Heathrow Engineering Hangars

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

I am trying to recall the layout of the Engineering Base at LHR.
Anyone know more about TBB and TBD? Am I about right?

TBA BOAC 4 x Hangar bays and sim hall still active.
TBB BOAC Britannia / VC10 wing hangar, demolished? Is that what the story below refers to?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/airport-blast-gives-rude-awakening-1260821.html

TBC BOAC offices still is use.
TBD BEA hangars by Cathedral? One bay demolished early 2000s?
TBE BEA Cathedral hangar still in use.
TBJ/TBK BOAC B747 hangars
TBN ex bmi hangar (also described as TBD?)

google was not my friend on this.

[DaveReidUK]

I am trying to recall the layout of the Engineering Base at LHR.
Anyone know more about TBB and TBD? Am I about right?

TBA BOAC 4 x Hangar bays and sim hall still active.
TBB BOAC Britannia / VC10 wing hangar, demolished? Is that what the story below refers to?
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/airport-blast-gives-rude-awakening-1260821.html

TBC BOAC offices still is use.
TBD BEA hangars by Cathedral? One bay demolished early 2000s?
TBE BEA Cathedral hangar still in use.
TBJ/TBK BOAC B747 hangars
TBN ex bmi hangar (also described as TBD?)

google was not my friend on this.

That's substantially correct.

TBB was on the south side of what is now Envoy Road (currently a huge car park).

The original TBD (aka "East Hangar" or Bays 11-20, including workshope, engine test cell, etc in BEA days) was on the site of the current blast pen (you can still see the footprint of the building on GE). The designator TBD was later recycled for. I think, the BMI hangar.

TBE (aka "West Hangar" or Bays 1-10) is indeed the one to which the Cathedral hangar was bolted on (losing access to Bay 1 in the process). Bays 6-10 have been demolished together with the offices above. I have a feeling that what's left - the bit visible from the CTA - may be listed, which is perhaps why it still survives.

Other notable buildings to have vanished over the years include Speedbird House, Comet House, Viscount House (and extension) and, most importantly, the Runway and Hatton Cross canteens (I assume the one inside TBA survives).

[Jhieminga]

Does this help? Layout as it was around 2000 AFAIK. Image courtesy of Maurice Ungless.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/989x693/lhr_maint_2000ish_09c9cd957ae5cc45ad3ccc20dc7e4b8ef1872f78.j pg

[GeeRam]

Does this help? Layout as it was around 2000 AFAIK. Image courtesy of Maurice Ungless.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/989x693/lhr_maint_2000ish_09c9cd957ae5cc45ad3ccc20dc7e4b8ef1872f78.j pg

TBB had already gone before 2000 (as per that link in OP about demolition blast of the hanger) and the re-routed east peri road around TBA and the new E2 car park etc, were certainly in place by 2000/1, as many people that were working in the T5 design offices at WBC in 2001 had E2 passes.

[ETOPS]

And don't forget the unofficial "Tiger Moth House" which was one of the wooden huts used by IM in the 1980s. You can see them on the plan just North of the TA1 TA2 parking spots - now a small industrial estate.

[TURIN]

There was also a TBF. I can't remember if that was the Engine Test Cell or something else. There was a makeshift composite/fibreglass repair facility near where the pass office building is now, opposite TBK. Was that TBF?

The ex BMI hangar is now TBN. Was used for engineering training but most of that has been moved to TBC along with classroom crew training in the 'Academy'. Engineering offices are also up in TBC.

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

Does this help? Layout as it was around 2000 AFAIK. Image courtesy of Maurice Ungless.
https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/989x693/lhr_maint_2000ish_09c9cd957ae5cc45ad3ccc20dc7e4b8ef1872f78.j pg
Brilliant, thanks so much all!

[Jhieminga]

The date for that image may well be wrong, the person who shared it with me guessed early 2000s. Based on my own recollection from that time, TBB was indeed gone by 1999, but TBD was still there. It had a Trident parked outside back then (the short-wing special that later moved to Manchester).

[DaveReidUK]

The date for that image may well be wrong, the person who shared it with me guessed early 2000s. Based on my own recollection from that time, TBB was indeed gone by 1999, but TBD was still there. It had a Trident parked outside back then (the short-wing special that later moved to Manchester).

GE shows TBD still there in the January 2006 imagery, but gone by March 2008. The same period saw the demolition of most of the other buildings on the West Base.

TBD's removal must have left a huge hole to be filled, because below ground level there was a gallery running the entire length of the building. In my time there it seemed to be used mainly for storing spare engines and for important stuff like my overall locker.

[pax britanica]

Wow brings back some memories this question

BEA Childrens Xmas parties at the old Runway canteen , Santa disembarking from a parked Viscount. Also father in laws retirement party in same location.
Wife workd in the BEA multi story office block-top floor on the 28R (as it was ) threshold corner-fantastic views. Then she moved over to 'the enemy' BOAC , although it was all BA by then the rivalry was still entrenched and worked as one of the Speedbird London HF/SSB operators in their tiny location at the top of TBA -better known as the Kremlin- if my memory is correct. With all the outsourcing of work down to Cardiff and other progress that part of the airport has changed a lot but some of the old hangars from BOAC days will have seen everything from Britannia's and 7Cs to Concorde and Triple 7s and no doubt 78s too by now.

[DaveReidUK]

Wife workd in the BEA multi story office block-top floor on the 28R (as it was ) threshold corner-fantastic views.

I can't recall any BEA building in that location (maybe before my time?).

[pax britanica]

Hello Mr Reid

The building my beeter half worked in was 5 or 6 stories high so it really stood out on the airport especially as it was not that far from the southern runway but obviously all legal etc. I was an onlong office block with relatively small windows and if you recall where the original BEA Engineering base hangars were it was sort of grafted on to the eastern end of the second row of those hangars . . I have tried to find a link to a suitable pic without success although if you Google images for BEA hangars there is a picture of a Vanguard with the Bea base in the background which clearly shows the office block. I have a feeling it is gone now-my wife moaning about her past being eradicated.
For someone like me who grew up literally next door to LHR and who remembers -not clearly admittedly the extension of the southern runway , the Beacon, and the changes to the terminals its sad but of course they were necessary , a background to my life for many years watching it change as i grew up and being a very regular user as a grown up lol. I can hardly think of anything left from that era other than some of the hangars under discussion altho the old MT base on the north side by the Bath road , may still be there actually, must be one of the few original buildings along with some of the huts and prefabs just to the north of the BA ( BOAC ) base

[pax britanica]

Hello Mr Reid

The building my beeter half worked in was 5 or 6 stories high so it really stood out on the airport especially as it was not that far from the southern runway but obviously all legal etc. I was an onlong office block with relatively small windows and if you recall where the original BEA Engineering base hangars were it was sort of grafted on to the eastern end of the second row of those hangars . . I have tried to find a link to a suitable pic without success although if you Google images for BEA hangars there is a picture of a Vanguard with the Bea base in the background which clearly shows the office block. I have a feeling it is gone now-my wife moaning about her past being eradicated.
For someone like me who grew up literally next door to LHR and who remembers -not clearly admittedly the extension of the southern runway , the Beacon, and the changes to the terminals its sad but of course they were necessary , a background to my life for many years watching it change as i grew up and being a very regular user as a grown up lol. I can hardly think of anything left from that era other than some of the hangars under discussion altho the old MT base on the north side by the Bath road , may still be there actually, must be one of the few original buildings along with some of the huts and prefabs just to the north of the BA ( BOAC ) base

[DaveReidUK]

The building my better half worked in was 5 or 6 stories high so it really stood out on the airport especially as it was not that far from the southern runway but obviously all legal etc.

Ah, you mean Viscount House!

It was indeed 5 stories high, IIRC. I can't remember much after all this time, but I do recall that the Engineering library was on the ground floor. On the top floors were the development engineers, mods section, drawing office, etc. I briefly worked on the 4th floor, right at the end of my time at BA.

Oh, and it had a Paternoster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift)!

It was your reference to the 28R threshold that had me fooled ... :O


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/536x530/viscount_house_7569e240b6ccd5386c2ce6bcd5725e71e6cd4c52.jpg

[pax britanica]

Dave

I spent so much time deliberating whether to refer to it as 28 as it was or 27 as it and of course got the important bit wrong.
It was indeed Viscount house and Mrs PB worked on the 5th floor-senior managers with tea in nicer cups , the guy she worked for handled facilities issues like jet mufflers, gantries and other specialised equipment.
Her co worker came in ashen faced one day to admit she had collided with Tri-Star while parking-they were allowed to park beneath them to some extent- of course a small car hitting a main wheel tire on a Tristar isnt going to do anything to the tristar but it didn't do her car any good- and as for 'other vehicle details' on her insurance claim well....A lot of people worked at the BA bases back in the day I am sure its much smaller operation numbers wise now . My wife got paid alot more at Speedbird London but it was housed ina tiny windowless room whereas she had a view of the airport as good as anyone in Viscount house and rather missed that

[Local Variation]

Our Airport site office was the first floor of the building directly above TA4 in Epsom Square on that map.

BA used to park their 747s nose in at TA4. Being on the first floor, you could open the window and fell like you could stretch and touch them at cockpit level, such was the close proximity.

T'was a noisy place to work, being near the threshold. Never got used to it and it was constant.

I recall a rare Concorde easterly departure off the northern runway that shook our building to the point our fillings fell out along with the windows. There used to be a greasy spoon van round the corner on the Eastern Perimeter Rd who served the best bacon butties ever.

Happy memories.

[Webby737]

Ah, you mean Viscount House!

It was indeed 5 stories high, IIRC. I can't remember much after all this time, but I do recall that the Engineering library was on the ground floor. On the top floors were the development engineers, mods section, drawing office, etc. I briefly worked on the 4th floor, right at the end of my time at BA.

Oh, and it had a Paternoster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift)!

It was your reference to the 28R threshold that had me fooled ... :O


https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/536x530/viscount_house_7569e240b6ccd5386c2ce6bcd5725e71e6cd4c52.jpg
I just about remember Viscount House, your mention of the Paternoster lift is what jogged my memory.
As appentices we were taken to the library and told to help ourselves as the building was being emptied, this much have been around 1993 - 1994.
I've no idea when they demolished the building as I transferred down to LGW not long afterwards.
I still have the books !

[Doors To Manuel]

I used to pace these buildings and always reckoned that the indoor journey from Comet House through Speedbird House and to the end of TBC (Reservations, Customer Relations and multi-storey) all on, I think, the 2nd floor, just had to be the longest indoor walkway in the UK....if not in Europe. It could take 15-20 mins.
Not many people know that!
Secrets? Speedbird House had a small 'powder room' with a lovely sofa that was put there on the occasion of a visit by Princess Diana just in case she needed a pee. Another office had inside locks on the door and a peep-hole outwards for reasons that I shall not comment on. Finally, a couple of young lads who started in Res in the 70s and had no accommodation, stashed their rucksacks and sleeping bags in a Comet House cleaners closet and lived on site for about 3 months.
If only these walls could talk.

[MAC 40612]

Viscount House and Viscount House annex also used you house part of Engineering training and I went through a number of courses there in the 1980s and 1990s. The whole lot was flattened along with TBD to make way for all the parking stands on that side of the base. TBD was quite a challenge, as anyone who worked there would tell you, it wasn't just a hangar complex but a whole labyrinth of passageways, stores areas, changing rooms etc all below floor level, in fact when you first entered from the landside/car park you immediately went down a few flights of stairs to be able to be able to go to any of the hangar bays, which you then had to access by climbing up stairs to get to the ground floor level.

Getting back to Viscount House annex, the Paternoster used to have signs on the top floor landing used to have signs to get off on the top floor and not to ride it "over the top" something to do with overloading I seem to remember. The favourite trick of of some Engineering staff was to ride it over the top and do a handstand so it looked as if they had been flipped upside down by going all the way over the top..

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/698x310/image_2020_11_24_230050_27585673e9d50784b5fc0aaec57fdb62c64e 179d.png

[ChrisVJ]

A bit before this time, I think. My grandfather's business, quantity surveyors, had an office in a prefab on the South side of the airport until about 1954. He was very social and probably got most of his business through "Days at the races" and gambling parties at our house.

My fifth birthday party was held in the Nissen hut that was the airport restaurant. We got a tour round the Comet which was the newest thing and then some bonfires out at the end of the airport near the resevoirs.

When I was at home he took me to his office on Friday mornings, Putney to the Airport, an hour reading while he did some work, small writing on big ledger sheets, and then we would go to the Restaurant for lunch. They had an Hors d'oeuvres trolley with rotating layers that was a favourite and then fried fillet of plaice with chips and peas as I was too nervous to order anything else! (Six years old!) (I notice MS Office spelling does not include Hors d'oeuvres!)

[Skipness One Foxtrot]

So is the massive loss of hangar capacity a function of modern aircraft needing much less engineering support? Or is a lot more A320 maintenance now with Iberia?

[DaveReidUK]

the old MT base on the north side by the Bath road , may still be there actually, must be one of the few original buildings

The MT base is long gone, demolished to accommodate yet another car park.

When I used to work in the Central Area, we would often pile in a van at lunchtime and head through the tunnel to the MT canteen, which was one of the better ones. Any day except Wednesday - which was always curry day in the T3 staff restaurant. :O

[happybiker]

Agghhh the runway canteen, happy memories of the summer in 1970 sitting on the grass outside after lunch watching, if you were lucky, the Pan Am and TWA 747s staggering into the air defying the laws of gravity. IIRC the Pioneer club occupied a small portion of the runway canteen building and was open certain nights for social events, and it was open at lunch time on Fridays only. On Saturday nights the Pioneer Club would expand into the canteen area for dancing with live bands and I recall Joe Loss and orchestra playing there on occasions. I worked for a time behind the bar and it was very busy indeed on the nights of the dances. After clearing up on a Saturday it was an early breakfast at 1 a.m in the canteen before returning home and retiring to bed! Happy days.

[DaveReidUK]

The Pionair Club (the odd name came from BEA's Dakota fleet) was where I had my farewell p*ss-up.

https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1024x768/pionair_drawing_1024x768_b0ad11f61116c2fb7ed6fdd715963ad2d39 091cb.jpg

Memories of egg and chips at 3 am in the Runway canteen when on night shift ...

[GeeRam]

Ah, you mean Viscount House!

It was indeed 5 stories high, IIRC. I can't remember much after all this time, but I do recall that the Engineering library was on the ground floor. On the top floors were the development engineers, mods section, drawing office, etc. I briefly worked on the 4th floor, right at the end of my time at BA.

Oh, and it had a Paternoster (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paternoster_lift)!


I remember using the Paternoster as a teenager....
But can't remember whether it was during a visit for one of the many interview/apptitude test's I had for Eng Apprentice application in early 1980, or another visit arranged by one of two Uncle's that worked there during the 1960's/70's...?
Pretty sure it was the former?

[MAC 40612]

I remember using the Paternoster as a teenager....
But can't remember whether it was during a visit for one of the many interview/apptitude test's I had for Eng Apprentice application in early 1980, or another visit arranged by one of two Uncle's that worked there during the 1960's/70's...?
Pretty sure it was the former?

The Paternoster was still in use right up until the building closed. It was still there in the 1990s when I attended Engineering courses

[MAC 40612]

So is the massive loss of hangar capacity a function of modern aircraft needing much less engineering support? Or is a lot more A320 maintenance now with Iberia?

Yes, BA lost a lot of engineering hangar space at Heathrow but some of it was moved elsewhere in the UK. For example all the Long haul fleets inter/major checks [on Boeing 747/767/777 and 787] ended up at BAMC in Cardiff, while the short haul major line went to BAMG at Glasgow airport. Incidentally, the Glasgow shorthaul line has one of the top industry downtime records with check times often better than industry standard.

Virtually none of the A320s go over for IB to do. One exception recently was when BA introduced new seats and removed one of the rear toilets, the wanted the new seating configuration introduced across the fleet in a very short time and Glasgow just didn't have enough spare capacity on top of all the normal checks to do all those, so a number went out to Spain for the new seating. Glasgow could easily expand but are constrained by the lack of extra hangar space, so new ones would need to be built and I would suspect at the moment building hangars is not high on BA priorities.

The fact that many of the major overhaul lines went elsewhere meant BA could lose hangar capacity at LHR as an aircraft on a major check ties up a bay for a long period while the majority of the work carried out at LHR now is only the type that ties-up a bay for a day or two.

[EyesToTheSkies]

Where was the runway canteen and Hatton Cross canteen? I attended an interview in '92 for a 1 year industrial placement with BA. I remember they took us to lunch somewhere (ground floor) that was near the holding point for one of the runways. Was it somewhere near Viscount House? I also remember the interview being on the top floor of a hangar, overlooking the bays with 747s. Could this only have been TBJ/TBK for 747s? An excellent book I can recommend is "Heathrow: From Tents to Terminal 5" by Ian Anderson. It focusses mainly on the buildings rather than the aircraft of Heathrow.

[MAC 40612]

Where was the runway canteen and Hatton Cross canteen? I attended an interview in '92 for a 1 year industrial placement with BA. I remember they took us to lunch somewhere (ground floor) that was near the holding point for one of the runways. Was it somewhere near Viscount House? I also remember the interview being on the top floor of a hangar, overlooking the bays with 747s. Could this only have been TBJ/TBK for 747s? An excellent book I can recommend is "Heathrow: From Tents to Terminal 5" by Ian Anderson. It focuses mainly on the buildings rather than the aircraft of Heathrow.

The Runway canteen was the one on the Threshold of 28L, later 27L in the area as circled in the photo below. There was a small garden/green area out the front of the canteen you could get an even better view from, as long as you had earplugs :) [Note the Concorde obviously wasn't there at that point!] The Hatton Cross club/canteen was in the patch of at the end of Viscount Way on the other side of the road to the Barclay's Bank at Hatton Cross.

You are correct that offices with a view down into the Boeing 747 bays would probably have been in TBJ. If it was an office above TBK you would only have seen one bay as the other bay [Bay3] was a paint bay and the windows were blanked off.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1178x810/image_2020_11_25_221357_f271d0b08cc6663a2114a3d162fdb6f065ff aad2.png

[Jhieminga]

Is the BA club next to the Hatton Cross roundabout still there? I had a few late nights there in my time... I seem to recall that there was a warship mural somewhere in the entrance to the club, does anyone know which warship? All the BEA Vickers Vanguards had a depiction of the ship that they were named after somewhere in the aircraft and I think that the one at the Hatton Cross club may have been one of these.

[DaveReidUK]

Is the BA club next to the Hatton Cross roundabout still there? I had a few late nights there in my time... I seem to recall that there was a warship mural somewhere in the entrance to the club, does anyone know which warship? All the BEA Vickers Vanguards had a depiction of the ship that they were named after somewhere in the aircraft and I think that the one at the Hatton Cross club may have been one of these.

There was a Vanguard Club, but that was on the northside of the airport. I don't remember a social club at Hatton Cross, only the canteen.

[sandringham1]

I was a BOAC Engineering apprentice starting in 1968 and the combined apprentice school for both BEA and BOAC was housed in workshops on the ground floor of Viscount House, in wooded huts on the apron nearby and in classrooms wherever a spare office could be found in TBE, the following year all apprentice training moved to Cranebank.
We would all go to the Runway Canteen at lunchtime and in the summer head off across the grass, no fence then, towards the 27L holding point and sit with our backs to a little brick building watching the airliners, I remember most was the BKS Brittania that always taxied out with the main passenger doors wide open until the last minute before take off.
The Vanguard club was northside and the Hatton cross club in Viscount Way.

[NutLoose]

1955

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Heathrow_Airport#/media/File:Aerial_photograph_of_Heathrow_Airport,_1955.jpg

[NutLoose]

https://www.pprune.org/aviation-history-nostalgia/449529-heathrow-2000-years-history-2.html

[DaveReidUK]

The Vanguard club was northside and the Hatton cross club in Viscount Way.

Fair enough. It may be that the latter had closed by the time I was let loose on real aircraft in what was then the "East Hangar" in 1972.

Was the Hatton Cross Club upstairs on the first floor, adjoining the restaurant (with its wonderful view of the roundabout and Barclays Bank :O), or was there a separate space downstairs on the ground floor?

Still seems a bit odd, BEA having two social clubs at opposite ends of Viscount Way, less than half a mile apart.

[MAC 40612]

Fair enough. It may be that the latter had closed by the time I was let loose on real aircraft in what was then the "East Hangar" in 1972.

Was the Hatton Cross Club upstairs on the first floor, adjoining the restaurant (with its wonderful view of the roundabout and Barclays Bank :O), or was there a separate space downstairs on the ground floor?

Still seems a bit odd, BEA having two social clubs at opposite ends of Viscount Way, less than half a mile apart.

The Hatton Cross Club was indeed the one upstairs at the Hatton Cross roundabout. Downstairs, at various times was the IT department, Staff travel offices and around the back was the BA Clubs Gardening society that used to sell things like bags of compost!. The Hatton Cross Club lasted until the building was torn down sometime in the late 1990s early 2000s from memory. By that time the Runway canteen and the small club adjoining that had already gone. Basically after all the office staff left the base and went to Waterside, there was a gradual winding down of the all the facilities on the base, as it was "only" Engineering staff left. We saw the closure of all the shops on base [in TBA] The banks and Bureau de Change and ATM all went. We lost the BA Ambulance and Fire service and then all the clubs and all the canteens apart from the one in TBJ/K were closed down. Facilities only started to suddenly re-appear after flight and cabin crew training were relocated from Cranebank to the Engineering base. Even now there is no canteen service at night, weekends or outside normal office hours for the Engineers on base...
As a final note the Barclays' Bank at Hatton Cross also closed a couple of years back, probably to do with the fact BA no longer uses Barclay's as it's bank, it uses Deutsche Bank. The Old Barclay's at Hatton Cross which has stood empty for a couple of years now, is allegedly going to be yet another hotel.

[DaveReidUK]

The Hatton Cross Club lasted until the building was torn down sometime in the late 1990s early 2000s from memory.

The timeframe for its demolition (per GE) appears to be roughly the same as for TBD, Viscount House, etc - some time between January 2006 and March 2008.

I didn't visit there much after about 1976 as for the rest of my time with BA (other than the last couple of months) I was based in the Central Area (QB/T1/T3).

[Jhieminga]

I was going to say, it certainly survived until early 2000. Yes, I meant the upstairs one next to the roundabout, sorry to hear that it's no longer there. I hope someone saved that ship mural!

[DCS99]

Viscount House paternoster - days from a different life!

[exeng]

Sandringham 1,

Just sent you a PM.


Kind regards
Exeng

[TURIN]

The Hatton Cross Club was indeed the one upstairs at the Hatton Cross roundabout. Downstairs, at various times was the IT department, Staff travel offices and around the back was the BA Clubs Gardening society that used to sell things like bags of compost!. The Hatton Cross Club lasted until the building was torn down sometime in the late 1990s early 2000s from memory. By that time the Runway canteen and the small club adjoining that had already gone. Basically after all the office staff left the base and went to Waterside, there was a gradual winding down of the all the facilities on the base, as it was "only" Engineering staff left. We saw the closure of all the shops on base [in TBA] The banks and Bureau de Change and ATM all went. We lost the BA Ambulance and Fire service and then all the clubs and all the canteens apart from the one in TBJ/K were closed down. Facilities only started to suddenly re-appear after flight and cabin crew training were relocated from Cranebank to the Engineering base. Even now there is no canteen service at night, weekends or outside normal office hours for the Engineers on base...
As a final note the Barclays' Bank at Hatton Cross also closed a couple of years back, probably to do with the fact BA no longer uses Barclay's as it's bank, it uses Deutsche Bank. The Old Barclay's at Hatton Cross which has stood empty for a couple of years now, is allegedly going to be yet another hotel.

The irony is that due to Covid, Waterside has been shut and all the office staff who can't work from home have relocated to the base. TBC in particular. Plus ca change.

[vulcanb10]

That's substantially correct.

TBB was on the south side of what is now Envoy Road (currently a huge car park).

The original TBD (aka "East Hangar" or Bays 11-20, including workshope, engine test cell, etc in BEA days) was on the site of the current blast pen (you can still see the footprint of the building on GE). The designator TBD was later recycled for. I think, the BMI hangar.

TBE (aka "West Hangar" or Bays 1-10) is indeed the one to which the Cathedral hangar was bolted on (losing access to Bay 1 in the process). Bays 6-10 have been demolished together with the offices above. I have a feeling that what's left - the bit visible from the CTA - may be listed, which is perhaps why it still survives.

Other notable buildings to have vanished over the years include Speedbird House, Comet House, Viscount House (and extension) and, most importantly, the Runway and Hatton Cross canteens (I assume the one inside TBA survives).From my Book: Heathrow: From Tents to Terminal 5:
BOAC Wing Hangar

In September 1990 work was begun to protect the cable stays which had cracks appearing in the bitumen coating & to the underlying concrete encasement, with rust showing through. The hangar was demolished reputedly by explosives in the 1990s, alarming the local population, and is now a car park.
NB Originally built with door holes for Britannia/DC7C tails, the hangar had been extended both sides to cover VC10s, completed by 1963.

PS Thanks for the compliments from another, the book is still selling albeit in small numbers.

[MAC 40612]

From my Book: Heathrow: From Tents to Terminal 5:
BOAC Wing Hangar

In September 1990 work was begun to protect the cable stays which had cracks appearing in the bitumen coating & to the underlying concrete encasement, with rust showing through. The hangar was demolished reputedly by explosives in the 1990s, alarming the local population, and is now a car park.
NB Originally built with door holes for Britannia/DC7C tails, the hangar had been extended both sides to cover VC10s, completed by 1963.

PS Thanks for the compliments from another, the book is still selling albeit in small numbers.

You are correct about the demolition alarming the local population. The demolition firm decided to carry out the explosions overnight, as it was easier to close the A30 which it was adjacent to and would mean far less disruption at the airport which also has a night time curfew. The only thing was that although all the correct procedures were carried out a general warning was never put out to the local population and the sound of large explosions in the early hours from the airport led to the Police being inundated with phone calls.

[DW12]

The timeframe for its demolition (per GE) appears to be roughly the same as for TBD, Viscount House, etc - some time between January 2006 and March 2008.

I didn't visit there much after about 1976 as for the rest of my time with BA (other than the last couple of months) I was based in the Central Area (QB/T1/T3).


The Hatton Cross Club was upstairs on the right side of Building 442. Downstairs was travel, and the IT support team called PCHQ.

Shown in the earlier photograph of Viscount House was also the flatter building(Viscount House Annexe) and a two story portacabin to the right, which went by the grand title of Viscount House Annexe Extension.

[MAC 40612]

On the BA hangars theme, it seems that in yet another cost cutting 'brainwave' at BA someone decided the engineers had access to far too many hangars and have sold off [what was] the British Midland hangar that BA inherited when they 'absorbed BMi' and so yet another very useful hangar facility has been lost to BA. The hangar concerned was very flexible and could house one large widebody aircraft [all types apart from A380] or two/three smaller Airbus types.

It has been sold to United who have wasted no time in increasing their staff at Heathrow to take on much more work and have [allegedly] managed to poach approx 75 ex BA engineers with a better pay and conditions package.

[MAC 40612]

Slightly strange is the fact that the old Barclays bank building at Hatton Cross is still empty after closing down as a bank branch a good number of years ago now.........

[MAC 40612]

Some images of TBD being demolished in 2007...https://www.flickr.com/photos/59481534@N05/50850508587/in/datetaken-public/

Some other photos of BA hangars on the same account.

[Discorde]

Couple of Hatton Cross pix I took in 1962 as a young reggie spotter. I climbed to the top of the blast fence to snap the B707s and was ordered back down by a BOAC staff member. The aircraft in the hangar might be a DC-7C (freighter). Can't remember the exact location of the Comet pic, or why the BOAC logo had been painted over.


https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1638x920/boac_707_steemrok_v2_e56a3a6d7db38f8e47145cc8e482281a212fd75 8.jpg


https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1706x994/boac_comet_steemrok_aee26acec6f8e6a866b6be5cb304e5c984208f3d .jpg

[sandringham1]

Nice pictures Doscorde, the just visible nose could be the apprentice training Argonaut G-ALHJ, it had been returned from lease with East African Airways in 1961.
Not sure about where the Comet is parked but it might be in front of the hangars that were in the process of being taken over by British Eagle, hence the deletion of the BOAC titles.

[DaveReidUK]

Nice pictures Doscorde, the just visible nose could be the apprentice training Argonaut G-ALHJ, it had been returned from lease with East African Airways in 1961.
Not sure about where the Comet is parked but it might be in front of the hangars that were in the process of being taken over by British Eagle, hence the deletion of the BOAC titles.

Almost certainly an Argonaut. And definitely looks like one of the Eagle hangars.

[MAC 40612]

Concur with the other replies about the hangar being one of the old hangars that were sold to British Eagle. They are in the rough area of where the Virgin Hangar and [what was] the British Midland hangar are located. The last of these old hangars was taken down in the 1990s. Ironically the hangar with the painted out BOAC titles that went to British Eagle ended up going back into BOAC hands when British Eagle folded. One of the ex British Eagle engineers I knew told me of how he was at work ready to start a night shift when news came through that British Eagle had gone under. They were working on a Britannia in the hangar at the time and the foreman told them to pack up all their tools and make sure they took all their belongings as they would not be able to get back in after they went home. My friend was still in the process of packing up all his tools when into the hangar strolled a BOAC foreman from across the road and informed all the guys left in the hangar that BOAC had acquired the hangar and the aircraft inside, so anyone who wanted to work for BOAC was to report back to the hangar the next day to be signed on as BOAC staff, so he never actually finished packing up his tools and went on to work for BOAC and BA for another 25+ years.

[Discorde]

These replies have jogged my memory in regard to identifying those hangars. In the mid-sixties my summer vac job was in the Air Canada Commissary building located near the Eagle hangars. Some pix here, including the grounded fleet late in '68. One lunchtime in the summer of '68 I took my camera along to snap aircraft struggling with a gusty wind landing on R23L. The four-bladed prop in front of the propliner in the BOAC hangar - a red herring? (The Argos had three-bladed props.) Or is it not a prop but another piece of kit?


https://cimg0.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1740x1218/eagle_brit_v3_89e2780a9a353015a52e3d42201c2d025fb5d51c.jpg
https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1563x978/eagle_fleet_3_10113d97d2f949b09a630e64f096f865fd8770af.jpg
https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/pprune.org-vbulletin/1692x872/eagle_fleet_1_93c53255aabc35ed441b2674a03067874f5dc774.jpg

R23L landings Aug 1968

[DaveReidUK]

The four-bladed prop in front of the propliner in the BOAC hangar - a red herring? (The Argos had three-bladed props.) Or is it not a prop but another piece of kit?

Looks like a Britannia prop, a bit low to the ground, so perhaps on a transport stand rather than on the wing ?

[HOVIS]

On the BA hangars theme, it seems that in yet another cost cutting 'brainwave' at BA someone decided the engineers had access to far too many hangars and have sold off [what was] the British Midland hangar that BA inherited when they 'absorbed BMi' and so yet another very useful hangar facility has been lost to BA. The hangar concerned was very flexible and could house one large widebody aircraft [all types apart from A380] or two/three smaller Airbus types.

It has been sold to United who have wasted no time in increasing their staff at Heathrow to take on much more work and have [allegedly] managed to poach approx 75 ex BA engineers with a better pay and conditions package.

BA have cut almost all their 3rd party work too, alegedly because they are so short of engineers.

[MAC 40612]

BA have cut almost all their 3rd party work too, allegedly because they are so short of engineers.

Yes, that's true they shut down the CEG unit that dealt with the other operators at Heathrow, to transfer the engineers across to mainline but that hasn't worked out too well as a number of the ex-CEG engineers have either retired or have left BA.