In my early growing up days we lived under a mile as the crow flys from Croydon Airport and my dad would often take me there on the crossbar of his roadster bike. The crowds when an aircraft came in or took off were all over the place and I believe Cobham came in one day and welcomed by a frenzied crowd.
I used my dad's bike after he was called up to go Croydon when the RAF moved in and ventured to stand on the same crossbar to look over the fence in Stafford Road. As the BoB broke out in July, I there then but was swiftly, without ceremony, sent home by the police. So I watched a lot of what was going above our heads from my back garden.
Croydon was a VERY exciting place of course.