5. Conclusion

The story of Bankside and Battersea traces the evolution of the two power stations from industrial powerhouses to branded icons, for the purpose of generating revenue, bringing in tourists, and redeveloping neighborhoods, aided by the buildings’ design and their Location on the South Bank of the Thames. Bankside and Battersea provide a lens through which to examine the relative success and failures of adaptive reuse, how government and private interests play into the redevelopment of landmarks, and the importance of location and affluence of the neighborhoods in the reinvention of these structures. While it would be unscientific to regard them as truly comparable case studies for modern adaptive reuse and renovation, the buildings’ similar industrial and cultural histories do allow an understanding of how the city of London has attempted to modernize while still preserving important aspects of its history, with the express purpose of capitalizing on that history. In addition, the histories of these two buildings raise more general questions about what cities, during their transformation from industrial to information and service-based economies, should do with their aging industrial monuments. While some advocate for their demolition, and others argue that they should be left as ruins, reminders of the past. London, its government and private developers, has chosen to preserve these landmarks through reuse, ultimately raising the question of whether the process of reuse adds to, or takes away from the iconicity of the buildings and their original meaning. While the functions of the two buildings have changed over the decades, their resilience and their ability to remain in the consciousness of Londoners to this day suggests that they will continue to function as important cultural landmarks in the future.