Gasholder No.13, Old Kent Road former gasworks

Gasholder. Built in 1879-1881 by the engineer George Livesey and contractors Ashmore & While for the South Metropolitan Gas Company. The tank was constructed by Dowcra & Sons. Repaired by Clayton & Son Ltd in 1942 following war damage.

MATERIALS: Wrought-iron standards and struts, an iron bell and mass-concrete tank embedded with iron bands.

DESCRIPTION: Gasholder No.13 is a frame-guided holder with a capacity of 5.5m cu ft; at that time the largest in the world. It comprises 22 very slender wrought-iron standards (uprights) attached to five-tiers of horizontal members; four original lower tiers of struts of a riveted cruciform section, and a top tier formed of a rolled-steel semi-box girder added in 1942 (Type 41 in Tucker’s Typology). The frame was built to a new structural principle, which treated the guide frame as a single huge cylinder for the first time. It is 48.8m high and c66.5m in diameter. The standards are I-section plate girders with a slight taper towards the top and a depth of just over 0.5m at the base where they are bolted to shallow cast-iron plates. Strong diagonal bracing of flat wrought-iron bars is placed at frequent intervals, forming intersecting helices with 10 crossings in the height of the frame. The bars weave between the inner and outer faces of the standards where they are riveted to gusset plates. At the crossing points the bars are clipped together with a lozenge-shaped cover plate. The top girder forms a walkway and has a steel handrail attached to the outside edge. It is reached from ground-level by five ladders with four intermediate rest platforms attached to the N side of the gasholder. Paddon wind ties of steel wire rope support the top of the frame. A three-lift iron bell rises on both radial and tangential rollers from an in-ground tank; the untrussed crown of the bell, originally with a steel top-curb, has been replaced following wartime damage. The two lower lifts retain the cups and grips of George Piggott's rounded profile and the lowest lift has D-section external stiffeners of Livesey's bent-plate pattern. Guide rails for the bell are riveted to the inside edge of the standards. The tank is constructed of Portland Cement concrete with a layer of cement render on the inside reinforced by 25 iron hoops embedded in the wall.