West London Air Terminal

West London Air Terminal
General information
Status	Closed (since 1 January 1974)
Type	Airport terminal
Location	Kensington, London, UK
Opened	6 October 1957

The West London Air Terminal was a check-in facility for British European Airways at Heathrow Airport. It was located on Cromwell Road in Kensington, London and was in operation from 6 October 1957 to 1 January 1974. After passengers checked in their baggage and received their boarding passes, they would travel to Heathrow Airport by coach. One of the drawbacks of using the terminal for checking in was that road traffic could delay the coaches and ultimately delay the departure of the flight.

Heathrow Airport started to gradually replace Croydon Airport as London's main airport from 1946 onwards. Croydon Airport used a location near London Victoria station as its airport terminal but this location was unsuitable for Heathrow Airport so a committee consisting of the airlines, British Railways and London Transport decided to build a new terminal in West London. In the committee's report of 1954, the best site for the terminal was the Cromwell Curve, which was owned by London Transport and provided easy access to Heathrow Airport by road. The terminal was designed to replace the Waterloo Air Terminal. British European Airways (BEA) wanted the terminal ready by September 1957 so a temporary building was erected by Costain Group. The terminal was built in four and a half months, and opened on 6 October 1957.

In the 1960s, a permanent building was built by Holland, Hannen & Cubitts. The architect of this building was Sir John Burnet, Tait and Partners. The new £5 million air terminal was opened by Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh on 6 November 1963. The six floors above the terminal's concourse were occupied by BEA's passenger-handling staff, reservations unit and accountants.

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