Battersea power station is on the market for £500 million but before it can be restored to its former glory it has a more mundane role to play — as a police car park.
There will also be canteens and briefing marquees for the 12,000 officers who will be based at “Camp Battersea” during the Games.
The listed building and surrounding land has been chosen as one of the sites for a huge police “marshalling and briefing” encampment.
The Met is believed to be paying hundreds of thousands of pounds to rent the site, along with land at nearby New Covent Garden Market, during the Games. Officers from 11 forces around the country will be on duty at Olympic venues and the Met does not have any buildings large enough to handle them all.
Plans submitted to Wandsworth council show how the site will provide more than 350 spaces for police vans, coaches and cars 24 hours a day for more than two months.
About 550 vehicles will drive in and out of the centre each day between 7am and 11pm.
Two other temporary police centres are being set up in Wanstead Flats and at the MoD Cadet Training Centre at Blackheath. A Met spokeswoman said: “A briefing centre of this kind is vital to our policing operation.”
The income will make a small but welcome contribution to the £500 million debts left when the power station’s previous owners went into administration. The total investment in developing Battersea Power Station could be as much as £5 billion.
