a pig flying between the chimneys of a coal power plant. The power station actually exists: it is the Battersea Power Station, in London, which is no longer active but can be visited today. But what is the history of this building? And what happened to today?
The construction of Battersea Power Station in 1929
Located along the banks of the River Thames in Battersea, the coal-fired power station began to take shape in 1929, when work on its construction was entrusted to architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, still known today as the man behind the iconic red telephone boxes. In 1933 the power plant came into operation and in 1935 the first phase of the project was definitively completed, which included the pair of western chimneys, each approximately 100 meters high.
Consider that during the Second World War there was so much smoke produced that it became a real point of reference on foggy days, both for RAF and Luftwaffe military pilots. Nonetheless, it was hit on several occasions, although it never suffered fatal damage.
Work on the second phase of the project, which included the two eastern chimneys, was completed in 1955.
The power plant on the Pink Floyd album
The real success of the power station – so to speak – however, came a few years later, in 1977. That year Pink Floyd chose to use that enormous building as the main subject of their new musical effort, Animals. But they didn’t just take a photograph of the structure: they also attached a nicknamed 12-meter-long inflatable pig Algie between the two chimneys.
Brief anecdote: on the first day of filming the weather was terrible and it was decided not to inflate the pig but to only take photos of the power plant and the cloudy sky behind it. On the second day the situation seemed to improve and so Algie was inflated and tied with ropes to one of the chimneys. Unfortunately, however, due to the strong wind, it broke away and began to fly, even obstructing some air routes. Eventually, after a long flight, it landed on a farm in Kent and was repositioned on the roof of the power station the next day. In the meantime, however, the sky had become clear and this was in contrast with the mood of the album. In the end they opted for a photomontage: the photo of the pig taken on the third day was superimposed on that of the cloudy sky taken on the first day.
Returning to the power plant, however, the authorities understood that a coal-fired plant of this type could no longer continue to remain open, especially due to its enormous environmental impact. Precisely for this reason the site was closed in 1983 – but not before being included among the cultural heritage to be preserved.
Battersea Power Station today
The following decades were rather uncertain: the structure passed from hand to hand, without managing to find a new identity and falling into disuse. This, at least until 2012, when the structure was acquired by SP Setia, Sime Darby Property and Employers Provident Fund, the current owners. The idea behind the new project was to make the former coal power plant a multipurpose center with shops, bars, and spaces for cultural events, as well as a new residential complex with numerous apartments both inside and next to the power plant.
Between 2017 and 2021, new residents began to settle in, while in 2022 the center officially opened to the public, becoming in just a few years one of the most interesting landmarks in the city.
