A beautiful blight on the redeveloping Regent’s Canal in London, the Coke Company Gasholders sit — like most of their Victorian ilk — at the centre of the industrial city. When high-pressure pipeline networks made the massive storage facilities obsolete, these iron-mesh masterpieces lost their raison d’être. Yet six years after being decommissioned in 2012, they gained new purpose when the developer Berkeley acquired the 19th-century architecture and appointed Graham Stirk of RSHP to lead the design of a master plan for the site.
The architects dismantled, refurbished and reinstated the iron ‘substrate’ of two gasholders, including the famous no2 from 1866, oldest of its kind worldwide. Within the iron basket weave are cylindrical residential buildings with up to 234 apartments in each. The awkward shape turned out not to be so awkward. The inner corners took loos and open kitchens, and terraces slotted neatly and privately between generous windows over the neighbourhood. The architects designed three additional buildings in the place of disused gas tanks to pull together a cohesive scheme that celebrates the industrial heritage of the east London water route.
Called Regent’s View Bethnal Green, the properties join a handful of gasworks across London and Europe — completed and approved for development — that prioritise the adaptive reuse of some of the Victorian era’s most celebrated architecture. We’ve featured them below.
Regent’s View Bethnal Green, London
Launching this year as a canal-side community with hundreds of new one-, two- and three-bed homes, Regent’s View Bethnal Green comprises two iconic Victorian gasholder frames, plus three additional buildings and 1.75 acres of public open landscaping. The rounded towers open individual apartments to the surrounding property and bring the neighbourhood in, returning a once lively residential community back to its Regency-era spirit. The most affordable one-beds start at £380,000 for neighbourhood applicants who qualify for the First Time Buyer discount. The non-discounted base price is £522,000. The tallest gasholder holds amenities like a rooftop bar, golf simulator, squash court, screening room and workspaces.
King’s Cross Gasholders, London
Wilkinson Eyre’s rehabilitation of the Grade II-listed King’s Cross gasworks was lauded when it first opened around 10 years ago. The high-end project, with interior architecture by Jonathan Tuckey Design, transformed the three cylindrical iron structures. Bell Phillips Architects took on the conversion of Gasholder no8, into a beloved urban park, with a green lawn overtaking the original footprint. The curved-wall apartments are typically priced in the millions.
Gasometer City, Vienna
Jean Nouvel, Coop Himmelb(l)au, Manfred Wehdorn and Wilhelm Holzbaue won a competition decades ago to convert four defunct 1890s gasometers into a 22,000sqm complex housing thousands of people. They’re located in Simmering, a historically industrial district in southeast Vienna, their 19th-century brick largely restored. Nouvel installed a transparent dome atop the 55 metre-high walls of Gasometer A; Manfred Wehdorn’s application at Gasometer C is eco-friendly, with an indoor landscaped garden.
Villa Industria, Hilversum
The small Dutch centre of Hilversum was a hub for the Regional Energy Supply Company, where Villa Industria currently offers 357 homes, carved out of the area’s heritage ruddy-brick industrial facility. Each of the three cylinders now has its own private garden, and an existing swimming pool was reclad in brick, steel and glass to complement new steel columns in the complex. The masterplan prioritises pedestrians and cyclists.
Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks, London
Concurrent with its Bethnal Green project, RSHP was appointed to lead a new east London development containing the largest and most significant collection of Victorian gasholders in the world. The seven Grade II-listed frames, by an old tidal mill, will form part of a larger plan for 2,150 new homes and 4.2 acres of open space along the River Lea. The radial truss bell structure of Gasholder no4, designed 150 years ago by Victorian Engineer Vitruvius Wyatt, is the focal point, refurbished as a community hub for farmer’s markets, outdoor cinema and ice skating.
