Temple of Power

Battersea Power Station's now famous four-chimney silhouette did not appear until 1953. For its first 20 years, the power station had only a single chimney at each end. Charles Potter's atmospheric print depicts the powerful lines and elegant symmetry of the station's original silhouette three years before it was completed.

Potter studied at London's Central School of Art in Southampton Row under several tutors including W P Robins. Despite this training, he did not regard himself as a 'professional fine art artist'.

However, Potter's work subsequently came to the notice of Campbell Dodgson, Keeper of Prints & Drawings at the British Museum, who included several of his aquatints in British Council exhibitions overseas. This print was included in the 1939 Oslo exhibition, considered at the time to be the finest collection of British contemporary prints ever assembled.