Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

2 The Site

Page 17 Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement 2:1. Site context

The site Surrounding area The site The site is roughly triangular in shape The immediate surroundings to the site and runs from just to the west of include the following: for a mile Rich habitat along the main railway line from The gas holders: The retained Paddington to the South West. The site Transco area contains three gas boundary is marked on Figure 2.1. holders. The largest of these is a The site has had a variety of ridged waterless holder, 90m high. industrial uses in the past including (equivalent to a 32 storey building). the manufacture and storage of The other gas holders are telescopic gas. All structures except the gas - the western holder rises to 65m infrastructure on the land retained by and the middle holder rises within a Transco have been demolished. This ridged frame to 35m. These holders has left a flat site that is subject to dominate the surrounding area and contamination in parts. There are also can be seen from miles around. a number of gas pipes crossing the The remainder of the Transco site. The majority of the site is used land is occupied by pipework and for surface parking including long- associated equipment. stay parking for Airport as well as new car storage. The western The water tower: At the eastern end part of the site was formerly a cricket of the site is a former water tower pitch and allotments that have become that has been converted into flats. overgrown and subject to scrub This is a listed structure, around encroachment. 30m high and sits on a triangular site outside SecondSite Property's ownership. It includes a pair of former water workers' homes in the grounds.

The railway line: To the south of the site runs the main line into Paddington Station. This carries Figure 2.1 suburban services (with stations at

Page 18 : Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

Hayes and Southall), the Heathrow Football Club and the Guru Nanak Express as well as Intercity services Sikh College. The college has and goods trains. This is a well used planning consent for expansion line and the tracks are on a low including the development of a embankment and are therefore a primary school and playing fields. source of noise. Football Club wish to redevelop the football ground, The canal: The western boundary of including relocation of the pitch the Main Site is created by the Grand approx 20m to the south. Union Canal Paddington Branch. This is a historic waterway that Housing areas: To the north of the is used for leisure boating. It is a site is a residential area on a series wide canal and supports residential of north/south streets running down moorings just to the south of the from the Road. This area site. is predominantly two-storey with some three storey elements on Corridor: To the Beaconsfield Road. At the western west of the canal is a large area of end of Beaconsfield Road is the Blair open space totalling 51 hectares Peach school and at the eastern (130 acres). This stretches from the end is College on the fringe Hayes Bypass eastwards across of Southall Town Centre. There are the valley of the Yeading Brook to a small number of corner shops on the canal. The area is designated Beaconsfield Road. To the south of as Green Belt in ’s UDP. the railway is a mixed residential and The area to the west of the brook industrial area. This area is more has been developed by Hillingdon suburban in character with a mixture as with active of semi-detached units and short and informal recreation to the north terraces. To the west is an industrial and grassland with some mature area which is well occupied and tree cover to the south. The area includes a number of airport related between the Yeading Brook and and food processing businesses. the canal has been tipped in the past and has regenerated naturally. The area also includes the Yeading

Page 19 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement 2:2. Access to the site

Transport issues relating to the storage depot in the northern part Access masterplan are dealt with in the Trans- of the site. There are also two port Assessment by Capital Symonds. other points where access may be possible from Beaconsfield Road. It Road access is also possible to take access from the southern end of Lewis Road, Access to the site is very restricted, Hanson Gardens and Randolph which is the main reason why it has Road, although none exists at not been developed in the past. Coal present. arrived at the gas works by canal and gas was delivered by pipe so that An outline planning consent exists there was no need for significant road for a link road onto the site from the access. There are currently only three Pump Lane Interchange of the Hayes points of vehicle access: Bypass.

The Crescent: Access from the west Pedestrian access is via The Crescent from the South Road traffic lights. The Crescent There is limited pedestrian access to passes small scale residential the site. There is no access between properties and the converted water the towpath and the main site. There tower to link to The Straight. This is a subway under the railway line at private access runs along the the end of Dudley Road - originally an railway to the Transco depot. access for workers on the site.

Brent Road: The access for the current airport car parking is from Brent Road to the south. This passes through a tunnel with restricted headroom.

Beaconsfield Road: There is an access from the north to a secure

Page 20 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement 2:3. Site analysis

The assessment of environmental with pressure reduction equipment. Constraints issues is covered in detail in the From this area high pressure pipes run Impact Assessment as presented in east and west along The Straight and the Environmental Statement. This there is a transformer just to the west should be referred to for the details of of the converted water tower. There is the assessments that have taken place a further medium-pressure gas main and the mitigation proposed. Here we running north to Beaconsfield Road. In review the main issues as they affect addition there are proposals for a new the Illustrative Masterplan. large gas pipe connecting to the Main Noise Site across the canal. This new main is subject to The site is subject to noise from a a 12m easement on either site of number of sources including aircraft the main (24m in total). The other approaching , the high-pressure gas pipes have 6m railway line and road traffic. easements while the medium-pressure The site falls outside the ‘Worst main has an easement of 4m. This Mode One Day Noise Contour’ for gas infrastructure has been treated aircraft noise so that aircraft noise is as a fixed constraint as part of the not a major constraint on development. Parameter Plans. The exception being The elevation of the railway and the the potential to alter the route of the flat nature of the site mean that railway medium pressure main. noise will affect land adjacent to the The gas holders are subject to a railway. development exclusion zone of 18m Noise from the gas infrastructure around the holders. This affects very is low level and is not a constraint on little of the Main Site. There is also a development. There is currently no noise consultation zone of 60m. Within this disturbance from existing roads. area development is subject to the Gas Infrastructure ‘Control of Industrial Major Accident Hazard (COMAH) Regulations’. This The gas infrastructure is described in means that the Heath and Safety the Utilities and Drainage Report. The Executive must be consulted on new central part of the site includes three development. However generally the gas holders - two telescopic holders gas holders are not a major hazard nor and a ridged waterless holder along are they a constraint on development.

Page 21 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

Contamination

Ground conditions Flooding and drainage

The site consists largely of ‘made Ground water levels are at about 29.8m ground’ as a result of the excavation AOD, 1.5m below the predominant and subsequent filling of brick pits. The surface level of the site. The ground natural geology is however of brick water flows northwards and eastwards earth over Taplow Terrace Gravel which towards the Yeading Brook. These in turn overlays Clay and the groundwater levels affect the potential Woolwich and Reading Beds. This for basement parking. should provide no real constraints to Yeading Brook flows through a development and, with piling, there are flood plain. However the 100 year flood no ground condition constraints to the level does not extend eastwards of the development. brook because the canal is at a higher Water level. Flooding is therefore not a major Contamination constraint on the Main Site.

The site’s industrial past inevitably means that contamination is an issue as described in the Remediation Report by WYG. This includes waste from industrial activities as well as the remains of demolished structures including concrete, timber, foundations and gas equipment. This contamination affects the former site of the gas works to the west of the current gas holders. North of this lower levels of contamination relate to the former coal storage areas while the eastern parts of the site have very low contamination levels.

Page 22 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

Ecology

Ecology main part of the site therefore has no ecological value and the eastern part A review of the ecology of the site has includes only common habitats and been undertaken by WYG. No part species. of the Main Site is designated as an The area to the west of the site area of nature conservation interest. along the Grand Union Canal, the The majority of the Main Site is hard Yeading Brook and the Minet Country standing and is treated with herbicide. Park is however of considerable The only exceptions are a fringe of tree nature conservation importance. The cover and hedge in the northern part canal is part of the ‘London Canal of the site and the abandoned cricket Site of Metropolitan Importance’ pitch and allotments in the eastern part and has been graded by both Ealing of the site. and Hillingdon as a Grade 1 ‘Site of The former allotments and cricket Borough Importance’. The canal is rich pitch area includes formal tree planting in aquatic plants, invertebrates, fish along The Straight and the edge of the and birds. The Minet Country Park to playing fields. These trees are mature the west includes important wetland, London Planes, Poplars and Oak. woodland and grassland habitats. Previous survey work has found no evidence of any protected species. The

Page 23 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement 2.4. Site history

Below: The canal and railhead in operation at Southall. Right: the High Street in 1900 Below right: The wider area in 1863 (top map) and at the end of the ninteenth century (bottom map) showing the area just before its explosive growth

Southall dates back to Norman times Unlike the railways elsewhere Wider area 1863 and was granted a market charter in in London, the Great Western 1698. However it was largely rural in concentrated on long-distance rather character until the mid 19th century. It than suburban services so that the was an area characterised by villages areas around the stations remained and hamlets surrounded by farmland. relatively undeveloped. However the However in the 19th century it became combination of the canal and the increasingly subject to the influence railway gave rise to the industrialisation of London. There were two villages at of the gas works site as a coal wharf Southall, the main settlement on the and oil works. In 1866 The and Southall Green to Gas Company purchased 18 acres the south of the railway. of the site to construct a gas works, London’s influence manifest in a retort house and gas holder, first large number of institutions such as producing gas in 1869. By the end of asylums and boarding schools that the century this had developed into a located in the area. It also resulted in gas works with associated industrial the extensive extraction of clay for brick activity such as the Aldergate and making over much of the area. Norwood Chemical Works. There was The canal opened in 1796 (the also a small area of worker housing on Wider area 1900 Paddington Branch in 1801) and horse what is now the site of the Blair Peach drawn barges could reach the centre School. To the east, the water tower of London in three hours. The railway and pumping station was completed followed in 1839 with the station being by the end of the century although built in 1859 and by the end of the the largest ridged gas holder was not century there were 65 trains a day erected until 1930. stopping at Southall. However neither The land surrounding the site, the canal nor the railway led to the although scarred by brick pits, development of the area and in 1892 remained open until the turn of the a traveller was still able to remark of century. At this point housing spread Southall 'a wanderer in search of the rapidly and Southall's population picturesque will do well to tramp along doubled between the 1901 and 1911 the lanes for here the country is quite censuses. The residential areas untouched by suburban London' surrounding the site were largely

Page 24 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

1868 1896

completed by the First World War. Archaeology: Southall has always been an 1934 important industrial area, Dane's The site does not lie within an Area margarine factory was set up in of Archaeological Interest in Ealing’s 1896 and the industrial area to the UDP. The nearest designated areas south of the railway grew up at cover the historic cores of Southall the start of the century, based on and Southall Green Villages. However railheads and sidings. The gas works previous work on the site has shown further expanded and by 1936 it was it once had some archaeological surrounded by a range of industrial interest. Palaeolithic axes and activities. However the eastern part of mammoth bones were discovered the site remained as open allotments during the construction of a gas holder and playing fields. in 1890. The Sites Proximity to the airport and the and Monuments Record (GLSMR) availability of work has long made also records Meseolithic through to Southall a magnet for immigration Bronze and Roman finds in the area and in 1934 its streets were said to although nothing from the Saxon or be 'thronged with immigrants from Medieval period when the area was all parts of Britain' especially from fields surrounding the villages of Wales. George Orwell wrote in the Southall. The site is therefore not 1930s 'I struck out into outer London considered archaeologically important. and followed the Uxbridge Road as far The extensive excavation of brick as Southall. Miles and miles of ugly clay and the subsequent industrial houses, and people living dull, decent development is likely to have destroyed lives inside them'. Later in the 1950s any archaeology that may have once and 60s the area became a focus for a existed. Archaeology is therefore not a Sikh community and more recently for constraint on development. Somalis. The gas works closed in 1973 when the site became a depot for the storage of natural gas.

Page 25 Southall Gas Works: Design Statement by URBED with Capita Symonds, WYG, Lovejoys, Jestico and Whiles and RPSDesign Statement

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