Urban Design Project at Beckton Gas Works. The design was based upon the large amount of film that was shot on location here in the 80s and 90s - most notably Stanley Kubrick's Full Metal Jacket, 1984 film based on Orwell's novel, Bond film For Your Eyes Only, and a couple of notable music videos including The Smiths and Oasis. The result was a series of visual based follies and installations throughout what remains of the site. Below is a selection of images from the final presentation.
Some early drawings
Comparing maps of the site as it was in the 80s (below left) to map of Hue city in Vietnam - the city that Kubrick was trying to represent in FMJ. Surprisingly similar.
Overlying maps - including military attack maps. There are dozens of these.
The 'Masterplan'
Visual Installation 1
Visual Installation 2 - Room 101
View Finders
Hi Struan! I just found your map after doing a google image search for Beckton gasworks, as I was planning to write a blog post about Kubrick's choice of site for FMJ. I lived in Hue for nearly two years, and will be returning there next week for Tet holiday (it's my wife's home city).
ReplyDeleteThis is a very pleasant, serendipiditous find, and I hope that it likewise finds you well. Thank you for sharing this, I've already made some overlay maps of Hue city (incidentally, using the same US ordnance survey map you used above), but was planning on doing a Beckton-Hue overlay... I may now just use your one!
I'll let you know how I get on...
Joey
(fellow Greenwich alumnus)