THE iconic cranes at Battersea Power Station have been moved downstream to the Port of Tilbury ahead of their restoration.

The listed cranes, sat on a jetty at the landmark plant, are thought to have been installed at the power station in the 1950s, have been dismantled and taken by barge to Tilbury, which will enable the transportation of spoil from the Northern Line Extension tunnelling works by river rather than road, and ensure the cranes are safely stored prior to restoration works.

The cranes were used to unload coal into hoppers over the conveyors that fed the power station when it was fully functioning and unloaded up to 240 tonnes of coal per hour. 

But in the thirty years during which they have stood dormant, they have structurally deteriorated and now require urgent restoration.

They will be stored at Tilbury and reinstated by the latter half of 2017, in time for the opening of the power station and new Riverside Park in 2019. 

Perry Glading, Chief Operating Officer at Forth Ports, owners of Port of Tilbury said: "We are thrilled that the Port of Tilbury is playing its part in the refurbishment of the iconic Battersea Power Station cranes.

"This is the first in a number of planned logistics solutions that S.Walsh is pulling together with the Port of Tilbury through our new partnership, the London Construction Link. 

"As we've demonstrated at Battersea Power Station, the river is a viable solution for moving large structures out, as well as construction materials in to projects on or near the Thames.

"Lying 22 miles from Tower Bridge, with 500,000 square metres of warehouse space and well developed stock management IT systems, we believe the Port of Tilbury presents a commercially and logically viable solution for developers.

"Through the greater use of the river and construction consolidation, the London Construction Link has the potential to make large inroads into the effort to remove lorry movements from the capital's roads."