I'm another old spotter that used to love to visit the Queen's Building in the 70's. It was just a 5 pence bus journey on the 285 from New Malden.
My brother and I shared a pair of broken binoculars; we had a one half each of some old german pair. So a monocular each I suppose! We took a Sandwich with us and spent many a happy day watching the Tridents, VC-10s and even Concordes.
Oh yes, and underlining the regs in Civil Aircraft Markings books, whilst listening to ATC on an old Sharp Airband Radio. ( Still have it and it still works )
What a shame that today's kids have nothing like this now!