It was rediscovered in 1992 during a proposed redevelopment of land on Gas Street when the city planning department noticed the unusual roof design of cast iron trusses and wrought iron rods.
The building is licensed for Church of England worship and known as St Luke's Gas Street.
The retort house, the place where the town gas was manufactured by heating coal in the absence of air, was built next to the canal in 1822 to replace the original Clegg plant together with a new gas holder (storage tank) and coal store. It was designed by Alexander Smith.
The works closed in 1850, retaining the four 52 foot gas holders, which were fed by other factories. The whole site closed in 1879 following Joseph Chamberlain's 1875 municipalisation of the Birmingham gas companies.
The building was refurbished in 1998-9 by Crosby Homes (Adrian Unitt and Kevin Cooper) using Richard Johnson & Associates as architects as a non-residential office, leisure or workshop space.
It is a Grade II* listed building.[1] The adjoining land that housed the gas holders was redeveloped at the same time for exclusive apartments.
In 2010 the building was declared to be "at risk" by English Heritage. It was removed from the at risk status in 2011 following refurbishment by the then owners Ashtenne. The structure was unoccupied at the time and was put up for sale.[2] The retort house was purchased by The Church of England in December 2014 as a second place of worship in the Parish of St Luke's. It is the main venue for a Resourcing Church, in partnership with Holy Trinity Brompton and the Birmingham diocese, and is targeted to reach Birmingham's students and young adults.
This article uses material from the Wikipedia article Gas_Retort_House, and is written by contributors.
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