Reaching New Heights: Event Merchandising at The Chimney Lift, Battersea Power Station
When one of London’s most iconic landmarks finally opened its doors to the public, we were there to help make the retail experience as unforgettable as the view.
In October 2022, Battersea Power Station opened to visitors for the first time in its 90-year history — a moment decades in the making. At its heart was a brand-new attraction: The Chimney Lift (formerly known as Lift 109), a glass elevator that carries visitors 109 metres to the top of the building’s north-west chimney, delivering 360-degree panoramic views across the London skyline. Event Merchandising was appointed by IMG and Battersea Power Station to design, develop, and run the attraction’s official retail store — a partnership now entering its fifth year.
Building a store from scratch
The brief wasn’t simple. The Chimney Lift store sits within the spectacular Art Deco Turbine Hall A, and space is at a premium — every square metre counts. From the outset, we took responsibility not just for sourcing and selling product, but for advising on the store’s entire look, feel, layout, and product mix. That meant being on-site regularly, managing procurement tightly to work within the store’s limited storage, and maintaining the kind of visual merchandising standard that a world-class London attraction demands.
We also operate the e-commerce store at thechimneyliftstore.com — putting Battersea Power Station merchandise in front of a genuinely global audience.
The building is the brand
One of our earliest and most important discoveries was that visitors weren’t particularly buying into “Lift 109” as a brand. They were buying into Battersea Power Station — one of the most recognisable buildings on earth. Managing those client expectations early on was crucial, and it fundamentally shaped our product strategy. We shifted focus toward celebrating the architecture, history, and cultural legacy of the building itself: its Art Deco detailing, its six million bricks, its extraordinary journey from working power station to cultural icon.
That insight drove us to commission a series of artist collaborations, develop premium product ranges inspired by the building’s distinctive aesthetic — including brickwork and Art Deco motifs — and create seasonal collections that give visitors a reason to return and give the online store a constantly evolving offer.
Pink Floyd, flying pigs, and a stroke of licensing genius
Perhaps our most inspired move was convincing the client to embrace Pink Floyd’s Animals — the 1977 album whose cover famously depicts an inflatable pig floating between the power station’s four chimneys. The story behind that image is the stuff of rock and roll legend: the band commissioned a 12-metre helium-filled pig called Algie, which on the second day of the photo shoot broke free of its moorings, soared over Heathrow at 30,000 feet, and eventually landed on a farm in Kent, terrifying a herd of cows and causing flight cancellations across the airport. The resulting image — a composite of photos from different days — became one of the most iconic album covers in history.
The Chimney Lift Store now carries merchandise that encapsulates the history of the iconic Battersea Power Station and its modern regeneration into a spectacular new London viewing experience Lift 109 Store — and the Pink Floyd Animals licensed range sits at the heart of that. It’s the perfect fit: a piece of music history bound to this exact building, beloved by generations of fans, and immediately meaningful to visitors who might not know the attraction’s name but absolutely know that album cover. It sells.
Local roots and lasting stories
Alongside the licensed ranges, we’ve worked with local artists and businesses to create product that feels genuinely rooted in this part of London — Nine Elms, Battersea, and the South Bank. Commissioning community-connected creatives hasn’t just produced great product; it’s created stories that resonate with visitors and give the store a character that feels earned rather than generic.
We’ve also expanded our relationship with Battersea Power Station Development Company as the wider estate has grown. Battersea Power Station now boasts more than 140 shops, restaurants, bars and unique experiences across the neighbourhood Visit London, drawing enormous footfall from Londoners and tourists alike — all of whom pass through or near The Chimney Lift store.
Five years on and still growing
The Chimney Lift experience itself has continued to evolve. The experience now begins in the Power Station’s magnificent Art Deco Turbine Hall A with a visit to architect Sir Giles Gilbert Scott’s office Visit London, exploring historic blueprints and replica artefacts before the dramatic ascent. A schools programme has since launched, bringing Key Stage 2 pupils for curriculum-linked geography learning 109 metres above the Thames. Every new development creates new storytelling opportunities for the store — and we’ve made sure to capitalise on them.
Sales continue to grow. The combination of a strong in-store experience, regular new product drops, seasonal ranges, and a growing online presence has turned what might have been a modest souvenir shop into a genuine retail destination. For us, it’s one of the most creatively satisfying long-term partnerships we’ve worked on — a building with almost limitless stories to tell, and a store that’s getting better at telling them.
You can shop the full range at thechimneyliftstore.com and experience The Chimney Lift at Battersea Power Station, Turbine Hall A, Nine Elms, London SW11 8AL.