Croydon Aerodrome
1915 December. Beddington Aerodrome (also known as Wallington) was established – one of a number of small airfields around London that were created for protection against Zeppelin airship raids during the First World War.
1916 January: The first two aircraft, B.E 2Cs, arrived at the aerodrome as part of Home Defence. It became a large Reserve Aircraft and Training aerodrome for the Royal Flying Corps.
1918 Waddon Aerodrome opened on a site just to the north-east of Beddington to serve aircraft test flights - there was a separate test flying-ground on the east side of Plough Lane, part of the adjoining National Aircraft Factory No. 1.
At the end of the war the aerodrome was retained, becoming an important training airfield for the newly formed Royal Air Force.
1920 The RAF vacated Beddington in February and, in April, the aircraft factory was sold to Handley Page.
The two airfields were on each side of Plough Lane (the lane running north from Russell Hill near Purley). They were combined following the end of the war to become Croydon Aerodrome, the gateway for international flights to and from London.
Plans for the development of post-war civil aviation were already underway and the Air Ministry decided that there should be one international airport serving London (with Lympne in Kent developed as a diversion aerodrome in case of poor weather). Beddington/Waddon, was chosen in preference to Hounslow, because of its better weather, better facilities and better location for the Continent.
On 29 March 1920, it was renamed Croydon Aerodrome or ‘The Air Port of London’, Beddington, and became the site of Britain’s first international airport. The original accommodation was partly in re-used First World War buildings and partly in newly-built wooden huts. Initially a number of nascent British airlines operated from Croydon including Instone Air Line, Handley Page Transport and Aircraft Transport and Travel Ltd
1924 As a result of a government review of subsidies to airlines, the existing airlines were merged to create Imperial Airways Ltd. Croydon became the new airline's operating base. Imperial Airways was the British Government's chosen instrument to develop connections with the U.K.'s extensive overseas interests. It was therefore from Croydon that Britain first developed its European and long haul routes to India, Africa, the Middle and Far East, Asia, Africa and Australia (in conjunction with Qantas).
1924 December 24th. A de Havilland DH.34 G-EBBX of Imperial Airways crashed at Purley, Surrey, killing all eight people on board. The aircraft was operating a scheduled international flight from Croydon, Surrey, to Paris, France.
1925 Under the Croydon Aerodrome Extension Act 1925, the airport was redeveloped with the two airfields either side of Plough Lane merged and a new terminal area planned on the newly opened Purley Way on the east side of the airport. The combined terminal and control tower building was designed by the Air Ministry's Department of Buildings and Works and constructed by Wilson Lovatt and Son Ltd of Wolverhampton at a cost of £267,000.
1926 Construction of the Administration Building began; the building becoming operational on the 30 January 1928. The official opening ceremony was performed by Lady Maud Hoare, wife of the Secretary of State for Air, on 2 May. The improvements included a porter's lodge, the 50-room Aerodrome Hotel and two, two-bay, steel-framed hangars.
The Administration Building was the first in the world designed with all airport terminal functions integrated in one building and featured the first purpose-built civil Air Traffic Control Tower, which at 50ft (15m) high was the world’s tallest at the time. It had a carefully considered rational plan which separated the passenger and cargo function and arrivals and departures. The Booking Hall received natural light through a glazed dome and included six passenger check-in desks lining both walls, a post office counter, bookshop and a Departure and Arrival indicator in the form of an octagonal column in the centre of the Booking Hall with clock faces showing the times of arriving and departing aircraft. The terminal also included reading rooms, a restaurant, buffet counter and bullion stores. The control tower featured a radio room, control room, meteorological office and sleeping accommodation for officers on duty. A radio transmitting station, placed three miles away from the terminal, was equipped with 3-kilowatt Marconi TA 1 transmitters, which, with their four 31m high aerial masts, had a range of over 200 miles and served air traffic into northern France.
Passenger numbers rose dramatically from 2,000 in 1920 to 131,853 by 1936 with the airport handling 62% of Britain's air mail and 84% of its air cargo. The airport was associated with a number of important inter-war advances in civil aviation including the development of ground-to-air radio communication, inset runway lighting and the development of trans-continental air routes and air mail services. Croydon claims to have been the first airport in the world to use modern air traffic control. In 1923 Croydon’s Senior Radio Operator Stanley Mockford formulated the international distress phrase 'Mayday'.
1927 Charles Lindbergh arrived in the 'Spirit of St. Louis',
A large number of record breaking flights, which often attracted huge crowds, started from Croydon including Bert Hinkler solo flight to Australia in February 1928
1930 May 05th. Amy Johnson took off from Croydon for her record-breaking flight to Australia.
1935 The Administration Building was the site of the world’s biggest bullion heist up to that date when £21,000 of gold bullion was stolen from the airport’s bullion store.
1936 December 09th. Juan de la Cierva, the inventor of the Autogiro died during when a passenger of a DC-2 which crashed in take-off.
WWII. The airport was closed to civil aviation and reverted to military use as RAF Croydon; it played a vital role as a fighter station during the Battle of Britain. No. 92 Squadron flew Supermarine Spitfires from RAF Croydon during the early part of the Second World War and the Battle of Britain.
As part of 11 Group Fighter Command it was intensively involved in the Battle of Britain. On 15 August 1940 the airport was heavily bombed, damaging the south-west corner of the Administration Building and killing 162 civilians in the industrial buildings round the airport. In 1941 the two cargo wings of the Administration Building were extended to the east in a matching style but with an additional storey added.
1946 May 31st: Heathrow Airport officially opened as the new London Airport to replace the old Croydon grass airfield.
1952 It was decided that the airport would eventually be closed, as Blackbushe Airport in Hampshire and Northolt Aerodrome in Middlesex could accommodate European flights during the 1950s.
1959 September 30th. The last scheduled flight from Croydon departed at 6:15pm.
The Administration Building had various commercial uses until it was developed as a business centre in 1995. The building was refurbished in the late 1990s with the addition of an extra storey to match that added to the new cargo wings in 1941 and the infilling of the northern courtyard to create a restaurant. In 2002 the aerial on top of the control tower was reinstated. The control tower houses (2017) a visitor centre.