Purley Way By Air (video)

The sports fields opposite the former Croydon Aerodrome on The Purley Way has been my local kite buggying site since 1997. I've made a few videos here before but this is the first captured from the air, so I thought I'd also include a brief history. Don't feel you have to read it but I'd be impressed if you did.

I recommend watching this video in the extended or full screen modes as the buggy and kite look a wee bit too small from up high using the standard sized window. Thanks!



Croydon Aerodrome In 1935 the Wallington and Carshalton Times reported that 'The fame of Croydon Airport is world-wide. When his Majesty ascended to the throne twenty-five years ago, the site occupied by the aerodrome was just a stretch of fields. Now it has become a gateway to the Empire.'

Croydon Aerodrome was opened on the 29 March 1920, replacing two earlier First World War airfields which were in use from 1915 and 1918 to famously repel Zeppelin attacks.

Between the wars, the name of Croydon held the promise of glamour and romance. The reason was the presence of Croydon Airport: the stepping-off point to Europe and the world for those who could afford air travel, the hub of the British Empire's air mail services, and the start or finish of many heroic long-distance flights.

In the mid-1920s, the airport was remodelled. The airfield was extended and a new complex of buildings was constructed on the eastern side of the site, adjoining the Purley Way. These included a new terminal building - the first purpose-designed terminal in the world, opened on 2 May 1928 - the Aerodrome Hotel, and hangars.

Many of the great pioneering aviators of the day came to Croydon. They included Alan Cobham, who flew from Croydon to Capetown and back in 1925-6; Charles Lindbergh, who flew into Croydon in 1927, shortly after completing the first solo trans-Atlantic flight; Bert Hinkler, who made the first flight to Australia (Croydon to Darwin) in 1928; Charles Kingsford-Smith, who beat Hinkler's record in 1929; and many others. In 1930, Amy Johnson flew from Croydon to Australia, the first woman to do so, and later returned to Croydon to a rapturous welcome.

However, Croydon Aerodrome wasn't to last. Technical advances meant that post-war airliners were going to be larger and more numerous, and Croydon, with no room for expansion, was too small to cope with the demand. In 1946, Heathrow was designated as London's airport. Although many felt that Croydon had a role to play as an overflow airport, it had been announced by 1952 that it would close. The last scheduled plane flew out on 30 September 1959.

In the 1960s, the western side of the site (in the London Borough of Sutton) was built up as the Roundshaw housing estate; while the eastern section (in the London Borough of Croydon, around the airport buildings) developed as an industrial estate. Many of the road names adopted recall the airport's history: Mollison Drive, Lindbergh Road, Olley Close, Brabazon Avenue etc to the west; and Imperial Way, Lysander Road, Horatius Way and Hannibal Way to the east. In the 1990s, the former terminal building was refurbished as office units, with the name of Airport House, and in 1997 was marked by a restored De Havilland Heron (the model of aircraft that made the last flight out of the airport) mounted on its forecourt. Airport House now includes a Croydon Airport visitors centre. The Airport Hotel survives as the Forte Posthouse. A war memorial to the dead of the Second World War was unveiled on the Purley Way, close to the airport site, in 1991.

Today part of the former airfields opposite Airport House are used for sport and recreation. I discovered this place by chance back in 1997 and have been buggying there with friends ever since. Croydon council remove the goal posts at the end of football season leaving a wide open space to enjoy. By-laws prohibit kite buggying at Purley Way but not specifically. I have been asked to leave just twice in the last 17 years. I enjoy riding there and hope to continue doing so for many years to come by being good ambassadors, taking our rubbish home, steering clear of the Cricket pitch and giving the public a friendly wave and a wide berth. No one loves Purley Way more than we do.

Many thanks to Tim Holyoake for his aerial footage, which up until then I had only ever seen Purley Way from a kind of two dimensional perspective. It's good to see it from the air.

That was fantastic. The location, the Arial view and the great editing. + the background about the place.
I like the bit where a bird flies through in the opposite direction and the fact those kids were having so much fun. You are a fortunate man.

Well done!

Whoa!! Seriously! Thanks guys. I wasn't expecting such feedback. Credit of course goes to my work colleague Tim Holyoake whose hobby is flying those helicam quadcopter thingys. Unfortunately for me he is moving up to the north of England soon. Thanks again, I really I'm surprised.

Dude! That has got to be one of the best filmed kite buggy videos I've ever seen!!!!!!
Very well composed!

Thanks man!! I really can't believe all the positiveness.