In the 1980s it was not possible to ignore the industrial character of Bowden-Brompton, especially if you lived there and walked around it. The area around the Second, Chief Sand East Streets near to the Brompton gasworks represented industrial modernity for Adelaide.

This image was excluded by the editor:

The Brompton Gasworks provided gas for lighting, heating and industry — street lighting in the 19th century and  energy to people’s homes with the gas being extracted from coal. It operated as a coal gasification plant until the 1960s when natural gas was brought to Adelaide.

This was bleak and harsh industrial urbanscape with very few trees:

The area around gasworks was such a marked contrast to leafy North Adelaide on the eastern side of the parklands where I often used to walk with Fichte, my standard poodle.

This was an administrative building of the gasworks site as seen from Chief Street:

The gasworks site at Brompton goes back to the early 1860s. All operations ceased at the site at the around 2000 with the land acquired by the Land Management Corporation (now Renewal SA) in 2010 for the purposes of urban renewal. The site  would be a very contaminated land parcel, and it would require extensive site remediation to ensure it is clean and safe for future people to live, work and play.

Hopefully some the gasworks buildings will be included in the South Australian Heritage Register. My understanding is that photographic coverage of the gasworks site is surprisingly poor. It’s a pity, given that it was such an integral part of Adelaide’s industrial and social history.