By Richard Suchet, Sky News Reporter
Campaigners have vowed to fight the decision to build thousands of new homes on disused industrial sites, which they argue should be preserved for posterity.
National Grid announced earlier this week that it plans to turn derelict Victorian gasworks in London and the South East into 14,000 residential properties over the next 15 years.
But the towering metal structures are considered by some to be relics of an industrial age.
"A lot of people use the housing shortage as an excuse to demolish everything in sight," community campaigner Ian Shacklock told Sky News.
Pointing to the Bethnal Green gas container by London's Regents Canal, he said: "I think they are quite beautiful and well engineered.
"It does remind us how well things were done in the Victorian age. A lot of the surrounding buildings look like 'cut and paste' jobs.
"And the effort that went into that - every one is different. You ask an experienced civil engineer with an historic interest what is so special about them. Books could have been written on them.
"They have very ornate finishing and when you get up close you realise that they weren't just put together in a hurry."
The £700m redevelopment programme is a joint venture between National Grid and home builders Berkley, which will be called St William.
In its first phase, St William will build more than 7,000 new homes (including 2,000 affordable homes) on brownfield land, the first of which will be completed by 2017.
"These sites are so good for redevelopment because they are brownfield sites, within towns, often close to town centres," said Richard Alden, head of commercial property at National Grid.
"They were in the heart of the community when they were used as gasworks.
"Now we can bring them back into a beneficial use for housing because they are still in the heart of communities."
It is claimed the new homes will help to ease the region's housing crisis.
An estimated 40,000 homes will have to be built in London every year alone to meet demand.
In May, Business Secretary Vince Cable said Britain needed 300,000 additional homes to be built every year to avoid pushing house price inflation up to dangerous levels.
Gasometer sites to be dismantled and converted for residential use include Battersea, Fulham, Poplar, Rickmansworth, Hornsey and Taplow.
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