Europe-bound: This London neighbourhood is having a moment

There's a photo in the Power of Place exhibition inside London's Battersea Power Station that says more about the building's rebirth than all the headline-grabbing facts and figures you can rustle up. It's a picture of the former power station's roofless interior in 2007, an apocalyptic scene of crumbling walls and rusted scaffolding that shows just how neglected it had become since being decommissioned in 1983. The exhibition also charts the numerous failed proposals to rejuvenate it, which included an indoor theme park, an energy museum and even a new home ground for London soccer club Chelsea FC. In the meantime, the former "cathedral of power", which at its peak supplied a fifth of London's electricity and was one of Europe's largest brick buildings, became an increasingly forlorn sight on the banks of the River Thames.

Finally, in 2012, a Malaysian consortium bought the 17-hectare site and embarked on an ambitious eight-phase plan to revive it. Not only would they rebuild the power station, transforming it into a mixed-use complex of offices, apartments and more than 250 shops and restaurants, but they'd also create a new 2.4-hectare Thames-side public park, several standalone residential blocks and a swish shopping precinct - all of which would be serviced by a brand-new underground station on the Northern Line. In short, the endeavour would be the British capital's biggest rejuvenation project, a £9 billion ($17.1 billion) once-in-a-generation opportunity to create an entirely new riverside suburb.

Visit today, 12 years later, and the transformation is astonishing. The once-roofless power station now houses two cavernous shopping malls, lined with a mixture of familiar high-street brands (think Apple, Nike and Lululemon) as well as independent stores, such as Petit Pli, a start-up that makes stretchy clothing for kids, and Curated Makers, which showcases the work of 40 local creatives. There's also a fancy cinema and an upscale food hall serving everything from Cantonese comfort food to Nepali street eats, plus numerous restaurants, including Bread Street Kitchen & Bar by Gordon Ramsay (Ramsay and Sting are two of the complex's many celebrity residents).

The building's four 50-metre-high chimneys have all been completely rebuilt (a painstaking, three-year process), thereby preserving one of London's most iconic silhouettes, and in the north-west chimney there's now an observation experience called Lift 109. After ascending the chimney's interior in a glass lift Willy Wonka-style, you pop out of the top and bask in a 360-degree panorama of the capital from 109 metres above the ground.

What's also notable from the exhibition is just how stylish the power station's original interior was. It's hard to imagine a turbine hall being built today with intricate art deco tiling. Thankfully the architects have preserved many of these original features, using a steel truss system to showcase the refurbished brickwork and leaving sections of the old tiling exposed. Look closely and you can see the locations of the turbines outlined in brick on the shopping centre floor.

Given the project's scale and significance, it's no surprise that it attracted some of the world's leading architects. On one side of Electric Boulevard, the pedestrianised shopping thoroughfare, is Battersea Roof Gardens, a mixed-use building designed by Foster + Partners. On the other side is Prospect Place, the UK's first residential building by Frank Gehry. Both are eye-catching architectural pieces in their own right, creating a snaking, store-lined precinct that might just be the UK's most stylish high street.

Battersea Roof Gardens is also home to another superlative, the UK's first art'otel, a boutique brand where every property is centred around a signature artist. Battersea's chosen creative is Jaime Hayon, a Spanish artist who was responsible for all of the hotel's artwork and interior design. The result? A joyful explosion of colour, curves and whimsy. Guests are greeted by The Dreamer, an intriguing three-metre-high lime-green sculpture of a contemplative figure with an avian head, before passing through a sweeping curved lobby featuring eye-popping lipstick-red furniture and surrealist portraits (one lady has a Wellington boot balanced on her head). In short, it's playful, funky and fun.

The hotel's two showstoppers are its rooftop infinity-edge swimming pool, where you can swim overlooking the power station's chimneys, and the 15th-floor restaurant Joia, which is helmed by renowned Portuguese chef Henrique Sa Pessoa. Offering an innovative Catalonian-themed menu using the best of British and Iberian produce (think salted cod, scorched Padron peppers and tender Salamanca black angus), it also serves up captivating views of the power station through floor-to-ceiling windows, particularly at night when the building is lit up like a cathedral.

Head down to the riverside park and you'll find more notable eateries, such as seafood specialist Wright Brothers, where you can sample Jersey oysters and Devon crab, and Fiume, which specialises in refined southern Italian fare. Plus, there's a whole bunch of family-friendly distractions to pick from, including indoor crazy golf, a large adventure playground and a surprisingly addictive virtual reality experience, where you can while away an hour jet-packing around futuristic worlds or shooting zombies in the desert.

Future phases will continue to expand into neighbouring lots, adding more apartments, shops and restaurants. But even now, the project has succeeded in doing something no one thought was possible: breathing fresh life into an iconic London landmark and creating a vibrant new neighbourhood in the process.

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Getting there: Take the London Underground to the new Battersea Power Station stop on the Northern Line or catch the Uber Boat by Thames Clippers from Central London. Battersea Power Station is open 10am to 9pm, Monday to Saturday; 12pm to 6pm, Sunday. See batterseapowerstation.co.uk

Staying there: Rooms at art'otel London Battersea Power Station are from about £200 ($380) per night. See artotellondonbattersea.com

Explore more: visitbritain.com

The writer was a guest of Battersea Power Station, art'otel and Visit Britain.