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The gasworks that tower above London’s streets and canals are majestic reminders of our city’s industrial past. If you’ve ever hung out around Bethnal Green, Bromley-by-Bow, New Barnet, King’s Cross or Fulham, you’ll know the structures we mean.
As the name suggests, once-upon-a-time these structures were used to store gas. They now stand largely rusting and redundant, but nevertheless a widely appreciated part of London’s landscape. The ones in King’s Cross were turned into flats in 2018, similar plans are lined up for the monuments in Bethnal Green and now, Newham’s gasworks are getting the same treatment.
With seven of the huge cast iron structures, the site in Bromley-by-Bow houses the UK’s largest cluster of Grade II-listed gasholders. This month, planning permission was been secured for it to get a new, much-needed lease of life.
Thanks to a £73 million investment in the site, it’ll get 2,150 homes across 13 new residential buildings, some of which will be built inside the existing gasholder frames.
The site will also be made publicly accessible for the first time in 150 years. Seventy percent of the area will become open space and a 4.2-acre park full over wildflowers looking onto the River Lea.
Berkeley Group company St William, which specialises in converting gasholders, is taking charge of the project. It’s worked closely with Newham council and Historic England to make sure that the site reaches its full potential and its heritage is honoured.
Tom Foxall, regional director for Historic England in London and the south east, said: ‘The regeneration plans for Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks are an exemplar of how historic brownfield sites can be transformed into new developments that both help address the housing shortage and boost local economic growth, while embracing an area’s cherished heritage.’
Work on the Bromley-by-Bow gasworks is expected to get started later this year.
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