Gasholder Park by Bell Phillips Architects

Gasholder Park in London’s King’s Cross was presented at the AT Awards live finals on 20 September 2023 to a jury comprising Rab Bennetts, Juliette Morgan, Neil Thomas, Peter Bishop, Nana Biamah-Ofosu, and Chair Isabel Allen. Read about how the project has stood the test of time.

Completed
2015

Bell Phillips’ Gasholder Park is a multi-purpose public space set within the guide frame of a Victorian gasholder located beside Regent’s Canal in London’s King’s Cross. Central to the scheme is 30 metre-diameter, mirror-polished, stainless steel canopy that forms a continuous colonnade around a circular lawn overlooking the canal. The canopy’s 150 steel-fin columns are carefully arranged, with a wider spacing near the canal to invite people in, and a denser clustering to the north to give a greater sense of enclosure.

Designed by Dan Pearson Studio, the planting scheme consists of a mixture of trees, shrubs, perennial and bulb planting. Paving materials were chosen for their durability and longevity, with small LED uplights integrated into the surfaces at the foot of each colonnade column. Wooden benches are constructed from FSC-certified timber.

Credit: John Sturrock

The scheme was quickly adopted by, and remains hugely popular with, local residents and school pupils, as well as people working in King’s Cross and passers-by. It also represents the transformative and inspiring reuse of a historic structure, which was previously on English Heritage’s ‘At Risk’ register. Since opening, a more resilient hybrid turf has been laid to withstand heavy use, and the grass on the bank at the back of the lawn has been replaced with more durable planting.

“When Gasholder Park was designed in 2011, there were no discussions around embodied carbon’” reflects the architect. “If we were to re-design it today, it is likely we would consider substituting the steel canopy with a timber or alternative low-embodied carbon structure. That said, the retention and re-use of a Victorian iron gasholder guide frame has retained many hundreds of tonnes of embodied carbon.”