page_title: Gas holder
section_title: Europe
hierarchical_section_title: Gas holder / By location / Europe
caption_attribution_description: This is a photo of listed building number 1423467. The Imperial Gas Light and Coke Company’s gasworks at St Pancras was opened in the 1820s. Gasholder No 8, was a cast iron John Clarke designed Type 14 from the late 1850s. It was de-commissioned in 2000, dismantled in 2013, restored and rebuilt 2016 to the north of the Regent's Canal by Engineer Morwenna Wilson along with 10, 11 and 12. Now named Gas Holder Park and featuring a mirrored installation.
context_page_description: A gas holder, or 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, with 60 metres diameter structures.
  Gas holders now tend to be used for balancing purposes, to ensure gas pipes can be operated within a safe range of pressures, rather than for actually storing gas for later use.
context_section_description: The pollution associated with gasworks and gas storage makes the land difficult to reclaim for other purposes, but some gas holders, notably in Vienna, have been converted into other uses such as living space and a shopping mall and historical archives for the city. Many sites, however, were never used for the production of 'town gas', therefore the land contamination is relatively low.
  Gas holders have been a major part of the skylines of low-rise British cities for up to 200 years, due to their large distinctive shape and central location. They were originally used for balancing daily demand and generation of town gas. With the move to natural gas and construction of the national grid pipework, their use steadily diminished as the pipe network could both store gas under pressure, and eventually satisfy peak demand directly. London, Manchester, Sheffield, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle, Salisbury and Glasgow (which has the largest gasometers in the UK) are noted for having many gas holders.
  Some of these gas holders have become listed buildings. The gas holders behind King's Cross station in London were specially dismantled when the new Channel Tunnel Rail Link was being created, with Gas holder No 8 being re-erected on a nearby site behind St Pancras station as part of a housing development. It has been fashioned into a park. Most gas holders are no longer used, and a program of dismantling is underway to release the land for reuse.
  A gasworks in South Lotts, Dublin, Ireland, was converted into apartments.
  In the past, holder stations would have an operator living on site controlling their movement. However, with the process control systems now used on these sites, such an operator is obsolete. The tallest gasometer in Europe is 117 metres (384 ft) tall and is located in Oberhausen.
  In the UK as well as other European countries, a movement to preserve classic gasometers has emerged in recent years, especially after Britain's National Grid announced in 2013 their plans to remove 76 gas holders, and soon afterwards, Southern and Scottish Gas networks announced that they would demolish 111 others. Christopher Costelloe, director of the Victorian Society, a leader in the campaign to preserve the gasometers said:
  “Gasometers, by their very size and structure, cannot help but become landmarks. [They] are singularly dramatic structures for all their emptiness.”
  The gashouder in Amsterdam is notable for its Awakenings_feesten techno parties.
caption: A mirrored installation in the re-located King's Cross Gas Holder Number 8., London
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