As much as it is nice to cherish our past, it seems it's OK for the haves to say let's keep it, when the have nots are struggling with ridiculous rents.

I have run past the same gasometers and I found them fascinating and inspiring for the same reason: a tiny part of the city where the space and skyline is reserved for a unique part of our history that isn't simply converted into modern urban sprawl.

Is it a good idea to convert them into new flats which are 90% landlord owned, if not owned by Chinese investors who leave them empty so they can't support local business - the typical fate of new property in London? How does it help your 'have nots' with their rent? Aren't you just stripping out all the cultural and local heritage?

The goal of capitalism is that stuff is used in an economically efficient way, and capitalism is a bit broken when that doesn't happen.

'Use it or sell it' is needed but dangerous: applied naively, this creates false incentives.

The housing shortage in the UK is crippling and it will only get worse.

If only there were ways of moving jobs out of London. London housing by comparison needs to go up more - not the >10 story tower blocks, more like 5 storys. Unfortunately this would probably involve clearing a lot of picturesque spacious Victorian terraces.

  > If only there were ways of moving jobs out of London.

The UK is a ridiculously unsustainable mix of mega-high demand cities with others in almost constant decline. There's no reason everybody has to work in London, Birmingham and Manchester.

That, and stopping developers sit on land while they wait for house prices to come up. Screw it, if we need houses so much, why aren't councils renationalising housebuilding?

There are so many more, objectively better options than continuing the cycle we're currently locked into.

They're not allowed to do so, they don't have the money, they don't have any way to raise it, and it would be vulnerable to NIMBYs.

(I also agree with the points below about the housing shortage being localised. We should do what Silicon Valley did a long time ago and move some firms to a new area.)

The more we fetishise heritage the less acceptable new structures and designs becomes that are "out of context". For example, a wind turbine should only need to generate power efficiently. It should not need to look good.

I don't think there are any gas holders that are going to become that iconic but a lot of tourism focuses on interesting infrastructure like dam's, buildings, towers, walls, bridges, etc.

Beauty is the art of making something pleasing and desirable to humanity.

Engineering and architecture should aim to do both. When utilities are ugly they can depress the price of properties around them, making people less willing enable future needed projects. I mean, is your home a (subjectively) ugly gray box with no decoration. I mean the purpose of a house is to shelter you from the elements.

For the most part homes in the UK are designed to fit in with their surroundings not be beautiful. I don't find hundreds of identical red brick buildings particularly asthetically inspiring and decoration is usually kept to an absolute minimum by developers. What we end up with is endless estates that all look exactly the same in order to protect sensibilities. We need to accept some creativity and change.

Yeah, like this. http://www.choishine.com/port_projects/landsnet/landsnet.htm...

That's obviously bollocks - human beings aren't machines - they enjoy existing in an environment that they find beautiful. So, we should consider aesthetics when designing technology that is visible.

There's a reason that that area of town used to be tanneries, gas-holders, and chemical works.

Sites like these are politically 'easy' to develop. From a urban landscape point of view, taking an industrial zone and re-classifying it as a residential zone has it's risks in that you drive out the ability for employment opportunities in the city. However, in Bath's case, the industrial sectors are now on the west side of the city towards Bristol.

Each gasometer was redesigned into a complete urban space by a different architect.

My apartment overlooked one of the hollow central 'cylinders': not much sunlight reached the interior, and - without net curtains - not much privacy (since neighbors opposite had a clear view across the space).

After seeing a huge crowd queuing in the lobby one evening, I realized the basement was used for rock concerts! And yet, not a sound (or vibration) reached the residential areas above.

Great place to stay for a while...