50 ways to use a gasometer …….. no. 32 a block of apartments

I collect gasometers.  

They are a vanishing collector’s dream, and I have to confess I restrict myself to pictures and stories.

Once every self-respecting town would have its own gasworks and the accompanying gasometer to store the manufactured gas.

As a kid I was fascinated by the telescopic ones, which rose and fell with the amount of gas they held, and have always thought the steel and iron lattice frame which contained them were things of beauty.

But then I never lived next to one.

And today few people do, as increasingly they are redundant and are on the danger list.

Many have gone, but occasionally some have benefited from a bit of imagination, like the surviving ones by the Regents Canal.

Now I have to confess that I have never walked the Regents Canal.

When I was growing up in south east London I had little reason to go and visit it, especially as we had our own near by in the form of the Surrey Canal.

And on the rear occasions we made a visit home, Well Hall and the family offered up all we needed for a holiday.

All of which brings me to “50 ways to use a gasometer …….. no. 32 …. a block of apartments", and my friend Bronwen, who alerted me to the fate of those along the canal.

She was reflecting on our conversation about gas holders and commented “I think there are many older buildings now part of tourist attractions but there is something interesting these re old gas ironworks. We were by Regents Canal not so long ago where they have incorporated the ironworks into apartments.  We came across them as  part of my brother in law's London Walks.*

So, there you have it, I can now add the Regents Canal gasometers to my collection, and for anyone who wants to know more about them, just follow the link to an interesting article from the Hackney Gazette, dated 2019.**

Leaving me just to thank Bronwen for sending up the pictures.

Location; Regents Canal

Pictures; Regents Canal, 2020, from the collection of Bronwen Woods

*info@battlefieldjourney.com, https://www.battlefieldjourney.com/london-walks/markets-kites-and-canals/?fbclid=IwAR3_u_bExcRHhiZ_tJqWWgAlTJccgsUhJkSHS0ueNrXFyC8XHdjuIA1kRKc

**“‘Regent’s Canal gasholders should be turned into a museum, not taken apart’ urges East End Waterway Group’s founder Tom Ridge”, Emma Bartholomew, October 15,  2019 Hackney Gazette, https://www.hackneygazette.co.uk/news/heritage/hackney-history-regent-s-canal-gasholders-1-6321714