Croydon Lunch Club's Historic Airport Visit
On Thursday 11th June, over 35 members of Croydon Lunch Club visited Croydon Airport for four incredible tours.
The tours were lead by two impressively knowledgable local guides, Terry and Dean. Assisted by two BSL interpreters, Terry and Dean lead two tours simultaneously in the morning and two more in the afternoon, and were able to answer every question we threw their way. Lots of our members grew up in Croydon and the surrounding areas and were thrilled to be able to have behind the scenes access of such an iconic site. Members told stories of their memories of the airport from when they were children, and about how exciting it was to see the planes. We were informed that lots of people shared this excitedment at the time, with people from all over Croydon foten gathering on the roof of the airport to have some afternoon tea and watch the planes land - often bringing with them celebrities and important people of all kinds!
We learnt so much about historical aviation, such as Amy Johnson’s groundbreaking contribution to the profession, the development of communication at Croydon air tower, and the effects of war on the operations there. Despite it being a rainy day, we enjoyed touring the outside of the building and picturing where air mail would have been loaded onto the planes, and standing in the car park where the planes would have stood. Despite now being a heavily built up industrial and residential area, when it was a working airport it would have been large fields, with planes taking off and landing directly on the grass, instead of concrete runways that we recognise today.
Members were particularly interested to learn about the evolution of the building, about how it merged from two sites into one and became London’s biggest international airport before returning to RAF use during World War Two. We saw original travel agent maps showing how to get from Croydon to India - with over 20 stops along the way! Our imaginations were full with how exciting it must have been to be one of the first people to fly internationally.
“Thank you for arranging for all of us to Croydon Airport. It was really very interesting and we learned something new.”
We got to visit the inside of the control tower - supposedly the first of it’s kind in the world! Before RADAR technology was developed, air traffic managers would communicate with the pilots using flags and lamps, and hopefully the pilot would know where to land!
A hearty lunch was provided by the on site cafe, with members enjoying shepherds pies and delicious sandwiches to fuel them up ready for and afternoon of exploration.
Overall, all our members really loved the tours, and we received lots of messages after the tour expressing their gratitude for the smooth organisation and successful, educational days. We hope to be able to bring more of our Deaf community to this fantastic landmark.