3-021-336 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Ruins of the gasworks at Nine-Elms after the explosion, 1865. View of '...the frame of the gasometer standing, its roof fallen to the bottom of the tank, and its sides blown to fragments; many large pieces of sheet iron, torn off and bent into various odd shapes, being scattered over the ground. This gasometer...was one of the largest in London, its capacity being 1,039,000 cubic feet...[The explosion killed] ten or eleven of the workmen and inflicted terrible injuries on many others...at the instant of the explosion [the gasometer] was nearly full...It is supposed...that the fire originated with an escape of gas in the meter-house...The meter-house was blown to atoms, and the force of the explosion struck the side of the gasometer, bulging it in...there was an immediate rush of gas, which instantly caught fire at the row of shops used by the carpenters, blacksmiths, and others...the large quantity of gas stored in the gasometer was ignited and in one vast column of flame mounted upwards to the sky. The amount of damage is enormous; but the directors of the London Gas Company are preparing to put the works in order as speedily as possible, while some provision will be made for the wives and children of the unfortunate men who were killed'. From "Illustrated London News", 1865.