Pre-war there were few hard runways, aircraft were still around which had not been designed for this, for example still having only a tail skid, not a tail wheel, and didn't have the wheel loading that necessitated hard runways, which only really came with WW2 4-engined bombers. Furthermore, cross-wind performance was poor (almost non-existent for some), so a large open grass area, and a wind indicator visible from aloft, was necessary to always land into wind.
Gatwick, like Croydon, in the 1930s was grass only, but suffered from winter waterlogging to the extent that (the pre-war) British Airways, who had transferred there when the new Beehive satellite terminal opened, moved on again after the first winter to Heston. I read recently that the underground passage at "old" Gatwick from the Beehive to the railway station terminal (which was to the south of the current station), although still present, was waterlogged, and could only be passed through with waders. Clearly the drainage there was inadequate.
Croydon had a pioneer "runway", though done for takeoff, it was marked out on the grass each day, into wind, with white lines like a sports field, and was done to give direction for pilots in low visibility departures.
Last edited by WHBM; 23rd Jan 2023 at 20:13.