I can remember going to Heathrow on the 140 route (RTs and Routemasters) for 3p each way (that's '3 new p'!), and then a further 3p to get into the Queen's Building viewing terrace.

I can remember the IRA car-bomb in the T1 car park, and everywhere being evacutaed into the area near the bus station - and Ronnie Corbett entertaining us while the 'powers that be' decided how they would get us out (since the tunnel was closed!).

I also remember the 140 bus route home on Sundays. Certain selected journeys would go through the cargo tunnel and out past the area where T4 is now, down to Hatton Cross, and then around the eastern peri-road to Harlington Corner. I have a vague idea that this was because the tube link between the Centre and Hatton X was closed for works on Sundays?

I can also remember somebody doing an oil painting of the view from the QB. He seemed to be there most Sunday afternoons, and looking at some of the older types in the picture I got the idea that he'd been painting it for about 40 years (and that was in the 70s)!

Hazy recollection here. "Wasn't there a tunnel from Central to the cargocentre, not for public though" Does anyone remember the maps, published by one of the fuel companies, 1/6d if I remember correctly with a big map of LHR ( LAP) in the middle and colour pictures of aircraft around the edge. Amazing how many comets Aerolineas Argentinas, BEA, BOAC Olympic, Sudan, MSA, MEA, Kuwait and Egyptair/UAA included there are round it.
Thanks for the thread,
Be lucky
David

You couldn't drive your car through, but public buses used it. Especially after T4 opened a number of bus routes went from T4 to the Central Area this way. There was a gateman at a barrier who let the buses and all the allowed internal traffic through. I can remember going through in London double deckers in the 1990s.

A vague memory tells me that the cargo tunnel, which I think exited or maybe still exits twixt the corner of T2 and the T2 multi story car park, was open to the public for a few months while some work was being carried out on the twin tunnels sometime around 1970 ish. It was great for those of us who lived south of LHR since we could come into the central area from that side and save a lot of time.

i remember as you entered that cargo tunnel, a bright blue-ish light on the tunnel side on slight bends..
what were they for?..a guide or something?.

From the summer of 1947 till Nov '49 I worked as a met asistant in the Met Office which was just west of the original control tower. I lived in Hayes and cycled to work through Harlington. The entrance to the airport was from the Bath Road so that would put the tower roughly where the entrance to the tunnel is now. The Three Magpies was on the Bath Road just west of the entrance. (Not shown on the map at the beginning)

There was a canteen which we walked to across the apron. No high vis jackets then! I remember AOA and /or PAA Stratocruisers and Constellations. O P Jones came in for briefings. He was easily recognisable but was just one of a long list of "gods" to a sixteen year old.

My first flight into LAP was in a Lancashire Airways Rapide from Bovingdon in 1949 where I was on a temporary attachment. They flew over frequently to give joyrides from just outside the public viewing area which was west of the Met Office. A female pilot was employed by them which seemed unusual to me. Even then I was a sexist pig. Also the GCA controller's patter was broadcast over the Tannoy in the public viewing area.

In Nov '49 I was called up for national service, trained as a pilot and for the next 42 years was paid to enjoy myself first by the King, then the Queen and eventually various airlines. Much better than working for a living.

Heathrow (A Fairey story? ...closed thread 2005)
 

This photo on abpic shows the original Fairey hangar in the central area which lingered into the 1960s until Fairey's compensation for the requisition of 'The Great West Aerodrome' had been settled. It housed fire appliances and BOAC had an ad aimed at the crowds on the Queens Building viewing terraces....BEA's mid 1950s vintage maintenance base to the left in the distance

Convair 440, OO-SCP, Sabena (SN / SAB)

This first shot is view from the Queens building in th every early 60's. The original Fairey Hangar is in th middle distance. The white "square building" on the corner of the hangar was the original Great West aerodrome control tower
http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...ear/img074.jpg[/IMG]

.... compare it to the picture below taken in early 1930's!!

http://i26.photobucket.com/albums/c1...r/img075-1.jpg[/IMG]

Excellent 233sqdn....never seen the Fairey control tower before....in the top photo the people plane watching are in the 'Passengers Friends Waving Base ' which was separate from and below the public Queens Building terraces and free and was entered through the Fortes restaurant in the Europa Building (T2)... it was open into the night so was handy for spotting the Alitalia arrivals about 2130 if you werent chucked out ...I was over there the evening the BEA Ambassador crashed at Munich and watched the info come through on the open tickertape terminals on the BEA pax desks

pleasure flights
 

At about 13yrs. of age (1951ish.) I took a flight from LHR sightseeing over London.

This was from Northside and ops. was I think a tent, or possibly a wooden hut.
We took off and landed on the grass next to the runway to the best of my recollection. The aircraft was definitely G-AGUF ( where is it now?).
In later years, while working at EMI in Hayes, I would stop and reggie spot from the car park area.

Try that now!!

Owned by Channel Island Airways it crashed at Ramsgate on 29 June 1957.

Heathrow G-AGUF Island Air services Monique Agazarian
 

This link to the Getty sister site JAMD has pics of Monique Rendall(nee Agazarian), pilot /proprietor of Island Air Services which flew the Rapide joyrides at LAP (LHR).G-AGUF 'Guffie' was her favourite. She had been an ATA ferry pilot in WWII

Jamd - Search - Search for "monique rendall"

Interesting that the layout shows the position of the parallel third E/W runway in more or less the same spot they now want to place it and at the same length originally proposed for it (2000mt) although I think they are going for a longer one now.

In 233Sqn's post above
Is this the same ATC Tower as it existed alongside the A4 (Bath Road) around 1950 as seen here?

http://i145.photobucket.com/albums/r...Towerc-195.jpg

No Completely different.... This tower was on the North side and was built as part of the military expansion, but continued in use into the civilian period.

The original control tower attached to the Fairey hangar wasn't really a control tower at all.... more of an observation area and flying control, and was in the middle of the airport

“Out of the Clouds” (1954)
 

Those of us with access to British TV may be interested in this ---

“CHANNEL4 Thursday 13:55 “Out of the Clouds” (1954) Excellent Ealing drama following the personal tales of the pilots and passengers of a bygone age during a busy day at London Airport. “

I have not seen the film before but it sounds as if it is along the same lines as “The V.I.P.s” (1963) that is also set at Heathrow.

Here's a picture of Heathrow in 1945 on the RAF Museum website, the runway on the left is now rwy 9L. Hard to believe it looked like that!

Heathrow Airport, 1945 (From RAF Museum)

Stevo ;)

KeMac's photo is interesting. Why were those runways to the north never built?

Heathrow runways north of theA4
 

The existing Star of David runways were embarrassingly under-used right through the 50s...the original triangular RAF set would probably have been adequate,lack of a decent terminal was a puzzle .... the date for the official abandonment of #7,8,9 scheme (or 8,9,10 if you're a cynic) is to be found in Philip Sherwood's Heathrow 2000 book, p77...on Dec 10 1952 the Minister of Civil Aviation announced that 'the additional amount of traffic which could be accepted by extending the Airport north of the Bath Road would not justify the expenditure and disturbance incurred.'


Having built 6 (actually 7 :)) runways they closed the most used one, 28R ,(now 27R) from about 1951 to 1953 to dig the road tunnel to the centre....must have seemed a long taxi to the Southside runway....28R/10L was closed briefly again in the Summer of 1962 when a Lufthansa 720B landed dramatically with its nosewheel up halting above the Central tunnel (see jamd link )(all OK ,plane was repaired)

Jamd

I remember it -produced by Esso - fascinated me for years looking at all the airlines depicted. Sadly I lost my 1965 version

http://www.ianbyrne.free-online.co.u...aps/e62air.jpg

they crop up regularly on Ebay... I bought one the other week for a couple of quid....

I must admit it - in fact I cut the planes out, stuck them on cardboard and played air raffic control on my bedroom carpet :uhoh:

It seems a long time since I uploaded a picture of my 1/400th scale Heathrow model in the '60s, so following several requests, here are some more. It's about to get a complete revamp with photo-quality infrastructure..watch this space!

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...o/8JULY083.jpg
Busy day with lots of activity - great variety of sounds with jets, turboprops and pistons galore!

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...o/8JULY084.jpg
A BOAC 707 about to start its take-off roll on 28L

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...o/8JULY081.jpg
An Air France Caravelle heads the queue for departures, followed by a Pan Am Boeing 707, TWA Super Constellation and an Aeroflot IL-62 (sorry, no TU-104 model available in this scale!!)

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...niaarrival.jpg
A BOAC Britannia on finals inbound from New York


...and finally, here is what inspired me to capture all this in model form .
This is me (aged 11) on the roof gardens of Terminal 2 in 1961 with Loftleider DC-6 behind and lots of lovely BEA propliners! The wonderful '60s when you could take photos without a telephoto lens, no hassle,no terrorist threats and it always seemed to be sunny!

http://i112.photobucket.com/albums/n...Heathrow-2.jpg

Very nice Amos. I know that I would not have had the skill, nor the patience for a project like this.

Funny, but I remember those days in exactly the same way. I think that they were the best days as you had such a mix of propeller and jet aircraft.

Wow your model heathrow is amazing! Did you build it all yourself?

I was looking on youtube and found this interesting video about the construction of heathrow. It shows quite a few shots of heathrow from the air too..

YouTube - London Airport (1949)

Yes, built it all myself. It is only the SE corner of Heathrow and is built on four 4' X 3' boards totalling 8' X 6'. The models are all diecast 1/400th scale made by Aeroclassics and Gemini Jets and are readily available.
Currently, I'm constructing the BEA Engineering Base so will post more photos when finished.

Thanks for replying. I thought a few of those were gemini jets models. I think one of my BOAC VC-10 models is a gemini jets model. Mind you i've got about 200 models of all makes but they are all boxed. :ok:

Thats really impressive. How long did it take? Are you going to have the whole airport modelled or just certain parts?

1947 - BOAC Connie in the snow & air hostesses.
 

The Winter of 1947

Presumably nobody dared to do that to O P Jones !

Amos, what a great model layout. Like you my love for aviation started plane spotting on the Queens building, but some time later in the early 1970's. I had the pleasure of working at LHR for fourteen years and miss it terribly, there was such a buzz about the place as they say.

How did you manage to capture that BOAC Britannia on finals? I did not see any string!

Please keep this thread going , as most of my life was at L.H.R. Heathrow, London Airport , this allows me to wallow in nostalgia, my time was 1947 to 1949 and 1954 to1994 working first for B.O.A.C then after RAF service B.E.A. /British Airways as for the building work it has never stopped since 1945 if you watch the film about the early days of the place it said it would take 6 years to compleat [that caused a smile]:hmm::hmm::hmm::hmm:

Amos
Your photos are fantastic, and brought back some very good memories. My first long haul from Heathrow was on the South African Airways Boeing 707-244 to Johannesburg via Isla do Sal. That was June 1969.

Earlier flights were in the Air France Caravelle to Paris and the Swissair Coronado to Geneva. Another Air France flight to Paris was in their Super Constellation.

I recall the SAA 707 had a ventral fin, something to do with longitudinal stability at the gross weights being used by SAA. In those days they were obliged to "go round the bulge".

Somewhere in my archives I have slides taken during the departure from Heathrow in the SAA 707, I was seated on the left hand side just in front of the engines. I also took pics as we arrived in Jo'burg, typical winter weather blue sky brown earth.

I believe the Ventral fin was fitted by the order of the A.R.B of the time as the B.O.A.C 707s fitted with Rolls Engines would snake on take off and unless better stability was found they refused to give the plane a Cof A. if this is incorrect I'm sure it will be corrected. later 707s were fitted with a bigger fin

707 series ventral fin was discussed on PPRuNe last year:

http://www.pprune.org/tech-log/36273...fin-story.html

SD

amos model and i recognize u! and why 3 runways parallel?
 

amos omg i recognize you from your 1960's pic !

i used to be there too always every school hols or weekends...about 1964 onwards, i am abit younger than you.
did you work later at LHR?

i then went onto work at LAP (well LHR i suppose) from 1974 for BA-northeast
on the trident 1e holiday charters (ex BKS stuff)
then eventually BMA ops and traffic/pax 1977 onwards...
my BMA traffic office eventually was in the old queens building.

this is a great thread,
my first flight ever was on a british eagle britannia trojan to barcelona for
our summer hols july 1964.
eagle had its own air terminal off high st kensington i think,
we used to get on the coach there.

why did they want 3 parallel runways when LAP was first built from the nw/se direction? 14/32?
http://www.pprune.org/aviation-histo...ml#post4299247
weird...
was that to launch lots of bombers against mr stalin should the need
have arisen?

marvellous reading all this,
lots of happy memories, thanks

just remembered being on the jump seat on flight deck of midland baby dc9 from teeside into LHR on rwy 23 (mega windy day)
that was over the big tower... the whole approach was like a roller coaster
captain was tony belcher, hehe

wot fun:ok:

This has been in an album for decades captioned "Heathrow when I first used it", probably by my father.

Can anyone confirm or deny?


http://i243.photobucket.com/albums/f.../LHR-Early.jpg

Capot :

It's a well-known photograph which has appeared in several places. I believe it was featured as a still in the TV programme made in 1996 for Heathrow's 50th birthday. It also appeared in Propliner magazine. It tends to go with an exterior shot of the same tent, alongside which is the communications centre, namely a group of several traditional red telephone boxes standing at slightly drunken angles as they separately gently subside into the mud all around. Being 1946 my guess also would be that the tents were RAF surplus.

My guess is that it was issued by Heathrow in 1946 as a publicity photo. If your father was actually the photographer that would indeed be a find.

WHBM

Many thanks for that interesting response. The picture is an original contact print, on the photographic paper of the period, but he was definitely not the photographer.

I like to picture him in the WH Smiths, once he had dealt with the cables, while waiting to be invited to walk out to the aircraft, and picking up the picture as a memento.

Perhaps WH Smiths offered him a paper bag for 1d.

It would have compared favourably, in terms of comfort, to his 8 departures for Germany a couple of years earlier flying his Lanc; the final trip was a longish one to Belaria for 18 months with a long walk westwards to round it off.

Capot :

Here's the pic on line elsewhere.

London Heathrow Airport History

Good on your dad for his Lanc trips (mine was on Halifaxes, fortunately with as many landings as take-offs). If he was flying from Heathrow in 1946 he was quite possibly in a Lancastrian "conversion", which probably looked a little bit familiar ...... !