The Waterloo Air Terminal was a passenger reception, check-in facility and heliport on the South Bank of the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

in London. It was used by

British European Airways British European Airways (BEA), formally British European Airways Corporation, was a British airline which existed from 1946 until 1974. BEA operated to Europe, North Africa and the Middle East from airports around the United Kingdom. The ...

(BEA) and other European airlines between 1953 and 1957, when it was replaced by the West London Air Terminal. Passengers checked in, were issued with a boarding card, and were transported to either London (now Heathrow) Airport or Northolt Airport using a fleet of coaches.

South Bank

In 1952,

(BEA) announced that it was to build a new London air station to replace the existing premises at

Kensington Kensington is an area of London in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, around west of Central London. The district's commercial heart is Kensington High Street, running on an east–west axis. The north-east is taken up by Kensingt ...

. The three-acre site had been used for the 1951

Festival of Britain The Festival of Britain was a national exhibition and fair that reached millions of visitors throughout the United Kingdom in the summer of 1951. Labour Party cabinet member Herbert Morrison was the prime mover; in 1947 he started with the ...

and was adjacent to

London Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a major central London railway terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connected to a London Undergrou ...

and connected by escalator to Waterloo tube station. The terminal building was created by modifying the festival's Station Gate building. The site was owned by the

London County Council The London County Council (LCC) was the principal local government body for the County of London throughout its existence from 1889 to 1965, and the first London-wide general municipal authority to be directly elected. It covered the area today ...

, and BEA took a five-year lease on it. It was expected that the conversion of the Station Gate building and the preparation of a coach park would cost £90,000.

Operation

The terminal began operation on 19 May 1953, with the first coach leaving for

Heathrow Heathrow Airport , also colloquially known as London Heathrow Airport and named ''London Airport'' until 1966, is the primary and largest international airport serving London, the capital and most populous city of England and the United Kingdo ...

; it was officially opened two days later by

Alan Lennox-Boyd Alan Tindal Lennox-Boyd, 1st Viscount Boyd of Merton, CH, PC, DL (18 November 1904 – 8 March 1983), was a British Conservative politician. Background, education and military service Lennox-Boyd was the son of Alan Walter Lennox-Boyd by h ...

, the Minister of Civil Aviation. The terminal allowed passengers to check in for flights of not only BEA but other European airlines, and was designed to cope with 2,000 passengers per hour. During the first year 900,000 passengers passed through the terminal.

Helicopter service

Before the site was completed, BEA had completed trial flights in 1952 using a Sikorsky S-51 and

Bristol Sycamore The Bristol Type 171 Sycamore is an early helicopter developed and built by the helicopter division of the Bristol Aeroplane Company. The name refers to the seeds of the sycamore tree, ''Acer pseudoplatanus'', which fall with a rotating motion. ...

helicopters to prove that it could be used for helicopter operations. Because of the restriction on single-engined helicopters and the need to fly along the

to reach the site, the service used the larger Westland Whirlwind which was equipped with floats. On 25 July 1955, the S-55s began a regular service from London Airport to the Terminal; the last flight was on 31 May 1956.

Site closure

The London County Council had plans to re-develop the South Bank site, and BEA notified the council that it would hand back the site in 1957 when a new West London Air Terminal was built to replace it. The new terminal was opened on 6 October 1957, and the Waterloo Air Terminal was closed.

References

{{coord, 51.5038, -0.1160, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Airport terminals Heliports in England Aviation in London Former buildings and structures in the London Borough of Lambeth 1953 establishments in England 1957 disestablishments in England Transport infrastructure completed in 1953 Buildings and structures demolished in 1953