Purley Gas Holder - 2014
There is not too much in the way of history on this gas holder, it was constructed on the site of what was once known as the Croydon Gasworks and was absolutely VAST. Croydon once was home to 2 large power stations not dissimilar to Battersea, those would have been a real sight to see.
You can make out the Gas Holder on the left hand side. The one climbed is the closer of the two.
This climb is from absolutey yonks ago so forgive me for the shortness of this report, it was visited by myself and cut.and.cover one cold night. The site is pretty much empty apart from a grubby looking electricity station with a modern metal chimney and a few large pipes cross crossing the yard. There are 2 gas holders on the site with one of them missing its towering cage, we instantly could see our target and casually wandered over to the base of the gas holder. Cut.and.cover was the first to grip the rusty baby blue coloured ladder and begin his ascent, I followed soon after. There is an absence of tall buildings in this part of town, so once you are above the roof line of the local neighbourhood the wind hits you and you feel very exposed, the tram line below quietly going about its business with nobody looking up at the great hulking structure beside them, and the 2 figures slowly making their way up it.
Power station and Tower.
Base of the Gas Holder.
A large bit of rust whizzed past me, knocked off by cut.and.cover whist he was climbing the ladder. It hit the bottom/top of the gas holder and made an unusual sound, like when you throw a pebble on ice and it reverberates like metal sheeting. That was quite unnerving and reminded me of the fact that I was very high. The ladder only has half of a cage around it, as if it was a full cage it would interfere with the rising and falling of the gas holder itself. As a result of this you have relative safety one side of you but on the other side just pure air and open space offering a one way ticket back to the ground floor. At the top there is a walkway running the whole top of the gas holder, it is not very wide and is very very rusty just like the rest of the structure. Cut.and.cover was walking around the whole thing but I was content just to stay by the slightly wider portion next to the ladder. We snapped away and didn’t linger too long before making our way back down. I was more than happy to have my feet back on solid ground and we walked back out of the site the way we came. Another one ticked off the list.
Cut.and.cover
wide boi
Romanticizing Croydon.
Once last look before leaving.
Over and out.
Thanks for reading.
Forgive the dead photos, didn’t know how to use a camera at the time.
Until Next Time
There is not too much in the way of history on this gas holder, it was constructed on the site of what was once known as the Croydon Gasworks and was absolutely VAST. Croydon once was home to 2 large power stations not dissimilar to Battersea, those would have been a real sight to see.
You can make out the Gas Holder on the left hand side. The one climbed is the closer of the two.
This climb is from absolutey yonks ago so forgive me for the shortness of this report, it was visited by myself and cut.and.cover one cold night. The site is pretty much empty apart from a grubby looking electricity station with a modern metal chimney and a few large pipes cross crossing the yard. There are 2 gas holders on the site with one of them missing its towering cage, we instantly could see our target and casually wandered over to the base of the gas holder. Cut.and.cover was the first to grip the rusty baby blue coloured ladder and begin his ascent, I followed soon after. There is an absence of tall buildings in this part of town, so once you are above the roof line of the local neighbourhood the wind hits you and you feel very exposed, the tram line below quietly going about its business with nobody looking up at the great hulking structure beside them, and the 2 figures slowly making their way up it.
Power station and Tower.
Base of the Gas Holder.
A large bit of rust whizzed past me, knocked off by cut.and.cover whist he was climbing the ladder. It hit the bottom/top of the gas holder and made an unusual sound, like when you throw a pebble on ice and it reverberates like metal sheeting. That was quite unnerving and reminded me of the fact that I was very high. The ladder only has half of a cage around it, as if it was a full cage it would interfere with the rising and falling of the gas holder itself. As a result of this you have relative safety one side of you but on the other side just pure air and open space offering a one way ticket back to the ground floor. At the top there is a walkway running the whole top of the gas holder, it is not very wide and is very very rusty just like the rest of the structure. Cut.and.cover was walking around the whole thing but I was content just to stay by the slightly wider portion next to the ladder. We snapped away and didn’t linger too long before making our way back down. I was more than happy to have my feet back on solid ground and we walked back out of the site the way we came. Another one ticked off the list.
Cut.and.cover
wide boi
Romanticizing Croydon.
Once last look before leaving.
Over and out.
Thanks for reading.
Forgive the dead photos, didn’t know how to use a camera at the time.
Until Next Time
