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One of the four King's Cross gasholders is to be rebuilt as a £2.5 million pavilion and open-air performance space.
There will be a shallow pool, garden and play area for children on the pavilion roof, and windows in its ceiling will show off the 150-year-old metalwork.
Architecture firm Bell Phillips and Kimble's scheme was chosen from a shortlist of five. This included a design by the architects responsible for Hyde Park's Princess Diana fountain and another that would have used the Grade II-listed structure as a helter-skelter. There were 80 entries.
The 25 metre-tall, 35 metre-wide Gasholder No 8, which sits south of Regent's Canal, will be restored on the north of the waterway by Camley Street Natural Park, in the King's Cross Central redevelopment. The designers want it to be a “tranquil” public space at night, lit by wind-powered LED bulbs. The pavilion will be able to host live music or club nights as well as meetings.
Judges were impressed with how the Bell Phillips design used levels of water to reflect the rise and fall of the gasholder, disused since 2001. They also praised the firm's decision to leave it as an open structure.
Bridget Evans, King's Cross Central project director, said: “We asked for big ideas and that is certainly what we got.” Hari Phillips, of Bell Phillips and Kimble, said: “The combination of the gasholder structure and its location overlooking the Regent's canal set the scene for a truly fantastic project.”
Full design work will start in 2011, with planning and listed building consent applications following. The three other gasholders will be taken from storage and rebuilt with houses and shops within the structures.
Reader views (3)
While I think the proposal looks very good this isn't on. Gas companies say our prices are high as we don't have enough storage facilities. Why are we not using them to store gas?
- Craig, London
How long will it be before you are banned from entering the water because someone fell over and hurt themself?
- Dannyp, Egham
Sounds like a brilliant idea, the more gas towers we ditch the more we can buy back our own natural gas from the continent at an exorbitant mark up. Let me guess, this will be the idea of one of the foreign owned power companies will it? Buy British Gas from the UK subsidiary during summer, store it in the EU subsidiary and then sell it back to the UK subsidiary during winter at a 50% mark up, that way it falls well under OFGEM’s radar and the parent company makes a huge profit.
- Bob, Cheam
