Landing and basing fees at Brooklands and Croyden aerodromes, late 1930s

ThomasP said:

Hey LCharnes,

FWIW If you do not already know this, the Brooklands Aero Clubhouse was built in 1932, funded by Brooklands Aviation Ltd (I think). Maybe there is some information there you can use in your research. There is mention of the 'Air & Airways' magazine having a presence there during the opening. Maybe check out said magazine?

Also, there were a couple of films made at Brooklands in the early-1930s. One was about auto racing, but the other - 'The Kings Cup' - was oriented around said air race and was filmed in 1932 shortly after the Aero Clubhouse was built (released in 1933?). There are supposed to be scenes from inside the Aero Clubhouse.

Also, there was a caricature made of Brooklsnds Aero Club in 1932 - "Our Flying Clubs No. 1 - Brooklands Aero Club" - that mentions the following people:

"Notable members of the club pictured here include the manager, A. Percy Bradley, Ian Stoddart-Barr, Sales Manager, Billy Massey, one of the directors in charge of the repair shop, Capt. H. Duncan Davis, Managing Director, Bob the barman (important!), Ginger Ruutz-Rees, K. Mistinger, S. A Thorne, instructor and acrobatic pilot, Flight Lieut W. E. P. Johnson a prominent exponent of blind flying and the chief instructor, George E. Lowdell"

So there was at least a bar. Assuming they were real people then maybe there are records that could help, left by or about some of them.

Otherwise, I ran across this 1938 floor plan of the Croydon main building. It would seem like there should be a plan of all such airport buildings?

View attachment 791033

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ThomasP said:

I ran across one more possible source here "https://www.elmbridge.gov.uk/sites/default/files/2023-04/Brooklands Conservation Management Plan.pdf". There is mention of a restaurant (quoted below) in the clubhouse but no date is included.

"The former Brooklands Aero Clubhouse, an inter-war building opened in May 1932 on the edge of the Flying Village, to the designs of Graham Dawbarn. Built in the International Modern Style, the symmetrical rendered building consists of a central three-storey tower flanked on its north and south sides with single-storey pavilions. This building became the hub of the social activities for the Brooklands Aero Club and contained a restaurant, lounge, bars, office, watch office and an observation platform."

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Shortround6 said:

Flight magazine archives used to be available on line for free but they stopped that a number of years back. It was supposed to be available to subscribers but there was a problem/delay setting that up and I don't know if it ever got set up.

When free it was searchable (enter word/phrase and year and get relevant results)

some issues seem to be available here

https://archive.org/details/FlightInternationalMagazine1938/1938%20-%200004/

But I don't know how to use the search function.

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Simon Thomas said:

Seems archive.org now has most (all?) Flight up to 1961.
All the 1939 issues are there.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

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Simon Thomas said:

Seems archive.org now has most (all?) Flight up to 1961.
All the 1939 issues are there.

Internet Archive: Digital Library of Free & Borrowable Texts, Movies, Music & Wayback Machine

archive.org

Click to expand...

ThomasP said:

Hey LCharnes,

FWIW If you do not already know this, the Brooklands Aero Clubhouse was built in 1932, funded by Brooklands Aviation Ltd (I think). Maybe there is some information there you can use in your research. There is mention of the 'Air & Airways' magazine having a presence there during the opening. Maybe check out said magazine?

Also, there were a couple of films made at Brooklands in the early-1930s. One was about auto racing, but the other - 'The Kings Cup' - was oriented around said air race and was filmed in 1932 shortly after the Aero Clubhouse was built (released in 1933?). There are supposed to be scenes from inside the Aero Clubhouse.

Also, there was a caricature made of Brooklsnds Aero Club in 1932 - "Our Flying Clubs No. 1 - Brooklands Aero Club" - that mentions the following people:

"Notable members of the club pictured here include the manager, A. Percy Bradley, Ian Stoddart-Barr, Sales Manager, Billy Massey, one of the directors in charge of the repair shop, Capt. H. Duncan Davis, Managing Director, Bob the barman (important!), Ginger Ruutz-Rees, K. Mistinger, S. A Thorne, instructor and acrobatic pilot, Flight Lieut W. E. P. Johnson a prominent exponent of blind flying and the chief instructor, George E. Lowdell"

So there was at least a bar. Assuming they were real people then maybe there are records that could help, left by or about some of them.

Otherwise, I ran across this 1938 floor plan of the Croydon main building. It would seem like there should be a plan of all such airport buildings?

View attachment 791033

Click to expand...

nuuumannn said:

Good luck in your search for what is rather obscure information. You seem to have collared all the nominal search facilities, although it might be worth contacting the Royal Aeronautical Society, which has a historic branch and a library at its Hamilton Place HQ in London:

Royal Aeronautical Society

The Royal Aeronautical Society is the world's only professional membership association dedicated to the aerospace and aviation industry. Visit our site for resources and information for engineers, technicians, aerospace and aviation professionals.

www.aerosociety.com

Nice. It looks like an Air Ministry pattern drawing. I'm not sure who holds these now, but the RAF Museum has a set of them. Possibly the AIR Files in the National Archive at Kew. Here's an interior shot of the area marked Booking and Waiting Hall at Croydon.

View attachment 8193432907 Croydon interior

The exterior of the historic terminal at Croydon today.

View attachment 8193442907 Croydon Tower

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LCharnes said:

I wanted to, but I had only so much time. BTW: RAS wasn't very helpful when I tried to engage them via email.

Thanks for the photos! It's weird that it's so hard to find vintage photos of the terminal interior when exterior shots are fairly common.

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