Old Kent Road alligator park: reptile enclosure could be part of gasholder conversion at heart of new homes development

The Old Kent Road’s claim to fame as the cheapest square in Monopoly could be superseded by a more exotic distinction — as the site of London’s first alligator park.

Property developer Avanton is drawing up plans to create the reptile enclosure inside a Victorian gasholder as the centrepiece of a £230 million housing and offices scheme.

If it goes ahead, the former tanks at the base of the Grade II-listed structure which extend down 60ft would be converted into a habitat for the animals.

Part of the iron frame would be covered with glass to create a giant multi-storey conservatory providing a “Florida-style” environment.

Alligators need temperatures of between 28C and 33C to thrive and breed.

Britain currently has only one dedicated alligator or crocodile attraction, the Crocodiles of the World zoo in the Cotswolds.

Marc Pennick, co-founding director of Avanton, said: “The alligator park and farm would be the first in London, and is one of a series of exciting leisure concepts Avanton is reviewing.

“We want to turn the gasholder into something really special for London, so alongside the alligator park we are also looking at the option of turning it into a large lido and leisure deck complex, and are also thinking about an artistic garden with water features.

“The alligator park concept came to us after we were approached by an out-of-town specialist looking for a location for an alligator park.”

The 160ft-high frame of gasholder number 13 — once the biggest in the world — is one of the last remnants of the Old Kent Road gasworks which supplied Southwark, Croydon, Lambeth and Streatham from the 1830s onwards.

It was completed by engineer George Livesey, secretary of the South Metropolitan Gas Company, in 1881.

Until the Nineties hundreds of gasometers dominated Britain’s urban skyline. Now only a handful of listed examples survive, including the gasholder that lent its name to one end of the Oval cricket ground, and four at King’s Cross, where they now encircle cylindrical blocks of flats and a park.

Avanton owns three sites on Old Kent Road, together providing up to 2,100 new homes on developments worth up to £800 million.