St Pancras Basin

The St Pancras Basin, also known as St Pancras Yacht Basin, is part of the Regent's Canal in the London Borough of Camden, England, slightly to the west of St Pancras Lock. Formerly known as the Midland Railway Basin, the canal basin is owned by Canal & River Trust, and since 1958 has been home to the St Pancras Cruising Club. The basin is affected by the large-scale developments in progress, related to King's Cross Central.

Overlooking the basin is Gasholder No. 8, a structure which was erected in 1883 but using a tank dating from the 1850s. The frame which holds the tank was the last to be built using the designs of John Clark. Construction was managed by C F Clegg, with the ironwork being manufactured by Westwood and Wright. It originally formed part of Pancras Gasworks, the largest such installation in Britain in the 1860s, and was located some 440 yards (400 m) to the south of its present location. Ownership of the gasworks passed to the Gas Light and Coke Company in 1876, and production of town gas was discontinued in the early twentieth century. It became a Grade II Listed structure in 1986, and continued in use as a gasholder until the 1990s. It was dismantled as part of the reconstruction of St Pancras railway station, and rebuilt on the north bank of the canal in 2014. The gasholder frame has 16 hollow cast iron columns, each 80 feet (24 m) high, which are linked together by two levels of wrought iron lattice girders. A park has been created within the frame, which is connected to the canal towpath by footpaths. There are plans to build a new bridge over the canal.

Gasholders 10, 11 and 12 were also moved and re-erected close to the canal. They date from 1860 to 1867, and were enlarged in 1879/80, when the frames were interconnected, resulting in them having a common spine. The hollow cast iron columns are linked together by three tiers of lattice girders, constructed of wrought iron. The frames were refurbished by a specialist iron-work company in Yorkshire before they were re-assembled, and each surrounds a circular apartment block, with a roof garden. The scheme was designed by the archiects WilkinsonEyre.

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