Kings Cross gasometer

[Diamond]

Well, I can't say I'd be put off if they did fill them with flats. I take the bus up that way home from work, and I'm amazed at the sheer amount of unused space there is so central to London. What with all the complaints of housing crisis, they could house at least 10,000 people there I'd think, there's acres and acres of it! And once the rail link is complete all those temporary offices can be scrapped, as well, leaving even more room.

I'd agree with this. The scale of the derelict land and buildings around there is astonishing.

 

[HobgoblinMan]

Would have made a good car park.

 

[toblerone3]

No giant reflective ball then.

"Intriguingly the scheme only received just over 2 per cent of an online poll. According to AJ readers, Julian Hakes’ large reflective ball should have won, having bagged 43 per cent of the vote." - AJ

 

[ska invita]

So what are they going to used for??? A place for people to stand with their arms above their head???

DOn't be so cynical - cant you read - its "internal and external public amenity space" if people like you ruled we would have any internal and external public amenity space!

 

[ska invita]

No giant reflective ball then.

"Intriguingly the scheme only received just over 2 per cent of an online poll. According to AJ readers, Julian Hakes’ large reflective ball should have won, having bagged 43 per cent of the vote." - AJ

maybe this one is cheaper. it looks pretty empty to me

 

[g force]

DOn't be so cynical - cant you read - its "internal and external public amenity space" if people like you ruled we would have any internal and external public amenity space!

So a park. But indoors. Just what London needs....presumably they'll include some "art installation" space and "commerical counters", ie a Starbucks.

Worst design of the lot won IMO

 

[Doppelgänger]

Edited to add: one of the supposed problems with buying in Russian gas to keep our power stations running is that apparently we have insufficient storage capacity to hold spare gas capacity which would act as a cushion against fluctuating prices. Many towns still have lots of these old gasometer going back to the days of the making of Town Gas from coke. They could readily be brought back into use if the will was there.

Most gasometers are used, but to ensure that the correct pipeline pressure is maintained.

The UK's storage is so dismal as we used to be completly self sufficient and were able to run a just-in-time system, where the gas came straight form the North Sea onto the National Transmission System. This is no longer the case unfortuatley, but we certainly don't buy gas from the Russians. More than half still comes from the UK continental shelf, with the rest coming from LNG (Sourced from places like Qatar and Trinidad & Tobago) and via pipeline from Norway, the Netherlands and Belgium.

New storage is coming on line, but a lot is still in the planning process as the old nimby brigade is trying to scupper it.

Some of the gas, especially from Belgium may originally be sourced from Russia, but it would have been sold and resold before it found its way there.

Europeans tend to have long-term oil linked contracts with the Russians, something that the UK does not have. We like to have a librilised market where you can buy sell gas spot, rather that rely on expensive long-term contracts.