Provan Gas Works is an industrial gas holding plant in the city of

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popu ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

. The plant lies between the Blackhill,

Blochairn Blochairn (, gd, Baile a' Chàirn, lit, Town of the Cairn) is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow, situated north of the River Clyde. The district lies on either side of the main Blochairn Road. In 1969 the Blochairn Fruit Market opened ...

Germiston Germiston, also known as kwaDukathole, is a small city in the East Rand region of Gauteng, South Africa, administratively forming part of the City of Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality since the latter's establishment in 2000. It functions a ...

and

Provanmill Provanmill is a district in the Scottish city of Glasgow. It lies to the north east of the city centre. In the mid-19th century it was a small hamlet with a grain mill, blacksmith's, cartwright's and hostelry. As Glasgow expanded, it became pa ...

areas of the city, and was built by

Glasgow Corporation The politics of Glasgow, Scotland's largest city by population, are expressed in the deliberations and decisions of Glasgow City Council, in elections to the council, the Scottish Parliament and the UK Parliament. Local government As one ...

between 1900 and 1904. It later became part of

British Gas British Gas (trading as Scottish Gas in Scotland) is an energy and home services provider in the United Kingdom. It is the trading name of British Gas Services Limited and British Gas New Heating Limited, both subsidiaries of Centrica. Servi ...

, and subsequently Transco and most recently

Scotia Gas Networks SGN (previously Scotia Gas Networks) is a British gas distribution company. It manages natural and green gas distribution networks in Scotland and in the south of England. As of 2014/15 SGN operates more than of pipes. In the same period, SGN ...

(a subsidiary of

Scottish and Southern Energy SSE plc (formerly Scottish and Southern Energy plc) is a multinational energy company headquartered in Perth, Scotland. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange, and is a constituent of the FTSE 100 Index. SSE operates in the United Kingdom and ...

) who operate it today. Originally the plant was a

gasworks A gasworks or gas house is an industrial plant for the production of flammable gas. Many of these have been made redundant in the developed world by the use of natural gas, though they are still used for storage space. Early gasworks Coal ...

, manufacturing

town gas Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made from coal and supplied to the user via a piped distribution system. It is produced when coal is heated strongly in the absence of air. Town gas is a more general term referring to manufactured gaseous ...

via the

cooking Cooking, cookery, or culinary arts is the art, science and craft of using heat to prepare food for consumption. Cooking techniques and ingredients vary widely, from grilling food over an open fire to using electric stoves, to baking in vario ...

coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal is formed when ...

. The plant was expanded after 1919. Following

nationalisation Nationalization (nationalisation in British English) is the process of transforming privately-owned assets into public assets by bringing them under the public ownership of a national government or state. Nationalization usually refers to p ...

of the gas supply in 1948, the plant passed to the Scottish Gas Board, and then to

in 1973. In 1972, supplies of inexpensive

natural gas Natural gas (also called fossil gas or simply gas) is a naturally occurring mixture of gaseous hydrocarbons consisting primarily of methane in addition to various smaller amounts of other higher alkanes. Low levels of trace gases like carbon d ...

from

North Sea oil North Sea oil is a mixture of hydrocarbons, comprising liquid petroleum and natural gas, produced from petroleum reservoirs beneath the North Sea. In the petroleum industry, the term "North Sea" often includes areas such as the Norwegian Se ...

fields became available. The gasworks was downsized significantly in the 1980s in response to changing economic conditions arising as the British gas industry was privatised under Prime Minister

Margaret Thatcher Margaret Hilda Thatcher, Baroness Thatcher (; 13 October 19258 April 2013) was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1979 to 1990 and Leader of the Conservative Party from 1975 to 1990. She was the first female British prime ...

. Today the plant is largely unmanned, used solely for gas storage and distribution. The plant has become significant for its two massive column-guided gasometers and an additional spiral-guided gasometer, which have become an iconic industrial landmark in Glasgow's

East End The East End of London, often referred to within the London area simply as the East End, is the historic core of wider East London, east of the Roman and medieval walls of the City of London and north of the River Thames. It does not have uni ...

. Among the largest of their kind in the UK, each of the towers can hold of gas, and is in diameter. Their combined storage capacity is – each enough to supply a city the size of

York York is a cathedral city with Roman origins, sited at the confluence of the rivers Ouse and Foss in North Yorkshire, England. It is the historic county town of Yorkshire. The city has many historic buildings and other structures, such as a ...

for an entire day. Since the construction of the M8 and M80 motorways in the 1970s and 1980s, which run directly next to the plant, the twin gasholders have become an unofficial portal into the city's central area for drivers from

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

and the north. The towers have also gained an affectionate following among locals since they are often used to display huge placards showcasing the various promotional slogans for the city, the most memorable being the "

Glasgow's Miles Better Glasgow's miles better was a 1980s campaign to promote the city of Glasgow as a tourist destination and as a location for industry. It was developed by Scottish advertising agency Struthers Advertising, and featured the phrase "Glasgow's Miles ...

" and "Everyone's Glasgowing On" campaigns. The future of the plant is under discussion:

Glasgow City Council Glasgow City Council is the local government authority for the City of Glasgow, Scotland. It was created in 1996 under the Local Government etc. (Scotland) Act 1994, largely with the boundaries of the post-1975 City of Glasgow district of th ...

have proposed plans for decontaminating the unused land on the

brownfield site In urban planning, brownfield land is any previously developed land that is not currently in use. It may be potentially contaminated, but this is not required for the area to be considered brownfield. The term is also used to describe land prev ...

and redeveloping it for commercial use. In 2012, Scotia Gas Networks announced that the twin column-guided and single spiral-guided gasometers were to be decommissioned, with no decision made on their future. The twin column-guided gasholders were protected as Category B listed structures in 2018 by

Historic Environment Scotland Historic Environment Scotland (HES) ( gd, Àrainneachd Eachdraidheil Alba) is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the mer ...

(with associated buildings on the site listed at Category C), a decision which the owners disputed due to the high maintenance costs involved, particularly when no longer being used for their originally designed purpose. However, the listed status (along with a pair of similar structures located in the city's

Temple A temple (from the Latin ) is a building reserved for spiritual rituals and activities such as prayer and sacrifice. Religions which erect temples include Christianity (whose temples are typically called churches), Hinduism (whose temples ...

Kelvindale Kelvindale ( gd, Dail Chealbhainn) is a district in the West End of the city of Glasgow, Scotland. Kelvindale shares the G12 postcode with the neighbouring residential districts of Kelvinside, Hillhead, Hyndland, Dowanhill, as well as Gartnave ...

area) was upheld after appeal, supported by local MP

Paul Sweeney Paul John Sweeney FIES ( gd, Pòl Eòin Mac Suibhne; born 16 January 1989) is a Scottish politician. A member of the Scottish Labour and Co-operative Party, he currently serves as Member of the Scottish Parliament (MSP) for the Glasgow region ...

, who called for the creative reuse of the structures, citing other examples from around the UK and internationally such as Gasometer Vienna,

Gasometer Oberhausen The Gasometer Oberhausen is a former gas holder in Oberhausen, Germany, which has been converted into an exhibition space. It has hosted several large scale exhibitions, including two by Christo and Jeanne-Claude. The Gasometer is an industrial l ...

Østre Gasværk Teater Østre Gasværk Teater is a theatre in the Østerbro district of Copenhagen, Denmark, located in an abandoned gasholder house of the former Østre Gasværk (‘Eastern Gasworks’). The theatre is constructed within the masonry shell that used t ...

and

Newstead Gasworks Newstead Gasworks is a heritage-listed former gasometer at 70 Longland Street, Teneriffe, City of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. It was built from 1873 to 1887. It is also known as Brisbane Gas Company Gasworks and Newstead Gasworks No.2 ga ...

. In 2020, the

Scottish Prison Service The Scottish Prison Service (SPS) is an executive agency of the Scottish Government tasked with managing prisons and Young Offender Institutions. The Chief Executive of the Scottish Prison Service, currently Teresa Medhurst, is responsible f ...

announced that it intended to buy of land adjacent to the gas works to build a replacement for

HM Prison Barlinnie HM Prison Barlinnie is the largest prison in Scotland. It is operated by the Scottish Prison Service and is located in the residential suburb of Riddrie, in the north east of Glasgow, Scotland. It is informally known locally as The Big Hoose, ...

. Demolition of the unlisted spiral-guided gasometer began in 2020.

References

Brochure about methods of removing old gasometers, if necessary, describing the ones at Provan Gas Works as two of the biggest in Scotland
(PDF requires

Adobe Acrobat Adobe Acrobat is a family of application software and Web services developed by Adobe Inc. to view, create, manipulate, print and manage Portable Document Format (PDF) files. The family comprises Acrobat Reader (formerly Reader), Acrobat (forme ...

Reader)

External links

Return to Provan Gasworks
I&H Brown
Works Overview

Gasholder 1

Gasholder 2

Gasholder 3
at Canmore {{coord, 55, 52, 21, N, 4, 12, 13, W, type:landmark, display=title Buildings and structures in Glasgow Natural gas storage Buildings and structures completed in 1904 Natural gas infrastructure in the United Kingdom 1904 establishments in Scotland Category B listed buildings in Glasgow Industrial buildings in Scotland Gas holders