SideTracked - Hatton Cross
(Concorde as close as it gets)

Date: Sunday 21st April 2024
Time: 12:00 until 12:30
Where:Hatton Cross Station, London, TW14 0PR

All are welcome for geochat, trackable deiscovery and swapping.

Hatton Cross is a combined London Underground station and bus station. It is located on the Heathrow branch of the Piccadilly line. It  stands between the Great South West Road (A30) and the Heathrow Airport Southern Perimeter Road. The station serves a large area including Feltham to the south and Bedfont to the west. The station was named after the crossroads of the Great South West Road and Hatton Road.

The station, itself in the borough of Hillingdon, serves a very small residential community in Hatton, which is in the borough of Hounslow. The nearby area is partly within the airport but mainly includes its associated commercial warehousing and light industrial premises. "Hatton Cross" refers to the crossroads on the former coaching road leading south west, and is now applied to the overlying major road intersection immediately south east of the station.

Hatton Cross is also the nearest underground station to the popular plane spotting location of Myrtle Avenue, and for this reason is commonly used by plane spotters travelling to the area.

History

The station opened on 19 July 1975 in the first phase of the extension of the Piccadilly line from Hounslow West to Heathrow Airport and it remained the terminus until Heathrow Central opened on 16 December 1977.

On its opening in 1975, Hatton Cross was one of 279 active stations on the London Underground, the highest ever total; the number of stations in the network has since decreased to 272.

For the new Terminal 4 at the airport, a single track loop was tunnelled from Hatton Cross to Heathrow Central (now called "Heathrow Terminals 2 & 3") with an intermediate new Terminal 4 station, which opened on 12 April 1986. The tube service to the airport then ran clockwise in a one-way loop from Hatton Cross to Terminal 4, on to Terminals 2 & 3, and back to Hatton Cross.

On 7 January 2005, the loop and Terminal 4 station closed and the tube service reverted to its previous two-way running between Hatton Cross and the Terminals 2 & 3 station while tunnels to the new Heathrow Terminal 5 station were under construction; a shuttle bus from Hatton Cross was provided for passengers travelling to and from Terminal 4. Service round the loop restarted on 17 September 2006.

Nearby hidden gem:

Concorde 208 G-BOAB

If aircraft had feelings…. Alpha Bravo would be very unhappy to put it nicely !

While other Concorde aircraft are preserved in specially designed hangars and have become tourist attractions Alpha Bravo the third Concorde to be delivered to British Airways is parked in a disused car park at Heathrow Airport only really visible to departing passengers on Runway 27L.

Following the Paris Crash of F-BTSC in July 2000, Alpha Bravo made its final flight back to Heathrow from New York on August 15th just hours before the types Certificate of Airworthiness was temporarily withdrawn. Alpha Bravo was subsequently not modified along with the other British Airways in 2001 and never returned to service.

Since 2000 then Alpha Bravo has skulked around Heathrow, plans to properly display the Aircraft at Terminal 5  (much like the Concorde at Paris CGG) never materialised.

In 2004 British Airways donated the aircraft to BAA the owners of Heathrow Airport, but it seems that Heathrow have no interest in displaying the aircraft. Rumours of the aircraft’s poor condition and outlandish plans of moves to Dubai or a barge on the Thames or even return the aircraft to flight have come and gone over the past few years, while Alpha Bravo sits unloved in a car park.

Alpha Bravo’s current location is not accessible except for BA Engineering department and can be seen either from the top deck of a bus or from the BA Staff car park (do NOT attempt to enter the car park or photograph here).

About SideTracked Caches

This cache belongs to the SideTracked series. It is not designed to take you to a magical place with a breath taking view. It's a distraction for the weary traveller, but anyone else can go and find it too. More Information can be found at the SideTracked Website