Days after the opening of the new Tate Modern, a similar south London site is being talked about as a future entertainment centre. Plans for a £500 million redevelopment of Battersea Power Station, in fact bigger than the old Bankside Power Station, will include cinemas, theatres, rides, restaurants, shops and hotels.

Battersea was closed down in 1983, and since then a succession of developers has come and gone. One of the most persistent was John Broome, the man who built Alton Towers. It was also considered as a home for the Tate Modern collection but the cost of converting it was too high.

The building is now owned by a Hong Kong-based property company Park View International, who have applied to Wandsworth Council for permission to convert it into an entertainment centre. The owners have expressed a preference for Benoy, the firm behind the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, to design the centre.

Anna Lagerkvist