Visited with Coleman.
On my daily commute home from Central London, i notice three gas holders towering over the red brick suburbia below. I'm sure they are much loved and probably as much hated by the people that live under them, but by no means can you ignore them.
Remembering reading Loops' climb of the East Greenwich gasometer, we comtemplated the possibility of climbing the biggest at Motspur Park, around 150ft at a guess. But as is the case with these anonymous structures, there is little technical information available for specific gasometers. When was it built? How high is it? Is it disused, or is there still large volumes of gas coursing through its veins? The latter was the key for me. i dont know the score for trespassing utility sites. Sure, parts of our rail, water and eletric network of underground infrastructure are infiltrated all the time, but gasworks arent exactly hot topic on exploring fronts. Would we fail miserably, would it be worth a firm telling off? There was only one way to find out and with that we replaced cigarettes and lighters with slings and harnesses.
One thing this experience has taught me is the benefit of trees! Whether it is crossing watercourses or scaling nasty, a-bit-spiky palisade fencing, they were there for our convienience. Gas fumes were heavy in the air, the spark of passing trains illuminating the towers briefly before disappearing, leaving the gasometers silhouetted over that garish red london sky.
Graffiti decorated the base of the towers and clearly we wern't the first to make this journey. The air was still as we put on harnesses and set off for the ladder. Rain had just started to spit, but no way could it put stop to play tonight. Overcoming the amazing anti-climb ladder mechanism we soon found ourselves on a gantry that runs the outside of the tower, five sections of ladder looming above.
From what i had seen from a distance, it appeared that the ladders would be caged to the top. They were, but only on one side, leaving a slippery drop to the telescopic dome on the inside.
The rain and wind got progressively worse as we gained height, but with the option to clip in a reassurance at least. The ladders were solid, as were the gantries allbeit missing the odd railing here and there. On reaching the top, the weather conditions were not what you'd exactly call perfect. The gantry was half the size of those below. Buffeted by the wind i clipped on, feeling the structure move with every gust of wind.
I soon retreated to a lower level. The view from below was pretty much the same, and the weather was nowhere near as horrid. For these reasons my partner in crime couldnt justify climbing the last section to the top, instead climbing down a section and descending to the bottom a somewhat quicker way than using the ladders.
It was no bad thing touching back down on the ground to still conditions. The camera lens was soaked with rain by this point, but it didnt matter. We did what we set out to do, and when you can pull it off without a hitch, its that little bit better! 2011 - Year of the Gasometer? Absolutely not, but highly recommended all the same
On my daily commute home from Central London, i notice three gas holders towering over the red brick suburbia below. I'm sure they are much loved and probably as much hated by the people that live under them, but by no means can you ignore them.
Remembering reading Loops' climb of the East Greenwich gasometer, we comtemplated the possibility of climbing the biggest at Motspur Park, around 150ft at a guess. But as is the case with these anonymous structures, there is little technical information available for specific gasometers. When was it built? How high is it? Is it disused, or is there still large volumes of gas coursing through its veins? The latter was the key for me. i dont know the score for trespassing utility sites. Sure, parts of our rail, water and eletric network of underground infrastructure are infiltrated all the time, but gasworks arent exactly hot topic on exploring fronts. Would we fail miserably, would it be worth a firm telling off? There was only one way to find out and with that we replaced cigarettes and lighters with slings and harnesses.
One thing this experience has taught me is the benefit of trees! Whether it is crossing watercourses or scaling nasty, a-bit-spiky palisade fencing, they were there for our convienience. Gas fumes were heavy in the air, the spark of passing trains illuminating the towers briefly before disappearing, leaving the gasometers silhouetted over that garish red london sky.
Graffiti decorated the base of the towers and clearly we wern't the first to make this journey. The air was still as we put on harnesses and set off for the ladder. Rain had just started to spit, but no way could it put stop to play tonight. Overcoming the amazing anti-climb ladder mechanism we soon found ourselves on a gantry that runs the outside of the tower, five sections of ladder looming above.
From what i had seen from a distance, it appeared that the ladders would be caged to the top. They were, but only on one side, leaving a slippery drop to the telescopic dome on the inside.
The rain and wind got progressively worse as we gained height, but with the option to clip in a reassurance at least. The ladders were solid, as were the gantries allbeit missing the odd railing here and there. On reaching the top, the weather conditions were not what you'd exactly call perfect. The gantry was half the size of those below. Buffeted by the wind i clipped on, feeling the structure move with every gust of wind.
I soon retreated to a lower level. The view from below was pretty much the same, and the weather was nowhere near as horrid. For these reasons my partner in crime couldnt justify climbing the last section to the top, instead climbing down a section and descending to the bottom a somewhat quicker way than using the ladders.
It was no bad thing touching back down on the ground to still conditions. The camera lens was soaked with rain by this point, but it didnt matter. We did what we set out to do, and when you can pull it off without a hitch, its that little bit better! 2011 - Year of the Gasometer? Absolutely not, but highly recommended all the same
