Lower East Street, Middlesbrough

Client: Bowmer + Kirkland

In 2024 PCA Heritage undertook historic building recording of two abutting walls on a former industrial site in Middlesbrough, North Yorkshire. The work has resulted in a permanent Historic England Level 2 record.

The two brick and steel-framed walls were the remaining parts of a structure which had been built within Middlesbrough Gas Works between 1948 and 1951. The purpose of the structure could not be verified but there are clues which suggest that it was a gas purifier house.

To produce gas coal – of which there was an abundant amount in the area – was heated in retorts. This resulted in the production of coke and an impure gas which had to be processed by passing it through a condenser to remove tar, itself a valuable by-product. From there it passed through one or more purifiers.

Purifier houses contained the purification equipment required for the process, and sometimes also the chemicals used. Such buildings were sometimes open-sided sheds, as seemed to have been the case here.

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