Heston Airport: London's lost airport
Long before Heathrow became Britain's busiest aviation gateway, another airport just a few miles away was handling international passengers, attracting celebrities and even witnessing one of the most famous moments in British political history. Today, very little remains of it.
Mention London's lost airports and Croydon Airport is usually the first name that comes to mind.
But west London once had another important aviation centre: Heston Airport.
Located between Hounslow and Southall, Heston developed rapidly during the golden age of aviation in the 1930s and at one stage appeared destined to become one of London's principal airports.
Instead, the Second World War, increasingly capable passenger aircraft and the development of nearby Heathrow changed everything.
Heston eventually closed in 1947.
Today, much of the former airfield has disappeared beneath housing, industrial development and one of Britain's busiest motorways.
Yet its story provides a fascinating glimpse into what air travel from London looked like before Heathrow existed.
Heston began life in 1929, initially operating as Heston Air Park.
Its early activities centred mainly on private flying, pilot training, flying clubs and charter services.
International aviation was still in its infancy, but the airfield quickly expanded its ambitions.
Within approximately a year, customs and immigration facilities had been introduced, allowing international flights to operate from the site.
With that change came a more appropriate name: Heston Airport.
At the time, London's principal international airport was Croydon, south of the capital.
But Heston's position west of central London gave it considerable potential, particularly as commercial aviation expanded during the 1930s.
Regular passenger services began at Heston in 1933.
One of the first scheduled routes was operated by Spartan Air Lines between Heston and Cowes on the Isle of Wight.
The journey took approximately 50 minutes aboard a seven-seat Spartan Cruiser.
A return ticket cost around 30 shillings — £1.50 in pre-decimal currency, although considerably more in today's purchasing power.
By modern standards, travelling on a tiny seven-seat aircraft from a grass airfield may sound closer to private aviation than an airline service.
At the time, however, it represented an exciting new way to travel.
The network soon expanded.
Flights connected Heston with destinations including the Channel Islands, Blackpool and France, while Jersey Air Lines began using the airport with de Havilland aircraft.
Heston's growth during the early 1930s was impressive.
By 1934, the airport was reportedly handling almost 4,000 flights annually, together with more than 12,000 customs clearances.
Traffic had increased enough to require proper air traffic control.
Passenger numbers continued growing rapidly, and for a period Heston became London's second most important airport by aircraft movements, behind Croydon.
There was every reason to believe that the airport had a significant future.
But aviation itself was changing extraordinarily quickly.
Commercial flights were only part of Heston's appeal.
The airport also became fashionable among wealthy aircraft owners, celebrities and members of Britain's social elite.
Flying in the 1920s and early 1930s was still glamorous, adventurous and relatively exclusive.
Heston hosted private aircraft, air races, touring flights and elaborate aviation events.
Flying displays attracted prominent visitors, while the Prince of Wales was among those who flew into Heston in a private aircraft.
International flying tours also departed from the airfield, carrying wealthy enthusiasts across Europe at a time when privately flying between countries remained a remarkable adventure.
Passengers could arrive dressed for the fashionable social world of the period, and some touring parties reportedly arranged for evening clothes and additional luggage to be transported separately between European destinations.
It was a very different world from today's mass-market airport experience.
Heston's success ultimately exposed one of its greatest weaknesses.
The airport had been designed during an era when relatively small aircraft could comfortably operate from grass fields.
By the middle of the 1930s, commercial aircraft technology was advancing rapidly.
Modern monoplanes were becoming larger, heavier and more capable. Aircraft such as the Douglas DC-3 demonstrated the direction in which passenger aviation was heading.
Airports would increasingly require substantial paved runways and much larger areas of unobstructed land.
Both Heston and Croydon faced the same problem.
London was also expanding rapidly, with suburban development consuming many of the remaining open areas surrounding the capital.
The government realised that decisions about London's future airports could not be postponed indefinitely.
In 1937, the Air Ministry purchased Heston Airport.
The intention was not to close it.
Quite the opposite.
The government was considering a major expansion of London's airport infrastructure, and Heston was identified as one of the locations that could play a significant role.
Numerous potential sites around London were examined.
Eventually, proposals emerged for a network of four principal airports serving the capital: Heston, Croydon, Fairlop in Essex and Lullingstone in Kent.
Had history developed differently, modern passengers might today be booking flights from London Heston rather than London Heathrow.
But before those plans could be realised, Heston suddenly found itself at the centre of world events.
Perhaps the most famous chapter in Heston Airport's history occurred in September 1938.
British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain used Heston for three journeys to Germany during negotiations with Adolf Hitler over the crisis surrounding Czechoslovakia.
News cameras gathered at the airport as the Prime Minister departed and returned.
Following his third visit, Chamberlain landed at Heston carrying the agreement reached with Hitler.
The scenes became some of the most recognisable news footage of the period.
Shortly afterwards, Chamberlain returned to Downing Street and made the statement that became inseparably associated with the Munich Agreement and his premiership: “peace for our time.”
The optimism proved tragically short-lived.
Less than a year later, Britain was at war with Germany.
For a brief moment, however, an airport in suburban west London had become one of the focal points of international politics.
The outbreak of the Second World War brought Heston's civilian passenger operations to an end.
Civil flying was suspended and the airport assumed a military role.
Its wartime activities included photographic reconnaissance, fighter operations and other specialist aviation work.
Spitfires and Hurricanes operated in connection with the airfield, while Polish personnel were among the Allied forces associated with Heston.
Later activities included night-fighter operations, work connected with radar countermeasures and the presence of US Army Air Forces units.
Unlike many British airfields, Heston escaped widespread destruction.
One hangar was destroyed by a German parachute mine in 1940, but much of the airport survived the war.
The question was what would happen to it when civilian aviation returned.
By 1945, Britain's aviation requirements looked completely different from those of the 1930s.
The coming generation of passenger aircraft required larger airports and long paved runways.
Heston was increasingly hemmed in by London's suburban expansion.
And just a few miles to the west was a site with far greater potential.
Heathrow.
During the war, major runway development had taken place there. Its size and location offered considerably greater scope for the large-scale civil airport Britain expected to need after the conflict.
In 1946, Heathrow became London's principal civilian airport, initially known simply as London Airport.
The decision effectively ended Heston's chances of returning as a major passenger airport.
There was another problem: the two airfields were simply too close together.
Operating substantial airports at both Heathrow and Heston would create air traffic and safety complications.
Heston's fate was sealed.
Following limited post-war military use, Heston Airport finally closed in 1947.
Less than two decades had passed since the airfield first opened.
Parts of the former site subsequently found entirely different uses.
Some land was redeveloped for housing, while other areas became industrial property.
For a short period, sections of the old perimeter road were even used for motor racing.
Then came one of the developments that would make the former airport almost invisible to future generations.
During the 1960s, part of the former Heston Airport site was used for construction of the M4 motorway.
The development included Heston Services, which today occupies land closely associated with the former airfield.
Thousands of motorists now drive through or alongside the area every day, most probably unaware that passenger aircraft once departed from approximately the same landscape.
Housing and industrial development removed many other traces of the airport.
Unlike Croydon, where the historic terminal building remains a prominent reminder of the airport's past, very little survives at Heston to reveal what once existed there.
There is, however, an important survivor.
A large reinforced-concrete hangar designed by Austin and Murrell remains standing.
The building survived the airport's closure and decades of redevelopment around it.
Its historical importance was formally recognised when it received Grade II listed status in 2009.
Today, the old hangar forms part of an industrial area and is used commercially.
To someone passing without knowing its history, it might appear to be simply another large industrial building.
In reality, it is one of the last physical links to an airport that once appeared capable of becoming a major gateway to London.
Heston Airport is one of London's more intriguing aviation “what ifs”.
Had the Second World War not intervened, government plans to expand Heston might have progressed much further.
But even then, the growth of suburban London and the rapid increase in aircraft size would probably have created serious difficulties.
Heathrow had something Heston could never realistically obtain: enormous room for expansion.
Over subsequent decades Heathrow gained multiple terminals, long runways and the infrastructure necessary to handle tens of millions of passengers each year.
Heston, meanwhile, became surrounded by development.
The two airports were separated by only a few miles, but their futures could hardly have been more different.
Today, London's aviation map is dominated by Heathrow, Gatwick, Stansted, Luton, London City and Southend.
Heston rarely receives a mention.
Yet during the 1930s it was one of Britain's busiest civil airfields, operated scheduled international services, attracted wealthy private flyers and played host to events that appeared on newsreels around the world.
Its story also demonstrates just how rapidly aviation developed.
Heston went from a new flying field to an international airport, government strategic asset, wartime airfield and abandoned airport in less than 20 years.
Today, the M4, housing and industrial buildings cover much of the landscape where aircraft once took off for destinations across Britain and Europe.
Only fragments remain.
And just a few miles away, the airport that ultimately replaced it grew into London Heathrow — one of the world's great international aviation hubs.
Written by Airports Transfer for passengers travelling to and from London airports.