Heathrow in 1964

[Ian K]

Lovely film from 1964, shame it isn't the same now !

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J_Om7kdR_Pg

[Graham Bell]

Pure nostalgia Ian!I can well recall a roundabout on the Southern Perimeter road at the end of Runway 27L where you could park all day and not be bothered by any officialdom and view to your heart content .
Life and the world was certainly a simpler and safer place then.
Regards-
G.B.

[Anmer]

Life and the world was certainly a simpler and safer place then

Not if you lived in Vietnam.

[IanH]

Yes it really was like that in 1964 - my first year of aircraft spotting 

After the era of the Stratocruiser but saw all those jets in the video.

Although I lived on the 28L/28R approach, used to bike up to Heathrow each weekend to see what was parked that I had missed (occasional PanAm DC-6 in the PAA hangar on Southside and bizjets). Very rarely bothered with Queens Building.

Occasional trips by train to Gatwick. You could spend hours there and not see much action. Remember walking around to the BUA and Morton hangars to see what was lurking there.

A few years later during summer vacation from university I worked for the BAA car parks office doing traffic surveys - counting cars in and out of staff and public car parks. 18 hour days (6am to midnight) but the pay was good! And where better to spot than the Northside car parks