Thread

1. dofm · 1790058214 · focus · HN ↗

   Oh dear.

   The redeveloped Battersea Power Station is one of the most soulless, dead-eyed, wealth-obsessed places in all of London. This is a terrible place to put something like a music venue, unless your target market is the adult children of emigres with unexplained wealth, and I think it speaks to Apple’s sanitised, emotionally-distant, luxury-focussed worldview that they would consider it.

   Incredible building. Awful development. They could have donated ten million quid to the Music Venue Trust instead.

   The free U2 album looks like the work of a tastemaker by comparison.

   1. hbcdbff · 1790061549 · focus · HN ↗

      I suppose you’d prefer the power station to have remained a derelict wreck.

      Honestly, people like you are what holds this country back.

      1. dofm · 1790061912 · focus · HN ↗

         Ahh yes because the only destiny of large buildings in London is high-end retail and luxury flats for the wealthy. That's what holds us back as a country, isn't it? Not enough places for the very very very rich.

         I didn't at all say or suggest I would have preferred it to stay derelict. It's an absurd straw man.

         There are many things that project could have been, for London, that it is not.

         But if that's the only way you see progress — the creation of places for foreign wealth to be spent — then yeah, I am holding the UK back from that miserable dystopia.

         1. mintone · 1790063351 · focus · HN ↗

            I don’t want to dive into Reddit like territory but this is not a fair representation of the place. It is a shopping centre, yes, in the same vein as Westfield or any other created in the past twenty years. There is a Lego store, Uniqlo and many other normal high street stores [1] alongside higher end places but Sloane Street this is not. Throughout the year there are events in the riverside space with stalls from local traders and various other free events, especially for children.

            I would argue that it is one of the more successful new developments in terms of “placemaking”, certainly in that part of London. It is very clearly targeted at the residents of the local area who are normal London middle class wealth. The little shop no doubt has bottles of expensive wine but it also has £10 ones.

            For clarity; I’m not a resident of the area but have visited a bunch of times, especially with kids.

            Making new places is hard and I think they’ve made a decent go of the place.

            [1] <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;batterseapowerstation.co.uk&#x2F;retailers&#x2F;?retailertype=shop" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;batterseapowerstation.co.uk&#x2F;retailers&#x2F;?retailertype=...

         2. hbcdbff · 1790063689 · focus · HN ↗

            What holds the country back is anti-growth, financially insecure people who complain about anything and everything.

            &gt; But if that&#x27;s the only way you see progress — the creation of places for foreign wealth to be spent — then yeah, I am holding the UK back from that miserable dystopia.

            Try actually going there. You might find there aren’t as many “foreign” people as you fear.

            1. dofm · 1790065155 · focus · HN ↗

               &gt; What holds the country back is anti-growth, financially insecure people who complain about anything and everything.

               That isn&#x27;t me. I am not complaining about anything and everything. I am complaining about one specific place.

               &gt; Try actually going there. You might find there aren’t as many “foreign” people as you fear.

               I wrote that comment because I have been there. And my fear isn&#x27;t foreign people — not remotely. My fear is foreign unexplained wealth — one of London&#x27;s biggest and most intractible problems. It&#x27;s not xenophobia, it&#x27;s the corrupting influence of dubious, hard-to-trace oligarch-connected money being sloshed around in the London Laundromat.

               The Battersea Power Station project is legit — all done legally — but the project was literally built by people not exactly tenuously associated with 1MDB. And as with many of these developments, many of the people who live in those expensive flats will be doing so thanks to money that was ill-gotten through proximity to power elsewhere in the world.

         3. pjc50 · 1790063827 · focus · HN ↗

            It&#x27;s central London. Of course it&#x27;s a place for foreign wealth; as long as we get to keep enough on the way. We need to stop being snobby about the very real need of the country for foreigners to spend money on stuff we sell.

            1. [deleted] · 1790066031 · focus · HN ↗

               [deleted]

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