London Metropolitan Archives – the Heathrow Papers By Brian A L Jones

A fellow Railway and Canal Historical Society London Group Member, Pat Dennison, drew my attention to a special display of Heathrow Airport related archive material which was to be mounted for two hours only at the City of London’s Metropolitan Archives on 8 July 2016.

I arrived at the 40, Northampton Road , EC1, venue minutes after it opened expecting to find that large numbers of researchers to had assembled, only to find that a mere half-dozen persons, including Pat, were present.

In a large open area about twenty long tables had been set out with files of material for everyone to examine. I established that there was no restriction on photographing items which, in the limited time available, saved a lot of detailed note-taking.

While the material presented was broad in topics it was mainly related to political aspects of planning and development of the Airport, with issues like staff housing and noise complaints. There was a significant amount of paperwork related to Government ministerial interest ,with consultative committee reports and local authority contributions also to the fore. Several albums of mainly local, but some national, press cuttings were worth examining for issues that have been long forgotten.

Most of the items displayed were from the pre-British Airports Authority period, that is before 1 April 1966, when Heathrow was privatised.A key find was a brochure promoting a monorail link between Heathrow and West Kensington which I alluded to in a previous Chiltern article.

Front cover of the ring-bound brochure – the cellophane overlay was damaged

Although not dated, the brochure appeared to have been launched in 1964. It proposed that a circuit with stations by the Central Area terminals would lead to and from a tunnel burrowing under the site of the future Terminal 1,(fig.1) then running underground to the Airport’s eastern boundary. Rising above ground the monorail would then be routed to Hounslow West Station and continue to Hammersmith sited alongside the Piccadilly Line, then carry on to West Kensington on an overground route (fig.2) At the Kensington Town Terminal complex - a property developer’s dream – (fig.3), it was proposed to provide a hotel, exhibition complex, apartments including staff accommodation, multi-storey car park, shops and restaurants in addition to the transport interchange.

fig 1 – the proposed layout of the monorail in Heathrow’s Central Area

fig.2 a somewhat simplistic representation of the twin track overhead Monorail proposal

l.

fig. 3 The proposal for the West Kensington Town Terminal for the Monorail system.

An estimate of the scheme’s cost was given as £15,840,000, which included rolling stock at £1,750.000. During the limited time available, I was unable to trace any significant details of the official consideration that might have been given to the scheme, nor at what point it was abandoned.

A press cutting from the Daily Telegraph on 1 October 1948 recorded the appointment of architect Frederick Gibberd by the Ministry of Transport and Civil Aviation to produce the plan for future development of Heathrow, which resulted in the creation of the Central Area complex of roads and buildings to replace the original interim arrangement of temporary buildings located along the A4 Bath Road frontage site.

Much of the material available to view had been generated by the local authorities for areas surrounding Heathrow. Rather than looking at the opportunities for associated developments and employment which would result from airport expansion, the main focus of their attention appeared to be resistence to the new housing that would be required by airport workers. This lack of support is still apparent today and fails to recognise the massive value of the contribution to the local economy that the Airport and its dependent supporting companies provide.

One local MP in the early 1950s is recorded as assuring councillors, however, that there was no prospect of air travel replacing the intercontinental links provided by ocean liners and freighters.

Visitors to the Airport's Northside spectators’ enclosure in the early 1950s and later the replacement Central Area enclosure, sited north of and above the main tunnel exit, may remember a four wheeled pony drawn carriage that provided rides – I do not! A cutting from The Post , dated 4 May 1955, related the story of the lady owner operator of said carriage.

Additionally, visitors to the Northside enclosure in mid-October 1952 would have had the pleasure of viewing the Canberra that had made a record breaking double Atlantic crossing in record time(2) plus a Handley Page Hastings and a Vickers Varsity, then front line RAF aircraft in their respective Commands.

All too soon finishing time was called by the Archive staff, who began to return the glimpses which the exhibits provided into a fascinating past to their regulated storage spaces.

Notes

1) ATG Paper

2) Flying from Aldergrove, Northern Ireland on 26 August, Wing Commander R P Beamont flew the Canberra to Gander, Newfoundland and back covering 4,144 statute miles in 10 hours 3 minutes and 29 seconds (including 2 hours 4 minutes and 57 seconds at Gander) and averaging 411.99mph. This was the first double Atlantic crossing within one day.

References

Air Dates – Air-Commodore L G S Payne – Heinmann (1957)

May 2017