page_title: Southall Gas Works
section_title: History
hierarchical_section_title: Southall Gas Works / History
caption_attribution_description: English: Southall Gas Works from the canal towpath, 1973
context_page_description: Southall Gas Works is a site of around 88 acres in Southall, west London, formerly occupied by a plant for the manufacture of town gas. Today a much reduced site is used for the pressure reduction and storage of natural gas, whilst the remainder is currently being redeveloped for mixed-use by Berkeley Group.
context_section_description: The gas works was originally constructed by the Brentford Gas Company, opening in 1869. It was required to meet rapidly increasing demand in Middlesex, which outstripped the capacity of the company's original works on the Thames at Brentford.
  The gas works was originally established at the western end of the full site, and progressively expanded to the east over sites originally used for brickyards and chemical works. It initially consisted of a retort house and a 480,000 cubic feet (14,000 m³) gas holder. In 1881 a second retort house was built and in 1885 an ammonium sulphate plant.
  In 1878 no. 2 holder was built with a capacity of 1,130,000 cubic feet (32,000 m³). In 1885 a Hurd holder was built with a capacity of 2,100,000 cubic feet (59,000 m³). In 1892 holder no. 4 was erected, to take 3,950,000 cubic feet (112,000 m³) of gas. In 1899 a carburetted water gas (CWG) plant was added with a capacity of 3,000,000 cubic feet (85,000 m³) per day, and in 1903 another retort house with 200 retorts.
  During World War 1 chemical plants were constructed to produce oil gas tar, coal tar
  and crude benzole. In 1916 the CWG capacity was increased, and in 1920 Blue Water Gas plant was added.
  In 1926 the Brentford Gas Company was taken over by the Gas Light and Coke Company (GLCC). In the early 1930s a 7,500,000 cubic feet (210,000 m³) waterless holder was constructed. This holder, which is over 300 feet high, is now demolished.
  By 1935 the chemical works had closed and had been replaced by a smaller works further east. Whilst not as large as the GLCC's Beckton Products Works, this made a significant contribution to the Company’s production, particularly of creosote and road tar. The works was situated on the opposite side of London to Beckton, which facilitated the company’s road tar spraying operations on that side of the metropolis. Southall Products Works continued to manufacture ammonium sulphate until 1946.
  Following nationalisation of the gas industry in 1949 the plant came under the control of the North Thames Gas Board. Construction of oil gasification plant began and by 1951 up to 300,000 cubic feet (8,500 m³) of gas a day was being produced in this way, primarily at times of peak demand.
  In 1953-4 a further 12,000,000 cubic feet (340,000 m³) CWG plant was built on the site of the original retort house from the 1860s, together with tower purifiers.
  In the early 1960s plant was installed at Southall to make town gas from a feedstock of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) obtained from Fawley refinery via a 70-mile pipeline. The first major oil storage tank, of 544,000 imperial gallons (2,470,000 l), was installed in 1960. In 1963, the catalytic reforming plant had a production capacity of 60,000,000 cubic feet (1,700,000 m³) per day. Catalytic rich gas plant was installed in 1966 with a capacity of 30,000,000 cubic feet (850,000 m³) per day.
  The Products Works ceased distilling tar and was closed down in 1968. With the move to North Sea gas the gas works closed in 1973, leaving gas distribution and storage as the main on site functions. The site passed into the hands of British Gas Plc in 1973 and subsequently to National Grid plc.
  At the time of a site survey in connection with the proposed biofuel power station in 2007 three of the site's five gas holders (Nos 3 to 5) remained in use, one (No 1 from the 1860s) was disused and one (No 2 from 1878) had been demolished.
  Parts of the site were used as long-stay parking for Heathrow Airport during the early 21st century.
caption: Looking south from the canal towpath to Southall Gas Works, 1973
exif: {"Image XResolution": "72", "Image YResolution": "72", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image Software": "Paint Shop Pro Photo 12.01", "Image DateTime": "2011:08:08 16:58:26", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "Image ExifOffset": "174", "GPS GPSVersionID": "[2, 2, 0, 0]", "GPS GPSLatitudeRef": "N", "GPS GPSLatitude": "[51, 30, 30403/1000]", "GPS GPSLongitudeRef": "W", "GPS GPSLongitude": "[0, 23, 821/25]", "GPS GPSMapDatum": "WGS-84", "Image GPSInfo": "284", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "524", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "3912", "Thumbnail YCbCrPositioning": "Co-sited", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0221", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "1973:06:04 10:00:00", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "973", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "421"}