When you fly into London’s Heathrow Airport, you don’t really give much thought to the history of the place. It’s a modern and beautiful airport (well, parts of it at least). But did you know that before the airport was built, there was a village there. What was it called? Heathrow!
We recently discovered this series of old photos from the 1930’s that paint a picture of what the area looked like before the airport was built up.
Check them out:
“As rural as anywhere in England. There is a calmness and serenity about it that is soothing in a mad rushing world”. This is how the tiny hamlet of Heathrow, at the edge of a heath and bordered by fields, was described by Gordon Maxwell in “Highwayman’s Heath” published in 1935.
Source.
Author: Jonathan Thomas
Jonathan is a consummate Anglophile who launched Anglotopia.net in 2007 to channel his passion for Britain. Londontopia is its sister publication dedicated to everything London.
anyone know what year work commenced on heathrow airport complex. I had always imagined it had just been fields/wooded land.
Fascinating to know the village was called Heathrow. Any buildings left from the pics shown. Thanks, didn’t know that! 🙂
Such a pity to see old properties being pulled down this is the price we have to pay for modernization, that is why it is good so see the t.v. programme of Restoration Homes which shows there are many people out there with thoughts like ourselves.
The Old Magpies begs to be on a Tshirt….
For some reason, most of the village names in that area begin with an ‘H’. Hounslow, Harmondsworth, Hayes, Heston, Harlington, Heathrow, etc.
As well as that, there are many that night have begun with ‘H’, and it has been lost, Huxbridge, Hickenham, Hiver, Heastcote,, etc!!!
Sandra….the story is complicated (there was a pre-war airfield in the area) but work on Heathrow Airport (then called London Airport) commenced in 1946 using emergency war powers (!)
All very interesting. I hadn’t known about the village and small aerodrome. Who would have imagined how it would have turned out in the future. Sad too…………..
Has anyone seen the ma i couldn’t attach here? From ‘Wikipedia’, amazing, just shows/mentions a small ‘aerodrome’ at the south-east and not a lot else, the village of ‘Heathrow’, the Hall and Heathrow House clearly marked as is The Magpie Pub.
Sorry typos – a map, I couldn’t attach here, I meant to type!