Tag: Granton gas holder

Gas engineers re-enact historic lunch at Granton gasholder

Gas engineers gathered in Granton Waterfront yesterday to re-enact a historic lunch which took place prior to the iconic Granton gasholder being put into use in 1901.

Last week, the City of Edinburgh Council announced that the bell that floated up as water filled the gasholder in Granton Waterfront, has been taken apart. 

The work carried out by McLaughlin & Harvey is part of the ongoing restoration works using £16.4m from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund. The money is being used to restore the original 76 x 46 metre frame to look like new.

Historic records on the original lunch said that attendees were taken ‘by special train’  to a ‘special station’ built for the gasworks in Granton where more than 50 members were met by ‘the Edinburgh and Leith Gas Commissioner’.

The documents go on to describe the gasholder as ‘a works that promises to be a model of structural beauty and mechanical ingenuity’.

The station mentioned in the documents is the former Granton Station which has been completely refurbished and will be managed from this year by social enterprise charity Wasps Studios, who work across Edinburgh and Scotland, to provide affordable workspace for artists and the creative industries. 

The newly created Granton Station Square in front of the building will also be host to events and local community activity events in the coming years. 

Using a further £1.2m from the Scottish Government, the Council plan to open up the area to create a new and exciting multifunctional public space within the gasholder frame as part of their wider £1.3bn regeneration project to create a new sustainable coastal town at Granton Waterfront.

Council leader Cammy Day said:  “The gasholder is so much more than a giant steel structure and is steeped in local history. I’m really pleased that the industry is reenacting the original lunch in this way creating another event for the history books.

“The gasholder can be seen for miles around so I’m very excited about our plans to transform it to serve the local community and visitors with a completely different purpose as a place for people to enjoy arts, sports, leisure and culture for years to come.

“We will make sure the gasholder becomes the centrepiece of our wider £1.3bn regeneration of the area with thousands of environmentally friendly homes, well connected to the rest of city, culture and art spaces and more planned.”

McLaughlin & Harvey Contracts Manager Graham Brown said: “We were delighted to host the Institution of Gas Engineers & Managers at our Granton Gas Holder project today to mark the luncheon held on-site back in 1901.

“The gas holder has an interesting and rich history which we are delighted to be adding to the next chapter of with our restoration works.”

IGEM CEO Ollie Lancaster said: “It’s a genuine delight to have the opportunity to visit such a special gasholder in Granton, Edinburgh, which has been used for many years to keep homes warm, put hot food on the table and power businesses in the region.

“This stunning landmark has played a significant contribution to balancing local energy supply and demand since it was commissioned, shortly after the 1901 luncheon my colleagues from yesteryear enjoyed.

“The gas industry has a rich history that we should celebrate, like we are doing today, while we also work hard to secure an affordable energy system for the future and develop the role of hydrogen in the transformation of our sector.”

The Bell, the bell … Granton gas holder work progresses

The bell that floated up as water filled the historic gasholder in Granton Waterfront has been taken apart to make way for work to begin to restore the original 76 x 46 metre frame to look like new.

The City of Edinburgh Council plan to open up the area to create a new and exciting multifunctional public space as part of their wider £1.3bn regeneration project to create a new sustainable coastal town at Granton Waterfront.

McLaughlin & Harvey began work on the site in January of this year on behalf of the Council using £16.4m from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund. The Scottish Government has also provided an additional £1.2m to provide a high quality public park within the gasholder frame.  

The space within the restored gasholder is to have multi-sensory play zones, a dedicated space for permanent and temporary public art, a relaxation area, outdoor trails and tracks for exercise as well as a large outdoor space for sports, markets, seasonal events, community use, festivals, performance arts, exhibitions and play.

Work will also be carried out to plant trees, shrubs and wildflowers improving biodiversity and local habitat in the area.

Council Leader Cammy Day said: “It was really dramatic to see the bell being ripped apart by the machinery. It marked a historic moment as this iconic structure will be transformed now to move on with the times to serve a completely different purpose for the local community to enjoy arts, sports and culture for future generations to come.

“Now the bell has gone the contractor can get on with the exciting work to transform the frame back to its original glory which will be seen for miles around.

“The scale and ambition of the gasholder nicely mirrors that of this £1.3bn regeneration project where we are using brownfield land to build a new sustainable 20-minute neighbourhood which is well linked to surrounding communities and is somewhere residents will be proud to live.

“We’ve already started building some of the thousands of environmentally friendly affordable homes planned and active travel routes, along with recently completing the restoration of the former Granton Station building to become a modern workplace and cultural hub, with public square.”

UK Government Minister for Levelling Up, Dehenna Davison, said: “The Granton gasholder has been part of Edinburgh’s skyline for over 120 years, and will soon be brought back to life as a real community asset.

“The bell’s removal will ensure the structure can be restored to its former glory, whilst the space will be brought into the 21st Century by becoming a destination for families, residents, and future generations to enjoy.

“We’re delighted to have supported this project through £16.4 million from the UK Government’s Levelling Up Fund which will ensure this iconic structure will serve as a beacon to people in the area for many years to come.”

Seamus Devlin, McLaughlin & Harvey Civil Engineering Director, said: “McLaughlin & Harvey is delighted to be main contractor for the restoration works at Granton gasholder.

“We bring with us a wealth of experience in the civil engineering sector, and look forward to completing the deconstruction of the bell this week and the removal of the walls in the upcoming weeks.”

Fascinating gasholder facts

  • Over 100K rivets holding the structure together
  • Total cost of original construction £18,968.
  • Was opened in 1901, making it 122 years old.
  • It’s since been painted 72 times.
  • 26 columns in total with a height of 42m. each column is 9.3m apart.
  • Granton was one of 12 gas storage tanks for the greater Edinburgh area. These 12 tanks had a combined capacity of 175,000 cubic meters of storage. At the time they were in operation the demand was around 28,000 cubic meters an hour (at its peak).
  • The lowest tier was erected with the use of a steam locomotive crane.

The Granton Gas Holder is unique as the umbrella which supports the tank roof when the system is not pressurised, was made from timber as opposed to cast iron. These timbers were in remarkably great condition when demolition began.

Community Carol Concert at Granton Gas Holder

I wanted to spread some festive cheer and send details of a free outdoor Christmas Carol Concert led by Edinburgh College taking place at Forthquarter Park by the Granton Gasholder next Thursday 9th December at 6pm.

It is a free outdoor event, with some complimentary mulled wine and mince pies on offer provided by North Edinburgh Arts café. The music will be led by the Edinburgh College music department, including the Edinburgh College Chamber Choir, String Ensemble and Clarinet Quartet. There will be carol sheets for singing along!

The college are looking for local people that might be interested in doing a festive reading, or a young person to do the solo for the first verse of Away in a Manager. If that might be of interest, please do let me know.

See below for link to the Facebook page – please do share with your networks, and perhaps see some of you there!

https://facebook.com/events/s/community-carol-concert-at-the/259818786204101/

With best festive wishes,

Fay

Fay Butler| Programme Officer|Edinburgh Waterfront| Place| City of Edinburgh Council

Hidden Door Festival heads to Granton Gasometer

MAIN PICTURE: Fabio Scalici Photography

Hidden Door Festival 2021 is heading to Granton Gasworks, with the festival taking place in the shadow of the historic gas holder. The site at West Shore Road will be transformed into an outdoor celebration of music, visual art, theatre, dance and spoken word from 15 – 19 September 2021.

Organisers plan on building two stages for music performances, lighting up the gas holder to create a dramatic backdrop, with sculptures displayed throughout the site.

The large, open space will allow Hidden Door 2021 to be flexible, adapting to comply with the  coronavirus restrictions in place at the time.

Over five days, the event will showcase the work of at least 30 graduates, four site artists, eight dance groups and two theatre companies, highlighting some of the best emerging talent in Scotland.

An old pencil drawing of Don Quixote and Sancho Panza sitting on their horses, by Wilhelm Marstrand.

David Martin, Creative Director of Hidden Door, said: “Taking on the site of the Granton Gasworks is an exciting opportunity for Hidden Door to adapt, as we need to, in order to start bringing live events back to the city. We are used to working in the nooks and crannies of disused buildings, so moving to a big open site like this is really liberating!

“We are designing the event so that there will be enough space for everyone to be safe and to be able to accommodate social distancing if we still need to work with those restrictions, but the epic nature of the site, with the incredible gas tower landmark looming over us, means we will be able to create a spectacle and an atmosphere, and bring about the wow-factor that our audience expects from a Hidden Door venue. 

“We can’t wait to get on site and start turning it into a creative and joyful showcase of Scotland’s emerging talent. Early career artists and performers have been so badly affected by the pandemic, so they are front and centre for this event, and we are looking forward to showing how much talent there is to celebrate.”

Edinburgh College, who occupy the area close to the Gasworks where the festival will be held, are enthusiastically welcoming the festival on to the site. As well as opening the gates to Hidden Door, they hope to use the festival as a training opportunity for students on a number of courses.

Jakki Jeffery, Head of Creative Industries at Edinburgh College, said: “It’s fantastic that Hidden Door have chosen this site close to the iconic Granton Gasworks to host their 2021 festival.

“It will be wonderful to see the space transformed to showcase creative talent which we hope our students can play a part in, and take inspiration and experience from to boost their future careers.” 

Tickets

Tickets are available via www.hiddendoorblog.org/tickets or from Citizen Ticket. Once the full programme is announced, ticket holders will be able to select which days they would like to attend.