Curtain rises on NEON – Battersea’s new immersive experience centre
A new exhibition and events building next to Battersea Power Station will open in a few months time, offering a large open box for “immersive experiences”.

The new venue, NEON, is one of two temporary buildings being constructed next to the power station on land that will eventually be redeveloped as housing. Until then, the power station company secured approval for two large buildings to be erected for five years.
One building will be occupied by a padel tennis operator, providing four courts for players. The other is a fully blacked-out box of a building that will be used for two large video-based exhibitions a year. The operator has forecast that it will have around 750 visitors a day.
An indication of the audience they are aiming for can be gleaned from their website’s newsletter sign up page which asks if you’re interested in events for children (3-12), children (13-16), groups, schools, partner/friends or other.
Normal adults presumably are “other”.
When it opens this spring, NEON will provide 5,000 complimentary tickets to local schools and 1,000 free tickets to local charities, community organisations, and youth groups — which was a condition of the planning application.
The box’s design is interesting. It’s clad in a wavy skin made from perforated metal. The idea is that it resembles a theatre curtain, and the small holes in the wall will allow a large LED screen behind to be seen as if projected through a curtain.
It should open to visitors in the spring, with the expectation that it will be taken down in 2030 as the site will be needed for the next stage of the housing development around the power station.
From your description of the cladding, it sounds like it could have echoes of the giant illuminated globe that was proposed for a site next to Stratford station (and was rightfully rejected by planning). I hope this isn’t as visually intrusive.
An enormous four sided advertising hoarding? What could be intrusive about that? Bet it stays up for longer.