Thatcher's laser launch

Mrs Margaret Thatcher sparked a four-engine fire alarm yesterday at the naming of the project to redevelop Battersea Power Station, south London, as the biggest tourist attraction in Europe.

Armed with the biggest laser gun in Britain, she fired a beam which detonated two mid-air maroons and dropped a white curtain to reveal the building's new name, picked out in flame, while purple smoke plumes billowed from two of the 337 ft chimneys.

The explosions caused four fire engines, a fire boat, an emergency rescue tender and several ambulances to race to the scene after 999 calls from alarmed local residents.

The power station, styled by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott, is the biggest brick building in the world. Its main hall could accommodate a 22-storey building or engulf St Paul's Cathedral with ease.

Mr John Broome, chairman of the Alton Towers leisure park, north Staffordshire, has taken five years since the power station closed to develop his scheme for its regeneration.

When completed in 1990, it will include 200 rides, shows and exhibitions, London's biggest ice rink, restaurants, shops and conference facilities.

Outside there will be acres of pleasure gardens and “white knuckle” rides. The complex will be linked by windowless bullet trains to Victoria Station.

Mrs Thatcher, wearing a white helmet, toured the eight floors of the gutted building, appearing on rusty iron platforms and plywood walkways high above her audience.

She earlier hailed Mr Broome as a man of enterprise and vision. However, just as she was saying that the building could contain 500 jumbo jets, one passed unhelpfully overhead.

Suggestions for the name of the building have included Alton Towers II, Tower Inferno, the Battersea Powerhouse and South Chelsea Fun Palace. However, in spite of the flamboyance of the launch, it is to be known simply as The Battersea, London.

Mr Broome promised that his project, already employing 1,000 on site and 4,500 jobs in future, would be opened at 2.30pm on May 21, 1990.

Mrs Thatcher said: “We have seen the past today. We will be back again in two years time to see the future.”