Redevelopment of Battersea Power Station will start later this year. Picture: Dominic Lipsinki/PA Wire

Work to transform one of the best-known sights on London’s skyline, Battersea Power Station, will begin later this year.

The Art Deco 1930s power station will be regenerated by new owners to form the centre of an £8billion redevelopment.

The 39-acre site will contain 3,500 homes, 1.7million square feet of office space, shops and a park. Preparatory work on the site will begin later this year, the Malaysian consortium behind the scheme said today.

The group, made up of SP Setia, Sime Darby and the Employees Provident Fund (EPF), bought the site for £400m earlier this year. Chelsea Football Club had been considering for the site of a new stadium.

Tan Sri Liew Kee Sin, president and chief executive of SP Setia, said: “Battersea Power Station is a wonderful building and both it and the centrally-located Nine Elms area surrounding it are in need of regeneration.

“As property developers, we are very proud to be part of the team that will bring them back to life and ensure they are preserved for future generations.

“With the sale now complete, we can move forward with our vision to build a vibrant, accessible and functional town centre for the Vauxhall, Nine Elms, Battersea area with the power station at its heart, creating up to 26,000 new jobs in the process.”

The consortium has planning consent to build the homes and office space. It also plans to build a Tube station on the premises that will connect to the Northern Line.

The power station, featured in English Heritage’s Heritage At Risk register, has been vacant since being decommissioned in 1983. It appeared in The Beatles’ film Help!, Hitchcock’s Sabotage, and in an episode of Doctor Who.

The imposing structure has been crumbling away for almost 30 years, the victim of a series of failed regeneration projects.

The man behind London’s red telephone boxes, Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, helped design the site.

From the start it was controversial, with many Londoners objecting to it as an eyesore which spewed pollution into the heart of the capital. The completion of Station A in 1933 saw the first two chimneys come into operation, with the second phase completed in 1957.

After it was shut down, Alton Towers’ creator John Broome planned to create a massive theme park at the site. He demolished the roof and west wall but the park, scheduled to open in 1990, never materialised.

When Parkview International took possession of the station, plans for a retail super-site also failed.

Planning permission for the £5b development including homes, offices, a hotel, retail and leisure facilities was secured for the site from Wandsworth Council last year.

Council leader Ravi Govindia said: “Today’s announcement is a significant step forward in the transformation of Nine Elms on the South Bank.

“The district-wide regeneration programme will be one of the greatest sources of new jobs and homes in the country over the next few years.

“The redevelopment of the power station site has an important role to play and is key to funding the Northern Line extension.

“This is the most exciting development in London and will deliver a massive boost to economic growth.”