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Latitude: 55.8933 / 55°53'35"N
Longitude: -4.3151 / 4°18'54"W
OS Eastings: 255320
OS Northings: 669103
OS Grid: NS553691
Mapcode National: GBR 067.C5
Mapcode Global: WH3P1.P4CH
Plus Code: 9C7QVMVM+8W
Entry Name: Gasholder
Listing Name: No. 4 Gasholder and No. 5 Gasholder, excluding tanks and shells and any telemetry, pipework or other items that connect to the gasholders above or below ground and excluding all other structures and b
Listing Date: 4 December 2017
Last Amended: 17 September 2018
Category: B
Source: Historic Scotland
Source ID: 407040
Historic Scotland Designation Reference: LB52443
Building Class: Cultural
ID on this website: 200407040
Location: Glasgow
County: Glasgow
Town: Glasgow
Electoral Ward: Partick East/Kelvindale
Traditional County: Dunbartonshire
Gasholder Number 5 (the northern of the pair) was built in 1900 by the same company and is of the same type and design but with a slightly different specification. Barrowfield Ironworks Ltd for the Corporation of Glasgow Gas Department of Type 32 frame. The circular frame is 44.5 metres in height and has 24 steel lattice standards. The sunken tank is 71 metres in diameter and 15 metres in depth. Repairs to no. 5 Gasholder include; crown and cup replacement and overhauls in 1984 and middle lift grips repaired and two crown rollers overhauled in 2000.
In accordance with Section 1 (4A) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 the following are excluded from the listing: the shells and the tank of No. 4 Gasholder and No. 5 Gasholder.
No. 4 Gasholder and No. 5 Gasholder are among the last surviving gasholders in Scotland. They are among a very small number of surviving structures of their type and date in the country. The pair of gasholders, which make an imposing industrial feature, are a local landmark. They are also an important reminder of an industrial process that is now redundant.
Age and Rarity
Temple Gasworks
The Glasgow Gas Light Company (GGLC), created by an Act of Parliament, was founded in 1817 and initially operated gasworks at Townhead, Glasgow. The Company subsequently expanded, opening gasworks at Tradeston in 1835 and Partick in 1841. An Act of Parliament in 1843 also granted gas manufacture and supply rights to a new firm known as the Glasgow City and Suburban Gas Company (GCSGC). The GGLC and GCSGC covered the entire city of Glasgow, meeting ever increasing demand for gas supply. In 1869, a Special Act of Parliament merged the two companies to form the Glasgow Corporation Gas Department. Another company, known as the Partick, Hillhead and Maryhill Gas Company, was set up without Parliamentary powers in 1871 and operated gasworks at Temple. The Glasgow Corporation purchased this company and their sites in 1890.
Throughout the 19th and early 20th centuries, Glasgow was a thriving industrial city with a world famous iron, steel and shipping industry. There was an ever increasing demand for gas in Glasgow to cater to the city s intensive industrial output as well as its hugely expanding population s need for gas at home. This rapid industrial and domestic growth led to the alteration and expansion of existing gas undertaking sites in the city. The Corporation ran, set-up and acquired numerous gasworks in the Glasgow area over the years and, by the end of the 19th century, operated three gasworks in the city. In order to meet city gas supply demands, the Corporation increased gas storage facilities at Temple. A substantial gasholder was built by the Glasgow Corporation in 1893 and a further gasholder in 1900.
The No. 4 gasholder, erected in 1893, had a capacity of 155, 742 cubic metres. At the time of construction, this gasholder had the third largest holder in the world. There were three smaller gasholders on the site in 1893, alongside the large suite of structures related to the gas production process. The same holders were still being used on site in 1900 with an additional, fifth, holder located immediately north of Gasholder No. 4.
Gasholder No. 5 had a capacity of 141, 584 cubic metres. At its peak, the Temple site had five holders and also had ancillary buildings which included coal stores and breakers, a retort house, condensers, purifiers, governor house and other structures related to the gasification of coal. In 1892, a tunnel was constructed connecting Temple with nearby Dawsholm Gasworks located several hundred metres east-northeast. A rail line and gas supply pipes ran from Dawsholm into Temple. Improved gas production facilities at Dawsholm led to Temple being used as a gas storage and boosting facility with some testing and experiments taking place on site.
Brief history of gas manufacturing
The early years of gas manufacturing focused on small-scale private production for lighting. The gasification of coal was first developed by Archibald Cochrane, 9th Earl of Dundonald in 1781. Cochrane came across coal gas while heating coal to obtain tar. This by-product was captured and used to light rooms in his home.
In 1792 William Murdoch (1754-1839), a Scottish engineer and inventor, pioneered the process of manufacturing gas for industry and was the first to usecoal gas to light his entire house and office in Redruth in Cornwall. Murdoch soon broadened the practical use of gas for lighting factories and established the first small gasworks for Boulton and Watt in Smethwick, Soho, Birmingham in 1798. Frederick Winsor, a German inventor, was granted a Royal Charter in 1812 creating the world s first public gas company called the Gas Light and Coke Co. which principally supplied gas for street lighting and households in London.
In Scotland, the first towns to receive a public gas supply were Balfron, Dumbartonshire and Deanston, Perthshire in 1813. This was soon followed by the first large-scale gasworks at Townhead in Glasgow, in operation from 1818. By the mid-1820s, all the major towns and cities across Scotland had a ready supply of gas available.
By 1859, there were over 1000 gasworks across Britain with most found in urban centres near large concentrations of population. Electric lighting was introduced and offered competition to gas from 1880 but improvements in gas burners enabled gas to compete with electric lighting until the 1950s.
By the start of the 20th century, many gasworks were publically owned with some still operating as private companies. In 1948, the Gas Act nationalised the majority of gasworks that provided a public supply creating 12 local gas boards. The Gas Act of 1948 amalgamated and nationalised the gas producers and suppliers of England, Scotland and Wales. Prior to the Act, there were 1046 private and municipal gas companies operating in the UK. A Gas Council with twelve Area Boards were set up across the UK. The Scottish Gas Board took over the operations with around 200 gasworks in Scotland.
As the industrialisation of the country intensified and as urban populations grew, so did the scale of gas production, its supply and its storage. The method of gasifying coal did not change significantly from the time it was first produced on a large scale for public supply in the early 19th century until coal gas was replaced with natural gas from 1959.
Gasworks were necessarily connected to significant transport networks such as railways and canals to ensure easy access to coal. The works was made up of a number of specialist building types to produce the gas for distribution.
Coal was brought onto the gaswork site and burned in retorts (large iron tubes) in retort houses to produce gases which were captured. The gases were condensed and purified before being stored and/or fed into the mains pipes for its onward supply. Storing gas made its production more efficient and it ensured that the demand for gas could be met especially during peak hours.
Gas was stored in a gasholder consisting of a circular iron container known as a lift, set within a water sealed below ground tank with an inlet from the works on-site and an outlet ultimately leading to the mains pipe. The larger gasholders had telescopic lifts which usually had from two to four sections and were guided by the outer circular frame. The first telescopic holder was built in Leeds in 1824.
Gasholders were further developed from 1890 with the introduction of spiral guided frame holders, first seen at Northwich in Cheshire. These holders were mostly built above ground, saving the effort and expense of excavating a deep, large tank. The holders still retained a telescopic feature where each shell could rise guided by internal rails mounted to the inside of the neighbouring shell. The rails ran at 45 degrees allowing the shells to rise and store additional gas. Such spiral holders were frequently over four tiers in height and allowed greater storage of gas with lower construction costs as no external guide frame was required.
Each regional Gas Board controlled every aspect of gas supply in its region. From the period of nationalisation of the industry in the 1940s leading up to the discovery of North Sea gas in the 1960s, most town gasworks gradually became gas reforming plants and coal was no longer burned onsite to produce gas. By the 1970s, natural gas completely replaced the production of gas by coal and oil gasification. The British Gas Corporation took control of the twelve regional Area Boards under the Gas Act of 1972. Oil price increases in 1973 and 1979 further fuelled the demand for gas as a source of power. The discovery of major gas deposits in the North Sea, around this time, provided a means to meet the increased demand for natural gas.
Following the privatisation of the industry in 1986, private companies introduced new processes which gradually modernised the supply of gas. The mains system and distribution networks were adapted and the complex of buildings previously needed to produce gas were systematically decommissioned, many of which have since been demolished. Gas was still being stored in gasholders but their number was steadily decreased as natural gas was more compressed and needed less storage space.
Many sites have since been completely decommissioned with the land cleared or repurposed. From 2011, gas has no longer been stored in holders connected to the mains.
Designated gasholders
As the technology of storing and distributing gas continually developed since it was first applied to domestic use in the early 19th century, historic structures related to the earliest inception of the industry are now extremely rare in Scotland with one small early site remaining at Biggar (from 1839, altered in 1914 – the site is listed at category A). What does remain of what we recognise as the prototypical gasholder is now very limited and is confined to a small number of sites which retain gasholders and some with a scattering of ancillary buildings dating to the end of the 19th and the early 20th century, a point in time when the industrial output of Scotland was nearing its peak.
There are only small number gasholders surviving in Scotland from the turn of the 19th to the 20th centuries including the oldest one from 1890 at Well Street, Paisley, two at Provan Gasworks (1903)and one at Dunfermline Gasholder Station (1893). Two small gasholders are at Biggar Gasworks Museum, which are earlier in date, but both were largely rebuilt in the 20th century. The Granton Gasholder, in Edinburgh, is listed at category B and was designed and constructed between 1898 and1902.
A greater number of gasholders of this period and slightly earlier have survived in England (17) than in Scotland and a small number of these have been recognised through listing. The concentration of population in England in large cities has meant that there were larger, early gasworks established in major industrial centres, with London being the most prominent.
No. 4 and No. 5 Gasholders, Temple Gasholder Station
The No. 4 gasholder at Temple is understood to be the second-oldest surviving gasholder in Scotland that provided a public supply of gas. At the time of construction, the gasholder had a claim to having the third largest holder in the world. The paring of No. 4 Gasholder with No. 5 Gasholder (of slightly later date) of this size is now rare with the only comparable site remaining at Provan in the north of Glasgow. These structures are one of the last remaining examples of the 19th – early 20th century gas industry in Scotland and is a reminder of the former industrial use of the site. The pair of gasholders are a striking example of historic industrial infrastructure and are a rare survival. They are also a monument to the once massive scale of the gas industry in Glasgow and in Scotland.
Architectural or Historic Interest
Interior
The interior of the gasholders was not seen. However, it is likely, based on the construction drawings and decommissioning works of other similar gasholders that it is typical for gasholders of this date. The below ground tanks are of brick and clay puddle construction. The holders themselves, are steel shells and were constructed from riveted and welded pieces of cladding to form the three-tiered domed holders. A rounded mound, known as the dumpling, would sit in the centre of the tanks and saved unnecessary excavation work. The interior of the gasholders have been repaired and altered in the later 20th century. This part of the gasholders is not included in the listing.
Plan form
The plan of the gasholders is standardised with the tank and holder and frame being circular on plan.
Technological excellence or innovation, material or design quality
By the late 1890s, tiered (or telescopic) steel frame-guided gasholders were not new as these had superseded cast and wrought iron examples from around 1890. While not the first of their type in Scotland, the steel frame-guided gasholders at Temple Gasholder Station are among the earliest of their type to survive in Scotland. Their large size is also remarkable in the Scottish context.
The guide frame structure is utilitarian, providing an industrial storage facility. Historic photographs of the gasholders show that the frames, while repaired in some sections, are close to their original design and construction. The guide frame is of Type 32 design with I-profile standards with equal chords to the front and back. The standards are tapered which started to become the conventional design of standards from 1890 onwards.
Prior to the construction of Gasholder No. 4, in 1893, Temple had three smaller gasholders, likely dating from the sites early operational period in the 1870s. Historic photographs indicate the three earlier holders were only single lift, compared to the No. 4 holder being three-tier. This newer telescopic holder design vastly increased the maximum capacity of the gasholder. Such telescopic holders were patented in England in 1824 and became a tried and tested technology. However, they arrived later in Scotland and spread slowly. The design of No. 4 Gasholder of 1893 was, at the time, one of the largest gasholders in Britain and had the third largest holder in the world. This new, larger gasholder provided Glasgow with a more reliable supply of gas and allowed greater efficiency of gas production to assist with keeping gas supply costs for consumers to a minimum. The addition of No. 5 Gasholder, in 1900, with similar levels of high capacity enhanced the storage capability at, and reliability of gas supply from, Temple.
Setting
The gasholders sit in their original position at the west of the site and are a prominent feature in the urban townscape. The immediate setting of the gasholder has changed since the time of its construction as all the contemporary gasworks buildings have been cleared with only some mid-20th century remnants onsite. The gasholders are a local landmark visible from nearby roads and vantage points. Today, the gasholders stand within a large vacant plot surrounded by housing. However, the adjacent canal system with associated locks and basins and remnants of the railway line are adjacent to the gasholders and this relationship contributes to their understanding of an area of former intensified, heavy industry. They are now landmarks in the local area.
Regional variations
There are no known regional variations.
Close Historical Associations
There are no known associations with a person or event of national importance at present (2017).
Statutory listing address amended in 2018. Previously listed as 'No. 4 Gasholder and No. 5 Gasholder, excluding tanks and shells, Temple Gasholder Station, Strathcona Drive, Glasgow'.
External links are from the relevant listing authority and, where applicable, Wikidata. Wikidata IDs may be related buildings as well as this specific building. If you want to add or update a link, you will need to do so by editing the Wikidata entry.
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