Bromley Borough Local History Society

Croydon Airport

Croydon Airport Tour - Saturday 12th August 2023

Although it more than 60 years since the last plane took off, the area a mile and a half south west of Croydon still retains the name "Croydon Airport", not least because of the historic buildings that remain and the enthusiasm of the volunteers who run the museum.

Twenty BBLHS members and friends were given a special tour by three of the volunteers and our thanks go to Norman, Chris and Tony for sharing their knowledge and enthusiasm with us that afternoon.

Click on an individual picture to see a larger image.

You can use the small arrow on either side to move through the pictures.

Some of the pictures were in glass covered frames and reflections could not be avoided.

Croydon Airport terminal building looking much as it did when opened in 1928 as seen from Purley Way. The aircraft is a 14 seat De Havilland Heron similar to the last plane ever to take off from Croydon.
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At the rear of the main building is the control tower and what would have been the standing area for aircraft, now a car park. The upper story was originally a free viewing area but became offices as the airport expanded.
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Near the entrance is one of the few other remaining original buildings. This was the security office which also included two cells for unruly passengers, or those detained by Customs.
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Adjacent to the main building entrance are these two plaques, the lower commemorating the opening in 1928 by Lady Maud Hoare, wife of the air minister and herself an intrepid traveller.
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Inside the terminal building is the booking hall, seen here in 1929. The hall is much as it was then, with a large glass dome letting in plenty of light. At night, its illumination was a handy guide for incoming pilots.
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Little changed in appearance, leading off the booking hall is what was the world's first air-mail post office. Letters delivered here could, for a small fee, then be sent on to their foreign destination.
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This letter from Imperial Airways to a customer in Tunbridge Wells mentions the sale of the once familiar light-weight blue airmail envelopes and their forthcoming, widespread adoption.
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Although there were no Red or Green channels, His Majesty's Customs still had be satisfied over what was in your luggage. Not only was it weighed, so were the passengers and they were then seated in a way that best suited the stability of the aircraft.
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Some members of BBLHS gather round a scale model of the civil airport at its greatest extent in the 1930s to hear more from the guide.
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Another view of the new airport showing both the passenger reception building and the various workshops for maintaining and repairing the aircraft.
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A photograph of the original airport before the improvements in 1928 when it was resited to the east.
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Some examples of the various planes using the airport during the 1930s. At the bottom can be seen a model train as many journeys were combined with rail travel in order to reach a destination.
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Part of a mural created in 1953 to mark the opening of Heathrow Airport (and effectively the end of Croydon). It shows the development of passenger aircraft and their crew over time. The other half of this mural is at Heathrow.
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One of the many original artefacts on display, the symbol of Imperial Airways . This was formed in 1924 and was subsumed into the new British Overseas Airways Corporatin (BOAC) in 1939.
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The Imperial Airways route map to India. It includes mention of flying boats which were often a preferred alternative as they were larger and more comfortable. However, they would have left from Southampton.
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An advertisement for the airline and its fuel supplier. One reason for the many stops en route was the limited fuel capacity of aircraft and arranging the supply of petrol to remote staging points was always a problem.
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Harry Beck is well known today as the originator of the iconic London Underground map. He also turned his attention to airlines, but perhaps with less success. It should be noted that not only does the diagram include routes but frequency of flight as well.
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Traffic control in 1928. A picture taken in the then new Control Tower showing early electronic equipment for tracking the movement of planes. The tower and direction finding aerials at each corner can be seen in the second photo above.
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The same area today in the Control tower with some of the old equipment which has been rescued and restored.
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A model of an Imperial Airways Handley Page 42 plane now in the Control tower. Although an important componant of the fleet, they were not reliable and all had been withdrawn by 1940. On the left can be seen a spiral staircase, the original access route to the top of the building.
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Another poster, produced in 1930 for Dunlop (whose name is just visible on the tyre). Note, the airport building is only two storeys high.
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Just to the north of the passenger terminal was the Aerodrome Hotel. It remains to this day, although the somewhat precarious iron stair has been removed and the top gallery replaced with a new storey.
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Since the airport was some distance from a main line railway station, and the passengers invariable wealthy (either with their own or Government bank accounts), it was common to arrive by road from London. Many travelleres stayed beforehand at the Hotel Victoria in Buckingham Palace Road from where these vehicles are departing.
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Passengers were mainly commercial, military or political with the leisured classes only permitted if there was space. In what role Winston and Clementine Churchill were travelling is uncertain, but this would have been sometime after 1931.
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