Canteen open at 0200 for the operational staff

Surely some mistake!

Yes indeed it was! The West Drayton canteen in those days (late 60s/early 70s) was open 24/7; nothing like a good fryup or just a few slices of hot buttered toast in the early hours!
Barton Hall (Preston ATCC for the uninitiated) in the same era you were lucky to get a cheese sandwich made by the daytime staff and sold from the bar, but only until last orders.

IIRC the Drayton canteen was closed for an hour for "cleaning".

Hot buttered toast ? I remember there being a new kitchen assistant, straight off the boat, being shown how to do it. Toast the bread, butter it, put it on a plate. However as nobody had ordered it, at 0300, it went straight into the bin. Come 0700, and the Morning shift drifting in, things htted up but no toast was forthcoming. A peek in the kitchen revealed it, toasted, buttered, on the plate, into the bin .....

The Sabena restaurant at EBBR was a revelation. on the 7th floor of the terminal building, great view of the apron and runways., watching the AF and SN crews enjoying their meals with a good bottle of wine.

There were three "restaurants" at London Tower when I started - two on the ground floor separated by simple partitions. One side for aircrew and highly-paid ATCOs and the other side for "manual workers". Upstairs (1st floor) was a waitress service restaurant where the 3rd floor people used to eat. We used it for going-away parties too - Alastair McLean, Bill Stretton and other musicians provided entertainment. When I left Heathrow Tower in 1993 all that lot had morphed into a machine providing Mars bars and crisps!

I remember doing the same trip in (I think) the August of 1973 but in a Navajo. We were late getting back to White Waltham and, after holding at Woodley for a thunderstorm to pass over the field, we landed in the dark by the light of the members' car headlights lined up along the runway edge!
NB

0100-0200. An old bloke called Charlie would chuck us out...

One of the toast butterers became an ATCO...

A mate who was a Trident jock occasionally used to ask me over to join him for lunch in the BEA canteen in QB whilst he was on airport standby. So I did. Linen tablecloths and silver service...us air traffickers were normally used to legging it over 6 lanes of frenetic traffic to spend our LVs at Harry Ramsden's...the challenge was not to open the box until we got back to the rest room...or back on GMC...

You got Luncheon Vouchers? Must have been after my time. I remember getting meal tickets for a while, then on my birthday getting a pay rise and losing the vouchers. After paying more tax and the extra cost of meals i was about a quid a week worse off.

Don't remember WD canteen actually closing for cleaning, as far as I recall they just cleaned round us if we were in there, usually max of about 6 at a time. I was there Mar '69 to Sep '71.
I too used the QB restaurant courtesy of my wife at the time. She was secretary to the BEA Training Manager Tridents/737s (c1978) and worked on the same floor a matter of 50 yards away, and would 'borrow' a colleagues pass to get me in.

Heathrow Director:

Your memory of the Greasy Spoon is very good!!! I was a BEA General Apprentice back in '64-'67, doing most of the menial jobs they could think up for us and it was but a short walk from Queens Building, Terminal 1 or 1A across to the Tower for some sustenance. I too remember the divided area but think I managed to stay in the "posh " side where the BEA ground staff used to eat....more pretty faces there too!!
Despite working in BEA Flt Ops in Queens Building the Restaurant there was definitely out of the league of a lowly Apprentice, especially as we were getting paid about £5 a week !!
Very sad to see one of Heathrows landmarks being so harshly treated, but I guess thats progress.....

A310bcal... At least you got into the posh area! In the "other" area was the lovely Ivy serving. Even the labourers had to put their fingers in their ears when she started!

It is a shame to see the old place go. In fact, it's almost gone as a recent picture shows (tnx Pete Bish):

http://i1286.photobucket.com/albums/...ps59196854.jpg

What a sad picture!

Shame my unit couldn't have got their hands on the VCR to replace our current one which has more holes than the Costa Concordia.

Which floor housed the radar room?

Of course there was the lovely "Maureen" at WD in later days, well known for her customer skills. "Evening Maureen" would be answered with "And I don't want none of your lip neither!" Phrases like "Oi! Cloth ears, don't you want your dinner?" will remain with me for ever.

Andy. In recent times the approach room was on the ground floor. However, originally it was on the 6th floor.

Yup, opened in 1989 at huge expense, vacated by Heathrow Approach in Oct '93...

Where was CACC, was it 4th floor?
I remember going to see the new 20Mb hard disk drives, thing like a washing machine.

Not sure.... Telemove was on 5th so CACC must have been further down.

OK, severe memory failure could be setting in. When did the canteen(s) in the CTB close, I got there in '78 and don't remember them. We always went to one of the BAA staff canteens in the terminal buildings

Regards from sunny South Alabama

What's going into the space left behind It's a pity that the old tower could not have been preserved for posterity, and put to alternative use. Would it not have made a good conference facility? Put a nice restaurant in the upper levels?

£££££££££££££²

Whebn the new tower was built at EHBK the old VCR was retained and put atop the terminal as a museum. Never seen it used and I don't think there's any access to it. Someones probably using it to grow weed

Lon
Luncheon vouchers were around in the mid to late 70s. I used to exchange mine in my local 7/11 equivalent. :uhoh: