If you’re looking for London rooftop bars or outdoor swimming pools in the capital, both combine at the art’otel, the new Battersea Power Station opening with a hot tub overlooking the iconic chimneys that featured on the cover of Pink Floyd’s 1977 album Animals. A room costs £250 and gets you access to what we would argue is best rooftop spot in London right now..
. Diving into the new rooftop pool at the art’otel Battersea Power Station, it was hardly the picture of spring. The temperature was a brisk eight degrees and the sky a bundle of impenetrable clouds.
The sun beds, decked out in similar shades of grey as the sky, sat desolate. Two had towels laid on them by staff who were presumably hopeful this pristine empty pool might get some use. It certainly deserves to: it is utterly spectacular.
I can’t think of any other open-air rooftop pool in London with such an iconic view, a stone’s throw from the restored chimney bases of Battersea Power Station. They feel so close you could reach out and touch them as you do your backstroke. There are the bouji rooftop pools of Soho House, but those require membership and none have impressive panoramas.
Then there is the sumptuous spa at Claridge’s, but that’s underground, and the incredibly high pool on the 56th floor of the Shard, which I broke into at 1am, but none have anything on this. There’s something money-can’t-buy about being cradled by bathtub-warm water while suspended 16 floors above the capital. It�.