Seven giant gas holders are visible on the eastern bank of the Lea by Twelvetrees Crescent. They were part of the Bromley-by-Bow Gasworks built by the Imperial Gas Company between 1870 and 1873.

In 1875 Imperial amalgamated with the Gas Light & Coke Company who owned the nearby (and bigger) Beckton Gasworks. The gas holders’ surrounds are cast iron and the central drums are steel. They are intricately decorated, with a different repeating pattern on each storey.

There were originally eight gas holders, but one was destroyed by a bomb in WW2. Gas was produced on this site until the early 1960s, but today the holders store natural gas.

The image shows women workers from the Gas Works taking high tea on the top of a gasometer in 1918.