View from Lift 109

Today was a full and busy day. I was up early and took Xena for a very long walk in the woods, and then got her back home and managed to get to my 10.20 osteopathy appointment in time. I had another excellent session with the osteopath, he worked on both my shoulder area and my lower back today which is very tight and was painful. It definitely is helping so I will keep going until it is all much better.

Then it was back home again to collect my sister and we got the train to Vauxhall, and then walked the Riverside walk to the new Battersea Power Station development, as I had booked tickets to go up Lift 109 which is in one of the chimneys of the power station. The walk was about 30 minutes and in the heat it was perhaps not the best way to get there, I should have booked the Uberboat.

First we had a wander around looking at the shops and restaurants there - they are all mainly high end stores so I am not sure who is their target market other than those with a large wallet. We had lunch at Megan's - we both had Greek salads which were delicious.

The Lift 109 experience was very well organised and very interesting. The power station was built in 1929, designed by the architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott (who also designed the iconic red telephone boxes). In 1955 they built the second boiler house - Battersea Power Station now supplied about 20% of London's electricity and was the largest power station in Europe. It ceased operating in 1983 - it has been used as the set location for many movies and off course is well known as being on the album cover of a few records, including Pink Floyd's Animal album. Finally in 2012 it was sold to a Malaysian consortium and work to regenerate it for shops, restaurants, offices and residential homes began. In case you are wondering, it is called Lift 109 as it is 109m high. This is the view from the top of the lift, it is taken through glass so I did press my lens up against the glass to try and avoid reflections. 

We then had the hot walk back to the station and got the train home. We both feel exhausted, my poor sister has blisters on her feet as we did so much walking today. I need to go prepare supper now so I won't have time to look at journals now. The days are very busy plus I still have to fit in two walks for Xena every day so I don't have much time for other things.