Apple to power up Battersea development

Apple has announced it will establish a new London headquarters by the end of this decade – and has given a big boost to the £8bn redevelopment of Battersea Power Station in the process.

The iconic 1930s building, famously featured, along with a giant inflatable pig, on the cover of the Pink Floyd album Animals, has stood derelict for the past 30 years.

It is currently being transformed into offices, shops and high-end residences by a consortium of three Malaysian companies, but there are concerns it could hit by a "downturn in the market for luxury apartments", says the Financial Times.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

But the project has been given a new lease of life with the news the world's largest company will take up 40 per cent of the space. Apple's HQ will be on six floors in what was the power station's boiler room.

Neil Prime, of property consultancy JLL, said the offices would "be a pull for other creative companies, people who want to be associated with the Apple brand. The area will certainly benefit".

He added the announcement could have the same catalysing effect on Battersea as Google has had at King Cross, where it is building a new office.

Rob Tincknell, the chief executive of Battersea Power Station Development Company, told the BBC the move would "undoubtedly help" turn the area into "one of London's most thriving new communities".

Apple, which currently has its 1,400 staff in the capital spread across eight locations, said the move was a "great opportunity to have its entire team working and collaborating in one location while supporting the renovation of a neighbourhood rich with history".