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, se ...

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 a ...

(BEA) and other European airlines between 1953 and 1957, when it was replaced by the

West London Air Terminal The West London Air Terminal was a check-in facility for British European Airways flights from 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 ...

. Passengers checked in, were issued with a boarding card, and were transported to either London Airport or Northolt Airport using a fleet of coaches. British European Airways bus (MLL 740), Showbus 2007

British European Airways bus (MLL 740), Showbus 2007

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 a district in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea in the West End of London, 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 b ...

. 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. Historian Kenneth O. Morgan says the Festival was a "triumphant success" during which people: ...

and was adjacent to

London Waterloo station Waterloo station (), also known as London Waterloo, is a London station group, central London terminus on the National Rail network in the United Kingdom, in the Waterloo, London, Waterloo area of the London Borough of Lambeth. It is connecte ...

and connected by escalator to

Waterloo tube station Waterloo is a London Underground station located beneath Waterloo National Rail station. As of , it is the station on the London Underground, with million users. It is served by four lines: the Bakerloo, Jubilee, Northern and Waterloo & City ...

. The terminal building was created by modifying the festival's Station Gate building. The site was owned by the

London County Council 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 kno ...

, 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 (), called ''London Airport'' until 1966 and now known as London Heathrow , is a major international airport in London, England. It is the largest of the six international airports in the London airport system (the others bei ...

; 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 his ...

, 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 The Sikorsky H-5 (initially designated R-5 and also known as S-48, S-51 and by company designation VS-327Fitzsimons, Bernard, (general editor). ''Illustrated Encyclopedia of 20th Century Weapons and Warfare'' (London: Phoebus, 1978), Volume 20, ...

and

Bristol Sycamore The Bristol Type 171 Sycamore was 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 moti ...

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 Westland or Westlands may refer to: Places *Westlands, an affluent neighbourhood in the city of Nairobi, Kenya * Westlands, Staffordshire, a suburban area and ward in Newcastle-under-Lyme *Westland, a peninsula of the Shetland Mainland near Vaila, ...

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

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