East Greenwich Gas Holder

East Greenwich Gas Holder

The gas holder on the Greenwich Peninsula is a local landmark - it was the biggest in the world when it was built.  Its owners, Southern Gas Networks are determined to remove it. All over all over the country gasholders have been demolished.  Locally the two holders at Bell Green are equally likely to come down, despite being listed by Lewisham council.  North of the river many holders have been demolished despite local campaigns and there is seemingly very little that anybody can get do to stop them.

The East Greenwich holder is one of a series designed by George Livesey, the director of the gas company in the 19^th century. It was built in the 1880s on his revolutionary ‘cylindrical shell principle’. While the structure appears to be simple it is in fact very complex. It is far taller than would normally be expected, about 180 feet tall. It has four of  ‘lifts’ – the sections which go up and down when it is filled with gas and then emptied- and it is the first holder ever built to this size. It can hold about 8.2 million cubic feet of gas. This great height was made possible by new materials and saved a lot of money.  It also meant that it cost less to store the gas and on Sundays gas workers could be encouraged to go to church rather than make more gas – there would be plenty to cook their Sunday dinners.

It was also a deliberate decision not to put on it all the decoration that is on older holders.  It was thought that industrial structures should be themselves and not try to dress themselves up as something fancy. This was part of a whole new set of ideas about art and architecture which was soon to become very fashionable.

Soon after it was built a second – even bigger – holder was built next to it.  This was sadly demolished in the 1980s. 

The East Greenwich gasholder has had its problems. It narrowly escaped in 1917 when there was a terrible explosion in an armaments factory on the other side of the river, at Silvertown.  I understand that two workers at East Greenwich got medals for actions they took to save the gas supply for local people after the explosion – and we should remember that wartime heroes are sometimes to be found in quite ordinary places. In the 1980s the holder was subject to an attack by the IRA, but it was repaired and survived.  

I have only given a few brief details here, but a lot more is available. When the first planning application went into Greenwich Council there was a very detailed history with it – written by a leading expert on the subject and someone I know well and very much respect.  I would recommend reading it for all the details.

A couple of years ago I went to a big conference about gas holders. This was run by the gas industry but many historians, like me, were allowed to go.  We heard all about how they were all going to be pulled down – and about how there were protests about this.   The gas industry people just didn’t understand. They liked their holders too, and were actually quite proud of them but they didn’t think other people liked them too.

All round the world gas holders were being kept and used for other things – shopping malls, theatres, sports arenas.  Here, at Kings Cross, where the gas holders were unusual and were seen by everyone who went north by train, a wealthy developer was persuaded to keep them and to build flats inside them – and the same thing has been done in Dublin.  As more holders have been used for other things, so architects have gained experience and problems have been confronted and are being solved.

The gas industry has missed a big and important opportunity to capitalise on their past. What should have been assets have been turned into liabilities and working with local authorities and local communities has been beyond them.  East Greenwich and the Peninsula need something to be proud of – something that marks them out from other communities and a lot of people feel that the holder does this.  The same is true for many many other communities who do not want to see ‘their’ holder go.