Croydon was once the gateway to the world…

It is something that perhaps sounds a little surreal to most of us. You have to be of fairly vintage stock to remember it in its heyday, writes Yann Tear.  But yes, there really was once a Croydon Airport – and it played a vital role in the Battle of Britain.

Memories of its existence have been invoked of late because of doubts about the future of the hotel which Airport House terminal became after the closure of the airport itself in 1959.

Much of the site has been built over, but some of the airport buildings near Purley Way on the A23 remain, including the control tower, which houses a visitors’ centre.

Croydon Airport was the UK’s only operational international airport between the two world wars.

It opened on March 29, 1920 – the result of combining Beddington and Waddon airfields, which were established in the First World War, largely to combat the possibility of Zeppelin air raids and to serve test aircraft.

The resulting aerodrome was developed as Britain’s main airport, handling more cargo, mail, and passengers than any other UK airport at the time.

It was a pioneer for air traffic control towers to monitor flights and weather and one of the first to have a recognised airport terminal – even if it remained very crude by the standards of modern aircraft hubs.

Plough Lane remained a public road crossing the site, for instance, and road traffic was halted when necessary, first by a man with a red flag and later by a gate.

But the aerodrome stimulated a growth in regular scheduled flights carrying passengers, mail and freight, the first destinations being Paris, Amsterdam and Rotterdam. In 1923, flights to Berlin began.

On the formation of Britain’s first national airline, Imperial Airways, in 1924, Croydon became the new airline’s operating base.

Imperial Airways was used by the Government to develop connections with the UK’s extensive overseas interests and the first long-haul routes were established to India, Africa, the Middle and Far East, Asia, and Australia.

Following the death of eight people in an Imperial Airways de Havilland crash in December 1924 – Britain’s first major civil aviation accident – conditions at Croydon came under criticism from the public inquiry which followed.

It led to The Croydon Aerodrome Extension Act, which paved the way for large scale expansion, redevelopment and construction of an improved new airport that would we safer.

When the Second World War started in September 1939, Croydon Airport was closed to civil aviation but played a vital role as a fighter station during the Battle of Britain.

No 92 Squadron flew Supermarine Spitfires from RAF Croydon – as it was renamed – during the early part of the Second World War and the Battle of Britain.

On August 15, 1940, the airport was attacked in the first major air raid on the London area.

At around 6.20pm, 22 Messerschmitt fighter-bombers, aiming for RAF Kenley, four miles to the south, hit the Croydon terminal by mistake.

The armoury was destroyed, the civilian airport terminal building was badly damaged, and a hangar was damaged by cannon fire and blast.

Another hangar and about 40 training aircraft in it went up in flames.

Six airfield personnel died, including four airmen. Factories next to Croydon Airport took the worst of the bombing.

After the war, Croydon Airport returned to civil aviation, but the role of London’s primary international airport passed to Heathrow.

It was decided in 1952 that the airport would eventually be closed, as Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire and Northolt Aerodrome could accommodate European flights during the 1950s.

The last scheduled flight from Croydon departed at 6.15pm on September 30, 1959, followed by the last private aircraft at 7.45pm.

In 1978, the terminal building and Gate Lodge were granted protection as Grade II listed buildings.

On September 27, 2009, to mark the 50th anniversary of the closing of the airport, 11 light aircraft, including eight biplanes, staged a fly-past.

 

Picture:  Croydon Airport’s former terminal building Picture: Wikimedia Commons/Christopher Hilton