Redheugh Gasworks

Gateshead's gasworks date from 1819 when a small works was built in Pipewellgate. Growing demand for gas led to the opening of new gasworks at Redheugh in 1876 for the Newcastle and Gateshead Gas Company under the general design of Mr. V. Wyatt, Engineer to the Chartered Gas Company of Beckton. The 25 acre site at Redheugh developed over a 23 year period and included a set of four retort houses - where the gas was manufactured - each of similar size to No.3 which survives (95 x 32 metres, and about 20 metres high), the last of which opened in 1899. The whole site was densely developed: a network of rail tracks, tanks, workshops, gas holders, chimneys and other installations filled the site between the Tanfield Branch railway and the River Tyne. No. 3 Retort House is a simple brick walled, clear span iron roofed shed. Its impressive quality derives from its collossal size and the deliberate architectural treatment of the brickwork which provides visual articulation to the basic shell.