Heathrow - 1950's
Reference has been made earlier to my 1956 photo of Heathrow which I have now copied here:
This shows the layout in June 1956 taken from 10,000ft looking east. The newly completed Europa Building, later Terminal 2 is in the centre island, whilst alongside it the Oceanic Terminal; later Terminal 3 is under construction. In 1956 until at least 1960 transatlantic traffic departed from the North Terminal alongside the A4. (I saw a friend off who flew PanAm to Baltimore from the north terminal in early 1960).
The Bath Road (A4) shows up on the left as the dark strip running top to bottom parallel with the north main taxiway & runway. In 1956 the M4 was but a gleam in the planner’s eye - the London bit of the M4 westwards opened nine years later in 1965.
On the right the A30 (the lighter of the two darkish strips) wends its way through the (then) rural delights of Middlesex towards Hounslow and London. Straight ahead and beyond the airfield boundary, just beneath the cloud line the A312 can be seen running left to right.
The pre-war map in post # 5 shows the adjacent roads layout.
Three years earlier on 8th October 1953 I visited London Heathrow to watch the start of the London to Christchurch (New Zealand) air race and took the following photo which shows one of the competitors, the first licence-built Royal Australian Air Force Canberra serial number A84-201.
Interestingly the background shows the girders for the new ‘Europa Building’, which was actually the first true terminal building and was opened by the Queen two years later in 1955. The higher girders outline what I think is the ATC control tower under construction.
