Owners all fired up at decision to make gas towers listed status
A ROW has erupted after landmark gas structures that have stood on Glasgow’s skyline for more than 100 years were given protected status by culture bosses.
The Provan Gas Works near the city’s east end were given listed status by Historic Environment Scotland (HES) following a consultation.
The towering structures were classed as category B-listings while office buildings on the site were given C-listings that legally protect them from changes.
But the site is owned by Scotland Gas Networks (SGN) and it has now launched a bid to have the decision reversed.
The Provan structures are among the largest of their kind in the country and were constructed in 1903. They were used to display huge placards for the Glasgow’s Miles Better campaign in the 1980s.
The identical gasholders were built by Barrowfield Iron Works Limited and R. Mcalpine and Sons for the Glasgow Corporation. The devices are no longer used for gas storage.
HES labelled the site near the M8 motorway as one of “architectural significance” and awarded it special status in December.
SGN has now appealed to the Scottish Government and listed a series of complaints over the HES decision.
It claims the Provan works do not merit protection as they are not unique in Scotland and allowing special status will have a massive economic impact on use of the site.
SGN further claims the cost of maintaining the site will be too expensive.
It added: “The implication of the listing is that the structures should be retained in their current form which is untenable, without health and safety implications, and is therefore illogical.
“Significant changes would include that the gasholder frame would need to be structurally assessed, the columns would need to be dismantled, shot blast, re-painted and reinstalled. Once they have stopped, as the gasholders have now, the structures have no understanding or expression. In particular, spiral guided gasholders only had one use, that for which they were originally constructed.
“The only manifestation of their purpose, in this case, is the above ground tank. That, in itself, has no architectural interest.”
It is understood SGN also plans to appeal listing status given by HES to the Temple Gasholder Station in Glasgow and another site in Dunfermline.
In a report HES said the Provan structures were “a rare survival of their building type”.
They added: “Provan Gasworks is a highly significant industrial site for the production of gas in Scotland and the surviving historic buildings are an important reminder of an industrial process that is now largely redundant.”
A HES spokesman said: “At the invitation of SGN, we assessed a number of gaswork sites across Scotland for listing.
“We listed four sites and we understand that SGN are appealing the designation of three of those sites, Temple and Provan in Glasgow and Dunfermline.
“The listed building records for these sites are available our website and they outline our reasons for listing.”
A government Reporter will issue a decision at a later date.