Short answers, pulled from the story.
The Gas Light and Coke Company was incorporated by royal charter on the 30th of April 1812 under the seal of King George III. Parliament authorised the company, and its Court of Directors met for the first time on the 24th of June 1812.
The company was founded by Frederick Albert Winsor, who was originally from Germany. Winsor secured parliamentary authorisation and the royal charter that established the company as the first to supply London with coal gas.
The Gas Light and Coke Company was nationalised on the 1st of May 1949 under the Gas Act 1948. It became the major component of the North Thames Gas Board, one of twelve regional gas boards created across Britain, and is identified as the corporate ancestor of British Gas plc.
Beckton Gas Works was built in 1868 on the East Ham Levels, east of London. Named after GLCC chairman Simon Adams Beck, the 550-acre site was, at the time of nationalisation in 1949, the largest gas works in the world, capable of producing 119,120,000 cubic feet of gas per day.
The number two gasholder at the Fulham gasworks at Sands End is reputed to be the oldest gasholder in the world. It is a Georgian structure completed in 1830, and along with the neoclassical office building and a laboratory designed by Sir Walter Tapper, it is now a Grade II listed building.
By 1819, the Gas Light and Coke Company had laid nearly 290 miles of pipes beneath London's streets, supplying 51,000 burners. This expansion was overseen by the company's chief engineer, Samuel Clegg, who had previously worked at Boulton and Watt.