Battersea Power Station brand store opens today
Posted by Huw,
The fourth brand store in the UK's capital opens today, inside the former power station at Battersea. The building, which went out of service in the 1980s, has been converted to an upscale residential, shopping and dining venue, full of designer brand stores and fancy restaurants.
The opening offers are as follows:
- 40528 LEGO Brand Retail Store free with purchases over £120 from today until Sunday
- 40589 Pirate Ship Playground free with purchases over £95 until 3rd June (same as at LEGO.com)
- Battersea LEGO store tote bag free from 30th May to the 3rd June with purchases over £50
- Make and take a mini power station model, pictured, this Saturday (10:00-12:00) and Sunday (12:00-14:00) only.
- I love LEGO store Battersea 2x4 printed tile, given away to visitors while stocks last.
View pictures of inside and outside the building and shop after the break.
The exterior of the building looks spectacular. There's an observation platform at the top of one of the chimneys giving sweeping views across the Thames to central London.
Photo by Leanne Davies
Its industrial heritage has been preserved inside. The LEGO store is on the ground floor of this aisle, on the right of the building if you arrive by boat, or left if entering the building from the direction of the tube station.
All shop signage is monochrome, so there's no big red square hanging outside to indicate where it is!
The inside is different to many other stores in shopping centres on account of the building's architecture. It's actually on two levels, with a raised section at the back, hence being able to take these pictures.
It's not a huge store, so the build a minifig station and pick-a-brick wall are small.
Photo: Yvonne Doyle
There's a mural of the building at the back of the shop, complete with flying pig above it, a reference to the photo on the cover of Pink Floyd's Animals album and subsequent recreation in 2011.
Gary Davis built this spectacular model of the building, and it will be in display in the shop for a few weeks.
Here's the printed tile that's currently being given away with purchases.
If you're in London this weekend it definitely worth going to check the store out. Use the Thames Clipper river boat to get there, it's much more fun than the tube and the pier is very close to the building.
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24 comments on this article
I'm meant to be going today..... although this morning isn't going to plan so might not get there.
I want the little mini build so maybe I should wait until Sunday.
But.....
PIG !!!!!!!
Might pop along . . . My wife works for the borough council and I think she wants to see how they've done up the power station, so it'll be a good opportunity to kill two, um, flying pigs with one well-aimed stone.
Interesting that the pig mosaic depicts the building built in a scale that's intermediate between the mini and the giant model. I wonder if that exists in the brick somewhere
The UK : spends gazillions of £s regenerating the Battersea area and turning an abandoned power station into something fancy.
The UK people : runs around shouting "PIG".
We so normal here in the UK !!
https://brickset.com/sets/BATTERSEA-1/Battersea-Power-Station makes me imagine how a LEGO version of a Red Alert 1 RTS could look.
Battersea A being finished first and operational with 2 chimneys , and later merged with Battersea B , forming this 4 chimney "cathedral" style build.
Both stages are represented in the Red Alert 1 game as Power Plant, and Advanced Power Plant.
Getting definite Command&Conquer vibes.
Plus, would absolutely buy instructions to Gary Davis' awesome MOC.
That's really quite lovely. The MOC, which is fantastic, does seem to be missing a Pig.
Anyone expecting a pig? Ha ha, charade you are.
Was hoping for a Battersea Power Station Architecture set. Oh well, the mini build will do for now!
Might have to make a visit. Not been to Battersea regularly since the Funfair was there!
I love that mural. The image opens up on another tab as a high-res jpeg - which I saved. Thanks for that, and for the instructions for the mini-build too - I will try and build it from spares.
As a Londoner, now relocated, I passed by Battersea power station many, many times - even in its derelict state, it was always a building I admired.
Woo, Gary Davis at your Lego store!
IGMC
Battersea is like Berghain's older brother that grew up and got a real job.
Pretty amazing shopping centre as it’s kept lots of the old power station fixtures and equipment. Store was really quiet considering it was opening day so was able to browse freely and reach the spend threshold to get freebies. They were giving away the tiles to everyone as they left so no purchasing necessary if you wish to stop by to pick up a tile
@legospaceslug said:
"They were giving away the tiles to everyone as they left so no purchasing necessary if you wish to stop by to pick up a tile "
Noted, thanks.
Wow! I’m goin go to be in London (for the first time) this week! Maybe I’ll make it over there!
I was there early this morning and I'm glad I went. It's a great Lego store and an even greater shopping centre. Quite the destination and well worth a visit.
Plus they have Disney minifigs...
Together with the other shops and restaurants this should provide a reason to visit up the area as not as crowded as Oxford Street or Westfield, plus you can always escape to the park next door.
I like how the build even looks like a minifig-scaled engine or power-generator.
A Pink Floyd reference in a LEGO store?! Never thought I'd see the day.
The little power station is cute, wish I could pick it up. Having been round that shopping centre though I'm not sure about the monochrome signage - it's already quite beige and uncolourful in there...
@alstba said:
"I was there early this morning and I'm glad I went. It's a great Lego store and an even greater shopping centre..."
I went because I was curious and can’t say it was an enjoyable shopping experience. It certainly wasn’t that.
It seems that LEGO hugely underestimated how many people there would be. The queue to get in was 45 minutes and snaked well beyond the cordoned barriers. Despite gaining entry an-hour-and-a-half after they opened in the morning, they had already run out of the Power Station build and the printed tiles. Add to that a 20 minute queue just to pay and the pleasure was just sucked out of the visit.
To add insult to injury, the delays meant I didn’t have time to visit the rest of Battersea Power Sration.
I imagine in future there will be fewer people, but it isn’t a huge store so probably not one I’ll return to.
There were 250 minibuilds available on Saturday and will be again on Sunday.
When I arrived today they were long gone - apparently there were people queuing up at 7am for the minibuild. I can’t imagine the amount of kids that were disappointed today because of those people (let’s be honest, it was AFOLs).
I gave one crushed-looking boy the printed instructions I’d managed to get from a staff member. It was also a woefully underestimated amount for the demand of a new store in the middle of London.
@Majorasblaze , Thanks for the warning. I was planning to head up with the kids today but we won't bother now. They really should do something about AFoLs hoovering up offers like this. Maybe only give them out to children. Children can't que like adults can and are basically excluded when numbers are so low.
I went myself on the Thursday opening and found it quite a poor experience. Other then a gaggle of employees at the door who were chatting amongst themselves you wouldn't have known it was a store opening. It wasn't very busy and no one was proactively engaging with customers (they were all nice if you engaged with them). The leaflets to tell you about the opening events were tucked away behind a pillar near the PaB wall.
All in all it was a very flat experience compared to a normal trip to the Westfield store. Despite being closer to Battersea I think I'll stick with Westfield.
@Majorasblaze said:
"There were 250 minibuilds available on Saturday and will be again on Sunday.
When I arrived today they were long gone - apparently there were people queuing up at 7am for the minibuild. I can’t imagine the amount of kids that were disappointed today because of those people (let’s be honest, it was AFOLs).
I gave one crushed-looking boy the printed instructions I’d managed to get from a staff member. It was also a woefully underestimated amount for the demand of a new store in the middle of London."
I agree 250 builds per day is too low. We got there around 9-30 and were around number 180 from the tickets they were giving out in the queue. Seemed to be plenty of families with kids in the queue too - not just AFOLs! Lots of them were scattered around the store trying to find places to build the model so it was chaotic but most were having a good time it seemed. No huge queue to pay and the staff were friendly and helpful - must be a tiring day for them.
@Zander said:
" @alstba said:
"I was there early this morning and I'm glad I went. It's a great Lego store and an even greater shopping centre..."
I went because I was curious and can’t say it was an enjoyable shopping experience. It certainly wasn’t that.
It seems that LEGO hugely underestimated how many people there would be. The queue to get in was 45 minutes and snaked well beyond the cordoned barriers. Despite gaining entry an-hour-and-a-half after they opened in the morning, they had already run out of the Power Station build and the printed tiles. Add to that a 20 minute queue just to pay and the pleasure was just sucked out of the visit.
To add insult to injury, the delays meant I didn’t have time to visit the rest of Battersea Power Sration.
I imagine in future there will be fewer people, but it isn’t a huge store so probably not one I’ll return to.
"
So you went at a very busy time (a weekend with an exclusive make 'n' take) and was surprised it was so busy?
Okay, well I'm sorry you didn't enjoy it as much as I did, but I'm sure you'll have the opportunity to enjoy the rest of the centre at a later date.