Gasworks war
Row explodes after city landmarks get listed status
THE huge circular metal structures have been a part of Glasgow’s skyline for more than a century.
But a row has erupted after Provan Gas Works, in the city’s East End, were given listed status by Historic Environment Scotland (HES).
Site owner Scotland Gas Networks (SGN) wants the decision to be reversed, saying it will have a massive economic impact on potential use of the site and make it expensive to maintain.
The identical towering structures were classed as category B listings, while office buildings on the site were given C listings that legally protect them from changes.
The disused 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 during the 1980s.
They were built for gas storage by Barrowfield Iron Works and R. McAlpine and Sons for the Glasgow Corporation.
HES labelled the site near the M8 as one of ‘architectural significance’ and in December awarded it special status
SGN has now appealed to the Scottish Government and listed a series of complaints over the decision.
It claims the Provan works do not merit protection as they are not unique in Scotland and said it would be ‘untenable’ and ‘illogical’ to retain the structures in their present form. Building within a circular structure would bring additional challenges and costs, it said, and there would also be a financial issue relating to maintenance of the frame, which may have to be funded by means of a service charge to potential residents living within the gasholder.
A spokesman for SGN said: ‘This highlights the paradox confronting any system seeking to impose formal protection on buildings conceived as moving parts. Once they have stopped, as the gasholders have now, the structures have no understanding or expression.’
It is understood SGN also plans to appeal listing status given to Temple Gasholder Station, near Anniesland, Glasgow, and another site in Dunfermline.
In a report HES said the Provan structures were ‘a rare survival of their building type’.
It adds: ‘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.’ He said three of the four sites listed were understood to be the subject of appeal.
A Government reporter will issue a decision at a later date.