GAS HOLDERS

SKELETAL WITNESSES OF TIME

London offers a wide variety of architecture, but the structures that most fascinated me, are gas holders, also known as gasometers. These enormous structures, born in the Victorian age, used to provide the city with coal gas, or town gas, that was stored in steel cylinder cans inside them.
They have been dismissed as natural gas was discovered in the northern sea in 1965 and advancements were made in pipelines transportation. Gas holders are threatened by demolition for many reasons and there is great polemics about them. They occupy large areas in zones where cost of properties is rapidly increasing. Furthermore companies owning them, National Grid for at least 500 in the UK, are not properties companies, and selling the fields could be an opportunity for builders and developers.
Although it is true that some of them are very crumbling and dangerous with poor maintenance, it is also true that they proudly represent a piece of our history, of our past. Time stopped for them, but they are still alive. With this publication my aim is to show how fascinating and beautiful they can be, majestic, proud, huge and at the same time how much they contrast with their surrounding.
Size A3 297×420 mm
Printed at London College of Communication on GF Smith Accent Smooth Glacier White paper 





Carolina Scarpetta – © 2023 All rights reserved