Documenting Public Art-David Appleyard

Delight to show my last documenting public art, a job made for David Appleyard commissioned by Dallas-Pierce-Quintero Studio. ‘788 Battersea’, celebrates a unique aspect of the heritage of this former gasworks.

Over the last two and half years David has meticulously researched the innovative aeronautical engineers the Short Brothers, who crafted ‘lighter than air’ balloons using gas from the former gasworks. Crafted in the adjacent railway arches, these balloons were chartered to make flights across Britain, or further afield to France and Belgium. In late Victorian/early Edwardian London these railway arches were the centre of ballooning; records were broken and history made, including the first woman to qualify for the Aeronaut’s Certificate.