The Oval Gasholders is the unofficial name given to the gas holder (gasometer) located near The Oval cricket stadium in London, England. Construction began in 1853 [1] and the site is officially called Kennington Holder Station by its owners, Southern Gas Network. [2] It is a grade II listed building with the listed part of them known as Gasholder No. 1. [3] [4]
The Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Company bought the site north of the Oval in 1845 from the Southwark & Vauxhall Waterworks Company, who had laid out the site in 1807 as a waterworks with an engine house and two circular brick-lined reservoirs. The Phoenix Gas Company adapted the circular reservoirs for gasholder tanks and erected five gasometers between 1847 and 1874.
The first iron gasholder was installed on the site in 1847 to service a gasworks next to Vauxhall Bridge. The Phoenix Gas Light and Coke Company replaced it in 1877–79 to designs by Sir Corbet Woodall, with two lifts holding 3 million cubic ft, making it the largest gasholder in the world. It was enlarged again by Frank Livesey in 1891–92 for the South Metropolitan Gas Company, by modifying the guides to increase their height by 50%, and adding two more lifts, including a "flying lift" rising above the guides, doubling its capacity to 6 million cubic feet. It is an early use of wrought iron in a frame. [5] This structure, Gasholder 1, is Grade II listed by virtue of: a) its being the world's largest gasholder at the time, b) its famous designers Frank and George Livesey and c) its being an internationally renowned backdrop to matches at the adjacent Oval Cricket Ground. The cylindrical wrought iron guide frame is about 135 feet (41 m) high, with 24 t-section lattice standards, rising in three tiers and connected by three rows of horizontal lattice girders, with a rising "bell" of four tiers, including the top "flying lift" rising above the standards. It would have topped 180 feet (55 m) when full.
A second gasholder, No.2, was constructed in 1854–55 and converted to a spiral-guided holder in 1950, which does not require a frame. No.3 was constructed in 1869 but demolished c.1975.
The conjoined pair of Gasholders No. 4 & 5, erected in 1874 and 1876, was designed by Sir Corbet Woodall and is locally listed. Each of these gasholders has an elegant neo-classical style frame and Tuscan columns. The gasometers were decommissioned in 2014 and the site is due for redevelopment. There are concerns that only the nationally listed No.1 gasometer will be preserved.
The gasholders are adjacent to the north-east boundary wall of The Oval, and overlook the Vauxhall End of the ground. [6] They have been long considered an intrinsic part of the traditional background of The Oval [7] with the largest gas holder only ten years younger than the cricket ground, which was established in 1846. [8] During England cricket team matches, huge advertising banners hang from the gas holders. [9] They are regularly referred to in Test Match Special broadcasts. [10]
In 2008 Surrey County Cricket Club, tenants of The Oval, announced plans to redevelop the ground along the side nearest the gas holders. However, their redevelopment plans were objected to by the Health and Safety Executive because of the proximity to the gas holders and amid fears that they might explode despite not cracking or leaking since construction. [11] This view was supported by London Fire Brigade, who listed the gas holders as a hazardous site. [2] The objection of the Health and Safety Executive was rejected by the Secretary of State and planning inspector. [12]
In 1999, plans were announced to dismantle all of the United Kingdom's gasholders due to being made largely redundant due to improvements in gas storage. [13] This was intended to include the Oval Gas Holders. [14] In March 2012 Lambeth Council locally listed the three gas holders of 1874, 1876 and 1892 (No.4, No.5 and No.1). In 2015, Lawrence D'Silva, a 26 year old local resident, presented a case to Historic England to make the gasholders listed buildings. [15] [16] Subsequently, Historic England assessed them all for national listing and in March 2016 decided to grant Grade II listed status to just one of the Oval Gasholders – No.1 (the largest of them) dating from 1892. The national listing designation supersedes the local listing status of this gasometer so Gasholder No. 1 was subsequently removed from the Local list by Lambeth – Nos. 4 & 5 remain locally listed. There is a strong presumption in the planning decision-making process against the demolition of a nationally listed heritage asset. [3]
The Oval, currently named for sponsorship reasons as the Kia Oval, is an international cricket ground in Kennington, located in the borough of Lambeth, in south London. The Oval has been the home ground of Surrey County Cricket Club since it was opened in 1845. It was the first ground in England to host international Test cricket in September 1880. The final Test match of the English season is traditionally played there.
Wortley is an inner city area of Leeds, West Yorkshire, England. It begins one mile to the west of the city centre. The appropriate City of Leeds ward is called Farnley and Wortley.
A gas holder or gasholder, also known as a gasometer, is a large container in which natural gas or town gas is stored near atmospheric pressure at ambient temperatures. The volume of the container follows the quantity of stored gas, with pressure coming from the weight of a movable cap. Typical volumes for large gas holders are about 50,000 cubic metres (1,800,000 cu ft), with 60-metre-diameter (200 ft) structures.
The Vienna Gasometers are four gasholder houses, built as part of the municipal gas works in Vienna, Austria, from 1896 to 1899. They are located in the 11th district, Simmering. They were used from 1899 to 1984 to house gas holders, also known as gasometers, each of 90,000 m³ storage capacity. After the changeover from town gas to natural gas between 1969 and 1978, they were no longer used and were shut down. Only the brick exterior walls were preserved. The structures have found new residential and commercial use in modern times.
A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space.
Provan Gas Works is an industrial gas holding plant in the city of Glasgow, Scotland. The plant lies between the Blackhill, Blochairn, Germiston and Provanmill areas of the city, and was built by Glasgow Corporation between 1900 and 1904. It later became part of British Gas, and subsequently Transco and most recently Scotia Gas Networks who operate it today.
Arden Street Oval is a sports oval in North Melbourne, Victoria. It is currently the training base of the North Melbourne Football Club, an Australian rules football club, and up to the end of the 1985 season it was used as the team's home ground for Victorian Football League (VFL) matches.
Kennington Common was a swathe of common land mainly within the London Borough of Lambeth. It was one of the earliest venues for cricket around London, with matches played between 1724 and 1785. The common was also used for public executions, fairs and public gatherings. Important orators spoke there, addressing crowds numbering tens of thousands.
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St John the Divine, Kennington, is an Anglican church in London. The parish of Kennington is within the Anglican Diocese of Southwark. The church was designed by the architect George Edmund Street in the Decorated Gothic style, and was built between 1871 and 1874. Today it is a grade I listed building.
The Gas Light and Coke Company, was a company that made and supplied coal gas and coke. The headquarters of the company were located on Horseferry Road in Westminster, London. It is identified as the original company from which British Gas plc is descended.
The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder in Oberhausen, Germany, which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial landmark, and an anchor point of the European Route of Industrial Heritage and the Industrial Heritage Trail. It was built in the 1920s, and reconstructed after World War II.
Vauxhall bus station is a bus station in Vauxhall, in the London Borough of Lambeth. It is operated by London Buses and owned and maintained by Transport for London, and is the second busiest bus station in the city.
The East Greenwich Gas Works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company was the last gas works to be built in London, and the most modern. Originally manufacturing town gas from coal brought in by river and exporting coke and chemicals, the plant was adapted to produce gas from oil in the 1960s. Nothing remains of any of the gas holders; the last gas holder, built in 1886, was dismantled in 2020.
The Launceston Gasworks is a former industrial site located in the CBD of Launceston, Tasmania. The site was the principal supplier of gas to the City of Launceston before the importation of LPG in the 1970s. The gasworks produced gas by heating coal and siphoning off the gas that it released before refining and storing it on site in a set of 3, steel frame gasometers. The first buildings on site were the horizontal retort buildings built in 1860 from sandstone and local brick. The site was later used by Origin Energy as their Launceston LPG outlet. The site is instantly recognizable by its 1930s, steel braced, vertical retort building with the words "COOK WITH GAS" in the brickwork.
A gasholder house is a type of structure that was used to surround an iron gas holder, also known as a gasometer, in which coal gas was stored until it was needed. There are approximately a dozen of these structures—most constructed of brick in the latter-half of the 19th century—that still stand in the United States. Some examples still stand in Europe as well.
Sir Corbet Woodall was an English gas engineer. He was Governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company from 1906 to 1916.
Newstead Gasworks is a heritage-listed former gasometer at 70 Longland Street, Teneriffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1873 to 1887. It is also known as Brisbane Gas Company Gasworks and Newstead Gasworks No.2 gasholder. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 24 June 2005.
West End Gasworks is a heritage-listed gasworks at 321 Montague Road, West End, Queensland, Australia. It is also known as South Brisbane Gas and Light Company Works. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 22 October 1999.
The Bromley-by-Bow gasholders are a group of seven cast iron Victorian gasholders in Twelvetrees Crescent, West Ham and named after nearby Bromley in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets.
Cricket ground in Kennington – Founded in 1845 | ||
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