Imperial echoes
Two glorious examples of Art Deco Moderne face one another in Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1. The site at 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road is occupied by the former Imperial Airways Empire Terminal. It was designed by Albert Lakeman, it was described as the finest air terminal in the world when it opened in June 1939, just three months before World War II began.
By the time peacetime civilian flying could resume after 1945, Imperial Airways had been subsumed into the state-owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Passengers ceased to be conveyed to Croydon Airport or the Southampton Flying Boat terminal, but a dedicated fleet of buses transported them to the new London Airport at Hounslow, which became London Heathrow (LHR) in 1966. Passenger use at the terminal continued under British Airways auspices until November 1980. A Listed Building since 1981, the site has been occupied by the National Audit Office since 1986.
Imperial echoes
Two glorious examples of Art Deco Moderne face one another in Buckingham Palace Road, London SW1. The site at 157-197 Buckingham Palace Road is occupied by the former Imperial Airways Empire Terminal. It was designed by Albert Lakeman, it was described as the finest air terminal in the world when it opened in June 1939, just three months before World War II began.
By the time peacetime civilian flying could resume after 1945, Imperial Airways had been subsumed into the state-owned British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC). Passengers ceased to be conveyed to Croydon Airport or the Southampton Flying Boat terminal, but a dedicated fleet of buses transported them to the new London Airport at Hounslow, which became London Heathrow (LHR) in 1966. Passenger use at the terminal continued under British Airways auspices until November 1980. A Listed Building since 1981, the site has been occupied by the National Audit Office since 1986.