Southall Dry Gasholder

Last crawled date: 2 years, 11 months ago

This 90m (295 ft) rigid gas holder is a west London landmark, located at the Southall gasworks site next to the Great Western mainline railway. It was constructed to a German design in 1930, and consists of an oil-sealed piston free to travel inside a metal cylinder: unlike water-sealed gasometers, the holder does not expand or contract with the gas contained inside. The holder is the largest facility on the 36-hectare Southall Gas Works site, which is mostly decommissioned and used for car storage. A planned regeneration project will mix residential dwelling with parkland. The letters 'LH' and arrow on the side of the holder point out the direction of London Heathrow airport, 4 miles to the southwest. This was to prevent confusion with a similar holder that once stood at South Harrow on the approach to Northolt airfield, later painted with a giant 'NO'. Before this, more than one pilot landed at Northolt rather than Heathrow in error, only just managing to stop on the shorter runway. A similar gasholder stands next to Battersea Power Station in central London. #approach #confusion #cylinder #error #gas_tank #gasholder #gasometer #gasworks #Heathrow #London #natural_gas #Northolt #oilsealed #pilot #railway #Southall #UK