First the taxi to the runway seemed to go along a cliff edge. The aircraft stopped short of the runway waiting for a landing aircraft. From my window seat I could see a huge factory in the valley way below and remember thinking that I would not feel safe working there.
Sounds like you took off to the East, runway 08. Yes, it's a steep drop down to the Vauxhall factory - still going, rather smaller than in the 70s, these days building only vans.