Gasholder No. 7 – (The M.A.N holder), Nine Elms
Nine Elms Gasworks
First established in 1853, located on land that now contains New Covent Garden Market, a former Royal Mail depot and a supermarket
The London Gas Light Company was just one of many companies in London that produced town gas. It built and owned the Nine Elms Gas Works and Vauxhall Gas Works
In 1850 there were 13 companies producing town gas in London
The gas holders originally stored town gas produced by Nine Elms Gasworks and were located away from the gas works
The gas holders you see today were re-built following an infamous fire (claiming the lives of 9 people), triggered by an explosion in a building adjacent to one of the original gas holders
Gasholder No. 4 – built between 1872 and 1873
Gasholder No. 5 – built between 1875 and 1876
Gasholder No. 6 – built between 1882 and 1883
Gasholder No. 7 - (blue M.A.N gasholder) – built in 1932
In between visits to Battersea Powerstation last year, I repeatedly contemplated bothering with the gas holder
The few people that had already made it up managed so without incident
An excellent account by Kevin Arnold > http://www.28dayslater.co.uk/forums/other-sites/62933-gas-holder-no-7-london-2011-a.html being the first to conquer this place AFAIK
This 90m rusting M.A.N holder certainly had my attention so one night we decided to go and take a closer look
GAJ had been here before, however it wasn't to be on this occasion as the nearby railway was crawling with orange people thwarting our advances
I'd heard tales of various other entry methods, which by no means were any more sane than our chosen route :crazy
A few weeks later we returned, this time much earlier to evade those pesky track workers and abundance of CCTV cameras (or so we thought)
The present day Nine Elms site is wedged between the Railway, the Dog's Home and the Power Station
I don't think I need to say any more but the way in/out was comedy gold from start to finish
Anyway with minimal fuss we made it in
No sooner was I over, a huge camera swung round and was straight on me, it had two over-sized infra red bollocks attached to it and was no question I had prob been spotted
I was just about to warn GAJ and bail and noticed he was already over and stood behind me "That's new" he claimed
In a moment of madness where really we should have bailed we legged it across holder No.6 and into the shadows, as I looked back the oversized heat seeking weapon was following
Now then, I simply followed GAJ at this point as he's already been here, although I did start to wonder when I saw another 'brand new' looking camera on a pole pointing down the very side we were heading
"I don't think we came this way around last time" - LEL
3 cameras later and we were where we needed to be to ascend this beast of a tank
It was a bit late now for giving up, and I think if we had I wouldn't have bothered to return for obvious reasons
Track workers had appeared once again and we were in full view of them as we climbed, that and the expectation of blue lights we pressed on until we encountered the inevitable
Remarkably all remained quiet on the Western front, time for a few snaps
Now when I say without incident, apologies but I was caught short after that lot, luckily someone had discarded a tesco bag which made for a rather convenient bag of shit
After sacrificing both socks I lobbed the bag down, it sounded like a bass canon as it hit the deck, splendid, now time for more pics and to take in the views
My pics aren't the best, I know this, the internals are even worse and the only bulb here was myself as I'd also failed to fetch the shutter remote, so used the phone instead
We descended the 90m collapsable ladder which is certainly an experience money can't buy, I left my bag of gear at the top to retrieve on the way back
As we had a poke about and I 'attempted' a couple of internals I noticed a huge hole in the side, that was our easy way out sorted then.. oh wait I've left my bag up top
GAJ amused himself as I had to go back up, (and down) again much to my annoyance
Somehow I managed a sly grin as the clusterfuck unfolded..
Pre-Demolition work had started on the holder at this point, and they had removed some of the weights from the piston and marked up some future cuts
That would probably explain the amount of new looking motion sensing cameras dotted about the place, that were simply un-avoidable
As we made our escape the camera was firmly fixed on our entry point, by this stage we couldn't really have cared less if we were greeted or not
The way out wasn't without fuss, suffice to say we ended up literally face to face with workers who were simply speechless, we took advantage and quickly made it past the final hurdle and away
When I arrived back home I noticed my 4 gas was missing, I then remembered it was in my camera bag, except now it wasn't..
It had dawned on me it was now sitting up top of that ruddy great gas holder at Battersea
Nobody appeared to be paying this place a visit any time soon and I was fucked if I was going back either, even with such a financial loss at stake!
A quick call to National Grid and the contractors in a blagged attempt to retrieve it resulted in a number of visits to Wandsworth Police station to recover it
I suppose they had the last laugh here, as 3 visits later they eventually released it from the property store and handed it over
Thanks for dicking me about, but in the end they had no interest in our late night activities here, much to the annoyance of National Grid who were far from happy
I've passed here quite regular in recent months, and they are well on with demolishing the place, I've managed to grab a few pics as they go about the destruction
Soon there will be no Industrial Heritage left in this country, move over for moar pop-up tower blocks and over-priced shyte living accommodation which will soon be the new addition here
Here's a few pics to capture my time on and around the thing before it ends up being weighed in...
iphone tastic
Into the abyss
The inside was difficult to do a decent job without proper lighting and a shutter remote, sadly I was lacking any useful gear on this one, having only packed a headtorch, meh..
No.4
I've been back during the day here and there since last year, here you can see No. 4 being ripped apart a few months back
"fuck off"
I'll throw some more pics up of the demo when it's done
Peace.
Damn shame it's being ripped down
The access was jokes this night as we had the dogs home security parked up watching us & then the cameras following us across the site. Clearly all dopey as hell on our visit & by the point we got to the steps it was too late to give a shite anyway. Proper comedy too with the poo drop & the 4gas debacle 
Maybe one day!
