The Beckton 'Alps' are an extensive toxic spoil-heap from the Gasworks which was landscaped and cleaned up in the 1980s. Part became a 25 metres (82 ft) high dry-ski-slope for a time, opened by Diana, Princess of Wales, with a viewing platform at the summit and a Swiss-style bar at the foot. However, the site is now derelict.  Andrew Leaney of the OFC did ski here at one time!

The Gasworks were still extant — although derelict — in the early 1980s, when Stanley Kubrick's team came scouting for an area that could double for the battle scenes in his 1987 movie, Full Metal Jacket. The Gasworks rough concrete structures were painted with Vietnamese script, and then strategically dynamited so as to resemble war-torn Hue. Retail parks now cover most of the Gasworks site.

Other notable movies filmed in and around the Beckton area during the 1980s included the 1981 James Bond film, For Your Eyes Only, which featured extensive aerial views of the Gasworks in the pre-credit sequence. Beckton was also used as a location in Michael Radford's 1984 feature film adaptation of George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four — the Gasworks served as the setting for Orwell's "Proletarian Zones".

Later in the day I cycled south round the docks passing through North Woolwich and Silvertown, site of the famous 'Silvertown Explosion '.  I turned for home after visiting the London City Airport .  I hope you agree that urban landscapes can sometimes be as interesting as the rural even if you don't like football!

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