Beckton Gas Works
Encyclopedia
Beckton Gas Works was a major London gas works
built to manufacture coal gas
and other products including coke
from coal. It has been variously described as 'the largest such plant in the world' and 'the largest gas works in Europe'. It operated from 1870 to 1969, with an associated by-products works that operated from 1879 to 1970. The works was located on East Ham
Level, on the north bank of the Thames at Gallions Reach, to the west of Barking Creek
.
(GLCC). The name Beckton
was given to the plant and the surrounding area of east London in honour of the company's governor Simon Adams Beck. It came eventually to manufacture gas for most of London north of the Thames, with numerous smaller works being closed. Its counterpart south of the river was the South Metropolitan Gas Co's East Greenwich Gas Works
on the Greenwich Peninsula
.
Following nationalisation in 1949 the plant was owned by the North Thames Gas Board
. After closure the residual site passed to British Gas
and Transco
.
The discovery of natural gas
in the North Sea
meant that manufactured gas became uncompetitive. The Beckton works closed between 1969 and 1970, when the last trainload left the associated chemical works.
The works lay within the London Docklands area and parts were redeveloped by the London Docklands Development Corporation
.
, between Woolwich Manor Way and the Thames. The company had considered several sites for the works. The site to the west of Barking Creek
was selected as it was possible to build deep water piers in the Thames, enabling direct unloading from steam colliers bringing coal from mines in the North-East of England. There were two piers, for importing coal and exporting by-products. In the 1930s an annual average of a million tons of coal mainly from Durham
was unloaded at the main pier, with a further 750,000 tons transhipped to barges for other works. The GLCC had a fleet of seventeen coastal
colliers
ranging from 1,200 to 2,841 gross register tons
, and also chartered larger ships as needed. At this time the plant had a coal storage capacity of 250,000 tons.
The plant had an extensive internal railway system of between 42 and 70 miles (between 42 and 70 mi (67.6 and 112.7 km)). The Beckton Railway provided a link to the national network at Custom House
, used for passenger traffic to the works and for transport of by-products such as coal tar. This was leased and operated by the Great Eastern Railway
from 1874. There were no intermediate stations between Custom House station
and Beckton railway station
, which was at the entrance to the works. The line closed to passengers following bomb damage in 1940, the freight line finally closing in February 1971.
and inorganic
chemicals could be obtained when purifying the gas. Processes began to be developed to recover these, and a major branch of the British chemical industry – the coal tar
and ammonia
by-products industry – came into existence. By 1876 a nearby company, Burt, Boulton and Haywood of Silvertown
, was distilling each year 12 million impgals (54,553.1 m³) of coal tar to manufacture ingredients for disinfectants, insecticides and dyes. Sulphur from the gas works was the raw material for local manufacturers of sulphuric acid needed by other nearby companies producing products such as fertilizers. Subsequently the GLCC decided that it would carry out the processing of by-products itself, rather than sell them to independent chemical companies. A purpose-built chemical works, Beckton Products Works, was constructed in 1879. It was the largest tar and ammonia by-products works in the UK, possibly in the world. Besides millions of gallons of road tar, products included phenol
, the cresol
s and xylenol
s, naphthalene
, pyridine
bases, creosote
, benzene
, toluene
, xylene
, solvent naphtha
, ammonium sulphate and ammonia
solution, sulphuric acid, picoline
s, quinoline
, quinaldine
, acenaphthene
, anthracene
and dicyclopentadiene
. Since the Products works was dependent on by-products of gas manufacture it could not long survive the introduction of natural gas. The last train carrying chemical products, a load of pitch
, left the works on 1 June 1970.
The toxic spoil heaps from the works are known ironically as Beckton Alps. Originally covering an extensive area to the west of the works, they have been landscaped and much reduced in size. From 1989 to 2001 a dry ski slope was operated on the small remaining section , though the nickname pre-dates this. The site is the highest point in Newham, and a 'grade II' borough site of wildlife interest. It is said to be the highest artificial hill in London.
A proposed £35 M replacement the SnowWorld indoor centre to be built on the site has run into financial problems.
’s It's a Square World
were shot here. The mounds of chemical waste were used to portray mountaineering scenes. In 1975 the film Brannigan
starring John Wayne
used the location. The opening sequence of the 1981 James Bond
movie For Your Eyes Only
was filmed here. The scenes involved Roger Moore
as James Bond attempting to regain control of a helicopter operated by remote control by his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld
. The gasworks buildings were also used in a number of scenes representing a dystopian 1984 London in the 1984 film version of the George Orwell's story of Nineteen Eighty-four
. In 1986, the film Biggles: Adventures in Time
used the gas works as a location for a weapon testing ground.
In the final hour or so of Full Metal Jacket
, Stanley Kubrick
's 1987 movie portraying the Vietnam War
, Matthew Modine
(Private Joker), Adam Baldwin
(Animal Mother) and their platoon go into Huế
, a Vietnamese city, to clear it of Viet Cong and snipers. Kubrick had the whole gasworks selectively demolished and then the art department dressed the 'set' with latticework and appropriate advertising hoardings to make it believable. At one point the soldiers enter a building to flush out a sniper. This building was one several, located between the central buildings of the old gas works and about 200 yards from the river Thames. The final scene sees the soldiers marching off into the (London) sunset against the silhouettes of the burning old gas works' smoke stacks and buildings, singing the Mickey Mouse march music. In the film a period of several days takes place in the protagonist's lives as they travel through the industrial quarters of Huế city; in reality the action took place within just one square mile.
British pop/rock trio The Outfield
filmed multiple sequences for the video to the band's 1987 hit "Since You've Been Gone", from their album Bangin'
, at the Beckton Gas Works.
The video for Loop
's 1990 single Arc-lite was filmed on the set of Full Metal Jacket. The gasworks was used as the main background scene for the Oasis
video D'You Know What I Mean?
, as it shows the band members playing on a concrete slab within the gasworks facility. The videoclip for Marcella Detroit
's 1994 single I Believe
was shot in this location. Also, the 1995 TV series Bugs
episode Out Of The Hive shows the whole facility at a scene where a car drives off an unfinished bridge in flames.
Derek Jarman
's 1986 promotional video for The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead' single was partly shot at Beckton Gasworks.
Part of the extensive industrial railway
route has since been used for the Docklands Light Railway
between Beckton DLR station
and the Royal Docks Road. The site also houses the Beckton DLR depot
.
Gasworks
A gasworks or gas house is a factory for the manufacture of gas. The use of natural gas has made many redundant in the developed world, however they are often still used for storage.- Early gasworks :...
built to manufacture coal gas
Coal gas
Coal gas is a flammable gaseous fuel made by the destructive distillation of coal containing a variety of calorific gases including hydrogen, carbon monoxide, methane and volatile hydrocarbons together with small quantities of non-calorific gases such as carbon dioxide and nitrogen...
and other products including coke
Coke (fuel)
Coke is the solid carbonaceous material derived from destructive distillation of low-ash, low-sulfur bituminous coal. Cokes from coal are grey, hard, and porous. While coke can be formed naturally, the commonly used form is man-made.- History :...
from coal. It has been variously described as 'the largest such plant in the world' and 'the largest gas works in Europe'. It operated from 1870 to 1969, with an associated by-products works that operated from 1879 to 1970. The works was located on East Ham
East Ham
East Ham is a suburban district of London, England, and part of the London Borough of Newham. It is a built-up district located 8 miles east-northeast of Charing Cross...
Level, on the north bank of the Thames at Gallions Reach, to the west of Barking Creek
Barking Creek
Barking Creek joins the River Roding to the River Thames. It is fully tidal up to the Barking Barrage, which impounds a minimum water level through Barking in Barking. In the 1850s, the creek was home to England's largest fishing fleet, and the Victorian icehouse - where the fish were landed and...
.
History
The plant was opened in 1870 by the Gas Light and Coke CompanyGas Light and Coke Company
The Gas Light and Coke Company , was a company that made and supplied coal gas and coke. The Company was located on Horseferry Road in Westminster, London...
(GLCC). The name Beckton
Beckton
Beckton is part of the London Borough of Newham, England, located east of Charing Cross.Its boundaries are the A13 trunk road to the north, Barking Creek to the east, the Royal Docks to the south, and Prince Regent Lane to the west. The area around Prince Regent Lane is also known as Custom House...
was given to the plant and the surrounding area of east London in honour of the company's governor Simon Adams Beck. It came eventually to manufacture gas for most of London north of the Thames, with numerous smaller works being closed. Its counterpart south of the river was the South Metropolitan Gas Co's East Greenwich Gas Works
East Greenwich Gas Works
The East Greenwich Gas Works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company was the last gas works to be built in London, and the most modern. Originally manufacturing town gas from coal brought in by river and exporting coke and chemicals, the plant was adapted to produce gas from oil in the 1960s...
on the Greenwich Peninsula
Greenwich Peninsula
Greenwich Peninsula is an area of South London, England, located in the London Borough of Greenwich.The peninsula is bounded on three sides by a loop of the Thames, between the Isle of Dogs and Silvertown. To the south is the rest of Greenwich, to the south-east is Charlton.The peninsula lies...
.
Following nationalisation in 1949 the plant was owned by the North Thames Gas Board
North Thames Gas Board
The North Thames Gas Board was a state-owned utility providing gas for light and heat to industries and homes in part of England. The Board's area included parts of the County of London, Berkshire, Buckinghamshire, Essex, Hertfordshire, Middlesex and Surrey...
. After closure the residual site passed to British Gas
British Gas plc
British Gas plc was formerly the monopoly gas supplier and is a private sector in the United Kingdom.- History :In the early 1900s the gas market in the United Kingdom was mainly run by county councils and small private firms...
and Transco
National Grid plc
National Grid plc is a multinational electricity and gas utility company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. Its principal activities are in the United Kingdom and northeastern United States and it is one of the largest investor-owned energy companies in the world.National Grid is listed on...
.
The discovery of natural gas
Natural gas
Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas mixture consisting primarily of methane, typically with 0–20% higher hydrocarbons . It is found associated with other hydrocarbon fuel, in coal beds, as methane clathrates, and is an important fuel source and a major feedstock for fertilizers.Most natural...
in the North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
meant that manufactured gas became uncompetitive. The Beckton works closed between 1969 and 1970, when the last trainload left the associated chemical works.
The works lay within the London Docklands area and parts were redeveloped by the London Docklands Development Corporation
London Docklands Development Corporation
The London Docklands Development Corporation was a quango agency set up by the UK Government in 1981 to regenerate the depressed Docklands area of east London. During its eighteen-year existence it was responsible for regenerating an area of in the London Boroughs of Newham, Tower Hamlets and...
.
Location
The works covered a 550 acres (222.6 ha) site to the south of the Northern Outfall SewerNorthern Outfall Sewer
The Northern Outfall Sewer is a major gravity sewer which runs from Wick Lane in Hackney to Beckton Sewage Works in east London ; most of it was designed by Joseph Bazalgette after an outbreak of cholera in 1853 and "The Big Stink" of 1858.Prior to this work, central London's drains were built...
, between Woolwich Manor Way and the Thames. The company had considered several sites for the works. The site to the west of Barking Creek
Barking Creek
Barking Creek joins the River Roding to the River Thames. It is fully tidal up to the Barking Barrage, which impounds a minimum water level through Barking in Barking. In the 1850s, the creek was home to England's largest fishing fleet, and the Victorian icehouse - where the fish were landed and...
was selected as it was possible to build deep water piers in the Thames, enabling direct unloading from steam colliers bringing coal from mines in the North-East of England. There were two piers, for importing coal and exporting by-products. In the 1930s an annual average of a million tons of coal mainly from Durham
Durham
Durham is a city in north east England. It is within the County Durham local government district, and is the county town of the larger ceremonial county...
was unloaded at the main pier, with a further 750,000 tons transhipped to barges for other works. The GLCC had a fleet of seventeen coastal
Coastal trading vessel
Coastal trading vessels, also known as coasters, are shallow-hulled ships used for trade between locations on the same island or continent. Their shallow hulls mean that they can get through reefs where deeper-hulled sea-going ships usually cannot....
colliers
Collier (ship type)
Collier is a historical term used to describe a bulk cargo ship designed to carry coal, especially for naval use by coal-fired warships. In the late 18th century a number of wooden-hulled sailing colliers gained fame after being adapted for use in voyages of exploration in the South Pacific, for...
ranging from 1,200 to 2,841 gross register tons
Gross Register Tonnage
Gross register tonnage a ship's total internal volume expressed in "register tons", one of which equals to a volume of . It is calculated from the total permanently enclosed capacity of the vessel. The ship's net register tonnage is obtained by reducing the volume of non-revenue-earning spaces i.e...
, and also chartered larger ships as needed. At this time the plant had a coal storage capacity of 250,000 tons.
The plant had an extensive internal railway system of between 42 and 70 miles (between 42 and 70 mi (67.6 and 112.7 km)). The Beckton Railway provided a link to the national network at Custom House
Custom House, London
Custom House is an area in the London Borough of Newham in London, England.The area is named after the custom house of Royal Victoria Dock.The first Custom House in London was built in 1275 and was located near Billingsgate Market in the City of London....
, used for passenger traffic to the works and for transport of by-products such as coal tar. This was leased and operated by the Great Eastern Railway
Great Eastern Railway
The Great Eastern Railway was a pre-grouping British railway company, whose main line linked London Liverpool Street to Norwich and which had other lines through East Anglia...
from 1874. There were no intermediate stations between Custom House station
Custom House station
Custom House for ExCeL station is in the Custom House area by the Royal Docks, east London. It is served by the Docklands Light Railway , and is in Travelcard Zone 3...
and Beckton railway station
Beckton railway station
Beckton railway station was a railway station in Beckton, London, on the Eastern Counties and Thames Junction Railway. It originally opened in 1874 and was owned by the Gas Light and Coke Company, to serve the recently-built Beckton Gas Works. The line was opened for freight in 1872 and to...
, which was at the entrance to the works. The line closed to passengers following bomb damage in 1940, the freight line finally closing in February 1971.
Beckton Products Works
Following the invention of coal gas early in the 19th century, it was discovered than numerous organicOrganic compound
An organic compound is any member of a large class of gaseous, liquid, or solid chemical compounds whose molecules contain carbon. For historical reasons discussed below, a few types of carbon-containing compounds such as carbides, carbonates, simple oxides of carbon, and cyanides, as well as the...
and inorganic
Inorganic compound
Inorganic compounds have traditionally been considered to be of inanimate, non-biological origin. In contrast, organic compounds have an explicit biological origin. However, over the past century, the classification of inorganic vs organic compounds has become less important to scientists,...
chemicals could be obtained when purifying the gas. Processes began to be developed to recover these, and a major branch of the British chemical industry – the coal tar
Coal tar
Coal tar is a brown or black liquid of extremely high viscosity, which smells of naphthalene and aromatic hydrocarbons. Coal tar is among the by-products when coal iscarbonized to make coke or gasified to make coal gas...
and ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
by-products industry – came into existence. By 1876 a nearby company, Burt, Boulton and Haywood of Silvertown
Silvertown
Silvertown is an industrialised district on the north bank of the Thames in the London Borough of Newham. It was named after Samuel Winkworth Silver's former rubber factory which opened in 1852, and is now dominated by the Tate & Lyle sugar refinery and the John Knight ABP animal rendering...
, was distilling each year 12 million impgals (54,553.1 m³) of coal tar to manufacture ingredients for disinfectants, insecticides and dyes. Sulphur from the gas works was the raw material for local manufacturers of sulphuric acid needed by other nearby companies producing products such as fertilizers. Subsequently the GLCC decided that it would carry out the processing of by-products itself, rather than sell them to independent chemical companies. A purpose-built chemical works, Beckton Products Works, was constructed in 1879. It was the largest tar and ammonia by-products works in the UK, possibly in the world. Besides millions of gallons of road tar, products included phenol
Phenol
Phenol, also known as carbolic acid, phenic acid, is an organic compound with the chemical formula C6H5OH. It is a white crystalline solid. The molecule consists of a phenyl , bonded to a hydroxyl group. It is produced on a large scale as a precursor to many materials and useful compounds...
, the cresol
Cresol
Cresols are organic compounds which are methylphenols. They are a widely occurring natural and manufactured group of aromatic organic compounds which are categorized as phenols . Depending on the temperature, cresols can be solid or liquid because they have melting points not far from room...
s and xylenol
Xylenol
Xylenol or dimethylphenol is an arene compound with two methyl groups and a hydroxyl group. 6 isomers exist of xylenol of which 2,6-xylenol with both methyl group in an ortho position with respect to the hydroxyl group is the most important...
s, naphthalene
Naphthalene
Naphthalene is an organic compound with formula . It is a white crystalline solid with a characteristic odor that is detectable at concentrations as low as 0.08 ppm by mass. As an aromatic hydrocarbon, naphthalene's structure consists of a fused pair of benzene rings...
, pyridine
Pyridine
Pyridine is a basic heterocyclic organic compound with the chemical formula C5H5N. It is structurally related to benzene, with one C-H group replaced by a nitrogen atom...
bases, creosote
Creosote
Creosote is the portion of chemical products obtained by the distillation of a tar that remains heavier than water, notably useful for its anti-septic and preservative properties...
, benzene
Benzene
Benzene is an organic chemical compound. It is composed of 6 carbon atoms in a ring, with 1 hydrogen atom attached to each carbon atom, with the molecular formula C6H6....
, toluene
Toluene
Toluene, formerly known as toluol, is a clear, water-insoluble liquid with the typical smell of paint thinners. It is a mono-substituted benzene derivative, i.e., one in which a single hydrogen atom from the benzene molecule has been replaced by a univalent group, in this case CH3.It is an aromatic...
, xylene
Xylene
Xylene encompasses three isomers of dimethylbenzene. The isomers are distinguished by the designations ortho- , meta- , and para- , which specify to which carbon atoms the two methyl groups are attached...
, solvent naphtha
Naphtha
Naphtha normally refers to a number of different flammable liquid mixtures of hydrocarbons, i.e., a component of natural gas condensate or a distillation product from petroleum, coal tar or peat boiling in a certain range and containing certain hydrocarbons. It is a broad term covering among the...
, ammonium sulphate and ammonia
Ammonia
Ammonia is a compound of nitrogen and hydrogen with the formula . It is a colourless gas with a characteristic pungent odour. Ammonia contributes significantly to the nutritional needs of terrestrial organisms by serving as a precursor to food and fertilizers. Ammonia, either directly or...
solution, sulphuric acid, picoline
Picoline
Picoline refers to three different methylpyridine isomers, all with the chemical formula C6H7N and a molar mass of 93.13 g mol−1. All three are colourless liquids at room temperature and pressure and are miscible with water and most organic solvents...
s, quinoline
Quinoline
Quinoline is a heterocyclic aromatic organic compound. It has the formula C9H7N and is a colourless hygroscopic liquid with a strong odour. Aged samples, if exposed to light, become yellow and later brown...
, quinaldine
Quinaldine
Quinaldine or 2-methylquinoline is a simple derivative of a heterocyclic compound quinoline.Quinaldine has critical point at 787 K and 4.9 MPa and its refractive index is 1.8116....
, acenaphthene
Acenaphthene
Acenaphthene is a polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of naphthalene with an ethylene bridge connecting positions 1 and 8. An alternative name, 1,2-dihydroacenaphthylene, emphasizes that it is a hydrogenated form of acenaphthylene...
, anthracene
Anthracene
Anthracene is a solid polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon consisting of three fused benzene rings. It is a component of coal-tar. Anthracene is used in the production of the red dye alizarin and other dyes...
and dicyclopentadiene
Dicyclopentadiene
Dicyclopentadiene, abbreviated DCPD, is a chemical compound with formula C10H12. At room temperature, it is a white crystalline solid with a camphor-like odor. Its energy density is 10,975 Wh/l....
. Since the Products works was dependent on by-products of gas manufacture it could not long survive the introduction of natural gas. The last train carrying chemical products, a load of pitch
Pitch (resin)
Pitch is the name for any of a number of viscoelastic, solid polymers. Pitch can be made from petroleum products or plants. Petroleum-derived pitch is also called bitumen. Pitch produced from plants is also known as resin. Products made from plant resin are also known as rosin.Pitch was...
, left the works on 1 June 1970.
Beckton Alps
A proposed £35 M replacement the SnowWorld indoor centre to be built on the site has run into financial problems.
Beckton Gas Works as a film location
The gasworks, Products Works and Alps were used as a location for TV and cinema filming on a number of occasions. In the 1960s comedy films and TV programmes, such as Michael BentineMichael Bentine
Michael Bentine CBE was a British comedian, comic actor and founding member of the Goons. A Peruvian Briton by heritage as a result of his father's nationality, In 1971 Bentine received the Order of Merit of Peru because of his fund-raising work for the 1970 Great Peruvian...
’s It's a Square World
It's a Square World
It's a Square World was a groundbreaking British comedy show starring Michael Bentine and was produced by the BBC. It ran from 1960 till 1964. The series led Bentine to a BAFTA award in 1962 for Light Entertainment and a compilation show, screened by the BBC in 1963, won that year's Press Prize at...
were shot here. The mounds of chemical waste were used to portray mountaineering scenes. In 1975 the film Brannigan
Brannigan (film)
Brannigan is a British action film set principally in London, directed by Douglas Hickox, and starring John Wayne and Richard Attenborough...
starring John Wayne
John Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
used the location. The opening sequence of the 1981 James Bond
James Bond
James Bond, code name 007, is a fictional character created in 1953 by writer Ian Fleming, who featured him in twelve novels and two short story collections. There have been a six other authors who wrote authorised Bond novels or novelizations after Fleming's death in 1964: Kingsley Amis,...
movie For Your Eyes Only
For Your Eyes Only (film)
For Your Eyes Only is the twelfth spy film in the James Bond series and the fifth to star Roger Moore as the fictional MI6 agent James Bond. It marked the directorial debut of John Glen, who had worked as editor and second unit director in three other Bond films. The screenplay by Richard Maibaum...
was filmed here. The scenes involved Roger Moore
Roger Moore
Sir Roger George Moore KBE , is an English actor, perhaps best known for portraying British secret agent James Bond in seven films from 1973 to 1985. He also portrayed Simon Templar in the long-running British television series The Saint.-Early life:Moore was born in Stockwell, London...
as James Bond attempting to regain control of a helicopter operated by remote control by his nemesis Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld
Ernst Stavro Blofeld is a fictional character and a supervillain from the James Bond series of novels and films, who was created by Ian Fleming and Kevin McClory. An evil genius with aspirations of world domination, he is the archenemy of the British Secret Service agent James Bond and is arguably...
. The gasworks buildings were also used in a number of scenes representing a dystopian 1984 London in the 1984 film version of the George Orwell's story of Nineteen Eighty-four
Nineteen Eighty-Four
Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell is a dystopian novel about Oceania, a society ruled by the oligarchical dictatorship of the Party...
. In 1986, the film Biggles: Adventures in Time
Biggles: Adventures in Time
Biggles: Adventures in Time is a 1986 adventure film based on the character of Biggles from the series of novels written by Captain W.E. Johns...
used the gas works as a location for a weapon testing ground.
In the final hour or so of Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket
Full Metal Jacket is a 1987 war film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick. It is an adaptation of the 1979 novel The Short-Timers by Gustav Hasford and stars Matthew Modine, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Arliss Howard and Adam Baldwin. The film follows a platoon of U.S...
, Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick was an American film director, writer, producer, and photographer who lived in England during most of the last four decades of his career...
's 1987 movie portraying the Vietnam War
Vietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
, Matthew Modine
Matthew Modine
Matthew Avery Modine is an award-winning American actor. His film roles include Private Joker in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, the title character in Alan Parker's Birdy, high school wrestler Louden Swain in Vision Quest, football star turned spy Alec McCall in Funky Monkey and the...
(Private Joker), Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin
Adam Baldwin is an American actor, known for his roles as Animal Mother in Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, Ricky Linderman in My Bodyguard, Knowle Rohrer in The X-Files, and Marcus Hamilton in Joss Whedon's Angel...
(Animal Mother) and their platoon go into Huế
Hue
Hue is one of the main properties of a color, defined technically , as "the degree to which a stimulus can be describedas similar to or different from stimuli that are described as red, green, blue, and yellow,"...
, a Vietnamese city, to clear it of Viet Cong and snipers. Kubrick had the whole gasworks selectively demolished and then the art department dressed the 'set' with latticework and appropriate advertising hoardings to make it believable. At one point the soldiers enter a building to flush out a sniper. This building was one several, located between the central buildings of the old gas works and about 200 yards from the river Thames. The final scene sees the soldiers marching off into the (London) sunset against the silhouettes of the burning old gas works' smoke stacks and buildings, singing the Mickey Mouse march music. In the film a period of several days takes place in the protagonist's lives as they travel through the industrial quarters of Huế city; in reality the action took place within just one square mile.
British pop/rock trio The Outfield
The Outfield
The Outfield are an arena rock-influenced English pop rock/power pop power trio based in London, England. The Outfield are unusual for a British band in that they enjoyed commercial success in the U.S., but never reached the album or singles charts in their homeland...
filmed multiple sequences for the video to the band's 1987 hit "Since You've Been Gone", from their album Bangin'
Bangin'
Bangin' is an album by British band The Outfield, which yielded one Top 40 hit, "Since You've Been Gone" . The Album also contained two other singles "No Surrender" and "Bangin' on My Heart"...
, at the Beckton Gas Works.
The video for Loop
Loop (band)
Loop was a South London band founded in 1986 by Robert Hampson and his wife, Bex, and active until 1991.-Career:The band was formed in 1986 by Robert Hampson , with wife Bex on drums. Bex was soon replaced by John Wills and Glen Ray, with James Endeacott on guitar...
's 1990 single Arc-lite was filmed on the set of Full Metal Jacket. The gasworks was used as the main background scene for the Oasis
Oasis (band)
Oasis were an English rock band formed in Manchester in 1991. Originally known as The Rain, the group was formed by Liam Gallagher , Paul "Bonehead" Arthurs , Paul "Guigsy" McGuigan and Tony McCarroll , who were soon joined by Liam's older brother Noel Gallagher...
video D'You Know What I Mean?
D'You Know What I Mean?
"D'You Know What I Mean?" is a song by the English rock band Oasis. Written by Noel Gallagher, it was released as the first single from their third album Be Here Now. It reached number one in the UK Singles Chart, the third Oasis song to do so. It sold 162,000 copies in its first day in the shops...
, as it shows the band members playing on a concrete slab within the gasworks facility. The videoclip for Marcella Detroit
Marcella Detroit
Marcella Detroit is a vocalist, guitarist, and songwriter. She was a member of the band Shakespears Sister, along with Siobhan Fahey of Bananarama. Detroit's soprano voice provided lead vocals on their biggest hit, "Stay," which was No...
's 1994 single I Believe
I Believe (Marcella Detroit song)
"I Believe" is a single released by singer Marcella Detroit, released shortly after the breakup of English based duo Shakespears Sister. It was the lead single off her successful album Jewel. Released in March 1994, the ballad became her biggest hit, peaking at No. 11 in the UK, spending eight...
was shot in this location. Also, the 1995 TV series Bugs
Bugs (TV series)
Bugs was a British television drama series which ran for four series from April 1995 to August 1999. The programme, a mixture of action/adventure and science-fiction, involved a team of specialist independent crime-fighting technology experts, who faced a variety of threats based around computers...
episode Out Of The Hive shows the whole facility at a scene where a car drives off an unfinished bridge in flames.
Derek Jarman
Derek Jarman
Michael Derek Elworthy Jarman was an English film director, stage designer, diarist, artist, gardener and author.-Life:...
's 1986 promotional video for The Smiths 'The Queen is Dead' single was partly shot at Beckton Gasworks.
Present
Virtually no trace of the old gasworks now exists. Bisected by many roads, including the A1020 Royal Docks Road, a small area of the waste tip and some gas holders remain, separated by a mile or so of redevelopment. Parts of the site are occupied by an industrial estate, the Beckton Retail Park and Gallions Reach Shopping Park.Part of the extensive industrial railway
Industrial railway
An industrial railway is a type of railway that is not available for public transportation and is used exclusively to serve a particular industrial, logistics or military site...
route has since been used for the Docklands Light Railway
Docklands Light Railway
The Docklands Light Railway is an automated light metro or light rail system opened on 31 August 1987 to serve the redeveloped Docklands area of London...
between Beckton DLR station
Beckton DLR station
Beckton DLR station is the eastern terminus of the Beckton branch of the Docklands Light Railway in the Docklands area of east London. It is located in Travelcard Zone 3. The DLR branch from Poplar was opened on 28 March 1994...
and the Royal Docks Road. The site also houses the Beckton DLR depot
Beckton DLR depot
Beckton Traincare Depot is the primary railway maintenance depot for the Docklands Light Railway.Before its construction, Poplar DLR depot was the primary maintenace depot...
.
See also
- East Greenwich Gas WorksEast Greenwich Gas WorksThe East Greenwich Gas Works of the South Metropolitan Gas Company was the last gas works to be built in London, and the most modern. Originally manufacturing town gas from coal brought in by river and exporting coke and chemicals, the plant was adapted to produce gas from oil in the 1960s...
- Southall Gas WorksSouthall Gas WorksSouthall Gas Works is a site of around in Southall, west London, formerly occupied by a plant for the manufacture of town gas. Today a much reduced site is used for the pressure reduction and storage of natural gas and the remainder of the site is the subject of planning proposals.-Location:The...
- Imperial Gas Works, Fulham
- Nine Elms Gas Works
External links
- Powering the City (Port Cities: London)