Originally Posted by
pax britanica
As ahs been pointed out seevral of these entities were not BEA alone . IAL was a company i knew well from their Gulf telecoms activities (I worked for Cable and Wireless a competitotr in that region . IALran Abu Dhabi telecoms and C&W Dubai telecoms so that had to be sorted out when the Emirates states was formed. My future wife was secretary to the boss at IAL for a time and she lived on the 'other' airways housing cheme estate off Cranford Lane opposite where the BOAC sports club and Fairey Aviation were . I think that was a partial JV with Hounslow council although like the Stanwell estate all the names were aviation related, Brabazon Rd Bleriot Rd etc . Very different to todays ghettos , mostly private developemnts now , Both estates had low density housing compared to today with most properties having decent sized gardens and all houses set well back from the roads and big green expanses seperating different areas . Especially among the mums in Stanwell there were a good few distinctly non West London accents mostly Dorset (Bournemouth/Hurn) and 'Brissol ' as BOAC had its wartime and immediate postwar activities located in those parts . BEA of course were in Northolt hence the HO in Ruislip.
I had several friends on the Stanwell estate ( l lived in the village , always emphasis on that word) and its maze like structure was perfect for early teens lads racing bikes around for hours at a time trying to catch or evade your mates. Also had a nice recreation ground tennis courts and possibly a bowling green plus a social club which was the scene of my earliest adventures with the opposite sex . Easy to criticise these things as 'typical nationalised industries but compare them to the shabby way people are treated nowadays. I dont know what happened to all the 'Airways Estate ' properties in Stanwell as I moved away in 1977 but no doubt most were sold off and like Cranford a lot of infill additional housing added it all being far too socialist for a lady who didnt believe in Society . (now there was a comment/idea whose consequences we suffer today)
As previously stated the properties were passed to "Airways Housing Society" which continued until the late 1990s still offering properties to rent and buy [via shared ownership, so letting staff on lower incomes get on the property ladder] when it was sold off by BA to a separate housing society that is still in existence. The problem that most housing societies have nowadays, is that they are obliged by law to offer even properties that were previously only rented out, to be purchased by the tenant if they express a desire to buy the property and can raise the funds. This has meant many housing societies have had to sell off a lot of their properties.
The airline also owned a Hostel in Cranford that used to house hundreds of both Engineering and General airline apprentices which was in existence until the late 1980s early 1990s when they started winding down their apprenticeship schemes and no longer needed the facility. It had also for a time, been used to house a large number of Metropolitan Police cadets while they trained, whilst also still being used by BA. The Hostel site was sold off in the 1990s [when BA was selling everything off] and for a while was used to house asylum seekers and homeless people [whole families to a room that used to house one apprentice!] until that was shut down. The site is now a 4* boutique hotel [The Heston Hyde Hotel]