Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks & Memorial Garden

Hidden away on a small piece of woodland, in the middle of a large industrial park, is a well kept lawn and some interesting memorials. This is the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks Memorial Garden.

It is hard to imagine, now, but this entire area that comprises the memorial park and new industrial park was once marshland. 

In the 1800s, William Congreve built his rocket factory here. His rockets were based on an Indian design that had proved effective against the East India Company. He would go on to develop three types of rocket that travelled various distances and had different warheads. 

By 1870 the site, which encompassed around 170 acres, was bought by the Imperial Gas Light & Coke Company, so that they could build a gasworks to compete with their biggest rival, the Gas Light & Coke Company, who had their site in Beckton. 

The gasholders were built between 1872 and 1878, with nine being constructed in total. However, before the site was completed the company was absorbed into the Gas Light & Coke Company. 

By 1873 the Bromley works were supplying gas to nearby businesses, factories and homes for gas lighting.

In 1940, the gasworks were bombed, resulting in several gasholders being damaged. Gasholder 5 was removed along with the frame of gasholder 3. In 1949 the Gas Light & Coke Company was nationalised, with the Bromley works closing in 1976. 

In 1984, the gasholders were Grade II listed as a collective, being cited as "among the most aesthetically distinguished and finely detailed gasholders ever built". In 2021 the heritage protection was upgraded, with each gasholder receiving its own entry.

There are currently plans for some 2,200 new homes to be built on the land, with a stipulation that the gasholders are restored and retained.

In 1897, a garden was opened for use by the staff of the Gas Light & Coke Company, with a manicured lawn set in a woodland surrounding.

In the latter half of the twentieth century memorials were installed to remember those who gave their lives during both world wars.

There are four memorials in the garden to view. 

1. A statue of Sir Corbet Woodall, an English gas engineer who was Governor of the Gas Light and Coke Company from 1906 to 1916. This statue originally stood at the Beckton Gas Works, but was moved here on its closure.
2. A columned rotunda, made of iron, that has as its centre a memorial to those who lost their lives in the world wars.
3. A memorial to those company members who lost their lives in the Great War.
4. A columned gas lamp that is continuously lit, acting as an eternal flame. There is a plaque affixed to it remembering those who died in the world wars.

Besides the gasholders and the memorial garden there is one solitary building that survives from 1905, which was the Control Office for the Gas Works. Following the closure of the site the building housed the London Gas Museum, until its closure in 1998. Its collection included a gas-powered radio and survey maps from various gas companies, among other items. The collection was dispersed to various organisations, with the majority going to the Leicester Gas Museum.