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London’s old gasholders occupy a special place in many Londoners’ hearts. Sure, these great rusty monoliths might be a bit spooky, but they’re also resilient titans of a bygone age, homely landmarks visible for miles around.
Many of the structures, which were once used to store natural gas, are now redundant – and London has found ways of reusing them. Gasholders in King’s Cross have been turned into flats, while a more controversial project intends to turn Bethnal Green’s structures into housing. Most recently, plans have been revealed to turn Bromley-by-Bow’s Victorian gasholders into over 2,000 homes.
The next of the capital’s gasholders to be at the centre of a development project is at Albert Road in New Barnet, north London. Built in 1934, the holder was decommissioned in 2009 – and now developer Berkeley Homes has revealed plans to demolish it and build 200 homes on the site.
Berkeley Homes wants to develop the northern part of the Albert Road gasworks. A different developer, Fairview, received approval last March to build 420 homes on the southern part.
RECOMMENDED: Barnet is one of 7 London boroughs receiving millions to build on brownfield land.
Berkeley Homes’ development of the Albert Road gasworks hasn’t yet been approved, and the project is currently in its consultation phase. Following an in-person consultation in December, a formal application is expected to be launched by Berkeley Homes this year.
The online consultation is now open, asking whether the current site ‘offers a positive contribution to the local community and its surroundings’. It also asks about respondents’ priorities for land usage and what kind of housing they’d like to see in the area, among other things. You can find the consultation here.
In other gasholder news, did you see that one Edinburgh gasholder is being turned into a public park?
Plus: The last days of the Bethnal Green gasholders.
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