page_title: History of Heathrow Airport
section_title: 1950s
hierarchical_section_title: History of Heathrow Airport / 1950s
caption_attribution_description: English: Aerial photograph of Heathrow Airport
context_page_description: In its early years what is now Heathrow Airport was the Great West Aerodrome, sometimes known as Heathrow Aerodrome.
context_section_description: Photographs of Heathrow Airport in 1953 or 1954
  Early 1950s: Three more runways completed the hexagram; two runways would always be within 30° of the wind direction.
  October 1950: Revision of the northward extension plan: smaller area; part of Harlington reprieved; much of Harmondsworth to be demolished.
  31 October 1950: BEA Vickers Viking crashes in thick fog.
  7 February 1952: Princess Elizabeth returned to the United Kingdom as Queen Elizabeth II. She arrived on the BOAC Argonaut Atalanta, on an area of the airport now covered by the Brasserie Restaurant of the Heathrow Renaissance Hotel.
  1953: Queen Elizabeth II ceremonially laid the first slab of a new runway that year.
  December 1953: Passenger traffic reached 1 million, with a total of 62,000 flights in the year.
  December 1953: After much protest, the northward extension plan was cancelled.
  1955:  Queen Elizabeth II opened the first permanent passenger terminal, the Europa Building (later known as Terminal 2) as well as the Queens Building. These terminal buildings stood in the central area in the middle of the star pattern of runways and were reached by a twin access tunnel from the Bath Road (A4) passing under Runway 28R/10L .
  1 April 1955: A new 38.8 metres (127 ft) control tower designed by Frederick Gibberd opened to replace the original 1940s tower.
  Late 1950s: BEA Helicopters ran an experimental helicopter service to Heathrow Central from London's South Bank and other destinations. The roof gardens on top of the Queen's Building and Europa Terminal were popular with the public, and above the tunnel there was a ground enclosure from which sight-seeing flights operated.
  1955: The first central terminal building was named Building 1 Europa.
  1956: The second central terminal building (an extension on Building 1) was named Building 2 Britannic.
  1957: The West London Air Terminal, a check-in facility for British European Airways, began operations.
caption: Heathrow Airport, 1955
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