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If you thought you’d never put an industrial gasholder on your list of must-see London attractions, you may need to reconsider.

A Victorian gasholder has been given an unlikely makeover and transformed into the capital’s newest park.

Gasholder Park, which opened on Monday, is a new green space in the heart of King’s Cross – a circular lawn that sits inside the carefully restored frame of a Grade II Victorian gasholder, Gasholder No8. Constructed in the 1850s, it used to hold 1.1million cubic feet of gas, but will now provide a space for Londoner’s to relax in, as well as being a venue for events and displays.

The fragile 25metre-high (82 feet) circular guide frame, which has an internal diameter of 40 metres (130 feet), was painstakingly dismantled from its old location, where Pancras Square is now, in 2011.

It was then refurbished by Shepley Engineers, a specialist restorer based in Yorkshire, before being reerected in 2013 its new home, next to schools and apartments in the Plimsoll Building and the triplet of Gasholders, also apartments, being built beside the Regent’s Canal. 

Bell Phillips Architects won a design competition to design Gasholder Park in 2009. Hari Phillips, partner at Bell Phillips Architects said: ‘Gasholder Park is a fantastic project which combines the industrial heritage of King’s Cross with contemporary architecture to create a unique place.’ 

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Gasholder Park is a new green space in the heart of King’s Cross – a circular lawn that sits inside the carefully restored frame of a Grade II Victorian gasholder, Gasholder No8

The fragile 25metre-high (82 feet) circular guide frame, which has an internal diameter of 40 metres (130 feet), was painstakingly dismantled from its old location, where Pancras Square is now, in 2011

Gasholder No8 was refurbished by Shepley Engineers, a specialist restorer based in Yorkshire