A £4bn plan to redevelop the iconic Battersea Power Station and surrounding area into a new London community is to be unveiled by its owner, Real Estate Opportunities.

More than 8m sq ft of flats, offices and shops would be built on the site, with the Grade-II listed power station itself transformed into upmarket apartments, a hotel and shopping mall.

The plans include a glass structure that would be built over several office buildings behind the power station and topped with a 300-metre glass chimney, making it one of the tallest structures in London. It would be almost twice the height of the 'Gherkin' tower in the City, commissioned by Swiss Re, the reinsurance company, and just 10 metres shy of the planned Shard of Glass skyscraper at London Bridge.

The chimney is part of an innovative climate control mechanism for the scheme’s office park, and would itself be enveloped by several hundred apartments. Further residential blocks would be built on either side of the power station.

The plans, which will today be opened to public consultation, are the latest in more than 25 years of wrangling over various schemes to return the derelict power station to its former glory.

Financial Times