Colin Marr wrote about a gas holder at the Hornsey Gasworks known as Hornsey No 1 in 2006 when it was under threat of demolition to make way for the Haringey Heartlands development. This was reposted as part of our Newsletter Archive series in 2020.
Hornsey Gasworks: A Structure at Risk, detailed some of the history of the Gasworks and emphasised the importance for local heritage of trying to incorporate the structure into the new development. Here, Colin brings us up to date.
Regrettably, English Heritage (EH) refused the listing application in 2006, mostly on the grounds that they regarded the structure as merely “heavily-braced” and therefore not innovative. Over the next ten years, there were appeals to the Secretary of State and EH to correct this misunderstanding, and a further formal submission was made in 2015, but all met with the same refusal. Inevitably, without the protection that listing would have provided, both Hornsey No 1 and the larger less historic gasholder at Hornsey were demolished in 2017 as part of the site clearance for the building of Haringey Heartlands, All other surviving examples of gasholders using Cutler’s patented triangular form were similarly refused listing by EH and by 2019, all had been demolished.
It is a cruel irony that when Historic England (successor to EH) published a treatise on gasholders in 2020, they acknowledged that Cutler’s designs ”…inspired the development of helical or geodesic structures, a form later seen in Barnes Wallis airframes for aeroplanes (1930s), Buckminster Fuller’s Domes (1950s), and even the skyscraper known as the Gherkin, London.” If EH had conceded this ten years earlier, perhaps the guide frame of Hornsey No 1 would have been listed and then reused as a keynote building within Haringey Heartlands. Such a result would have enriched Heartlands and acknowledged Hornsey’s industrial heritage.
The Heartlands site was owned by National Grid and their property development company, St William commenced work on the site in 2017. At one point, they planned to retain some of the elements of Cutler’s gasholder for display on site as a gesture to its historic past but sadly, these went for scrap and nothing remains. However, St William later did commission an artist, Rachel Champion to create a water feature on the exact site of Hornsey No 1 to acknowledge its industrial and social heritage. This was unveiled in October 2023. Significantly, the words engraved in the surrounding stone include “Pioneering geodesic structure”, “Cutler’s patent guide framing” and “A lattice of vertical guides and helical girders”. Recognition at last!
Image Credits
Colin Marr