East of Desolation Infrastructure, decay, urban exploration and discovery…

Greenwich Gasometer

[From the archives of the past year]

Gasometers.  A dying breed.  As our gas network modernises, these hulking structures become obsolete.  Across the country, they are being pulled down, the land decontaminated.

As a child, I remember looking at the local gas towers, now long demolished, looking at the knot of steel lattice and ladders with a revering 12-year-old eye.  I always had respect for these structures; after this climb, even more so.

On top of the world!

The first thing I did upon entering the site was to climb to the top... And boy, what a climb!  I mentioned respect earlier, and respect you must.  6 ladders run to the top of the tower, tiny platforms, barely the width of my feet at the tops and bottoms.  Ladders with half cages, only offering protection to the outside of the tower.  Handrails with disconcerting amounts of wobble.

A huge white elephant, resting by the Thames...

After I took this shot, I was resting, taking it all in, preparing for the descent... I looked back at The Dome, and the lights were out!  I just had to take a second shot...

Yes, more like a balloon...

Back on the not-so-firm metal skin on top of the plunger, I set up to take some shots of the metalwork.  With my friends, we gingerly trod across the dome.  Scare-mongers had spun stories about paper-thin steel, and not lasting 30 seconds because of gas buildups... Total tosh.

Staring up at the lattice work

Built in 1887, and one of the oldest in the country, this gasometer is listed and preserved, for now, at least.  Holding 225,000 cubic meters of gas, at the time of building it was the largest gasometer in the world.  Built in the era of "Town Gas", a product which was manufactured from coal and needed storage.   550 gasometers in the country are now obsolete and are being dismantled.

Ladders and lattice

The UK can only store roughly 4% of it's yearly gas usage, compared to Germany, which claims around 20%.  Gas is now delivered in high pressure pipes, and stored underground, eliminating the need for these hulking steel giants.

Now just old and sad... Listed and decaying...

And so they will disappear from our cityscapes, except for a few, a small number of notable examples such as this one.  Once the largest of it's kind, now just resting, no longer breathing, sinking into decay...