Victorian Ironwork

Saturday mornings with my Mum necessitate in a retail fix and visit to a supermarket for a coffee and the "main shop". Today we decided to try Gallions Reach in Beckton - around 5 miles from Mum's as the crow flies. However, the River Thames lies in the way, so a detour via Blackwall Tunnel is required.

Shopping done, we headed to McDonalds for lunch and noticed this reminder of Victorian engineering, demonstrating the care and attention to decorative detail that even the most functional of edifices were given, and I just had to blip it.

I Googled this later and found that this gasometer was once part of the gas works at Beckton dating from the 1870's - once the largest in Europ. It closed in the 1970's with the switch to town gas following the gas discoveries in the North Sea.