The threatened architectural and community heritage of a 3rd Heathrow runway

Heathrow set out its plans for expansion in 2025 ( "Heathrow's plan for longer third runway chosen by government" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0je8nd0x2yo ) and the whole project, which is expected to cost £49bn, includes:-

• the new (3rd) 2.2mile runway, which Heathrow says will increase capacity to 756k flights and 150m passengers p.a. It currently serves about 84m;
• a new terminal called T5X, expanding Terminal 2 and three new satellite terminals. It would close Terminal 3;
• "enhancement" of local rail connections and "improvements" to Heathrow's bus and coach stations; 
• diversion of the M25, which would involve a new road tunnel under the airport and widening the motorway between junctions 14 &15.

Of course its not threatening to build on pristine vacant fields, which would be bad enough - but to demolish, destroy and remove from history many homes, habitats and heritage buildings that form the living history of the local community.

 

Pubs are under threat on many fronts these days, particularly economically - but now also face a danger that is so existential that it will not only destroy them and the jobs they provide but also obliterate the villages that they serve. Places where people meet each other and come together to celebrate life events like marriage, wetting a baby's head, milestone parties, reduce loneliness and isolation and then ultimately hold wakes. All human life is in a pub. These pubs below face being replaced by vast stretches of runway & road asphalt, concrete and building work on a massive scale, driving a coach & horses through the carbon emission targets of the UK Climate Change Act and vastly increasing noise and air pollution for local communities. "Growth won't justify climate damage in airport plans, say (Environmental Audit Committee) MPs" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c62exx578lzo .

 

Some of the following is adapted from the Campaign for Real Ale (CAMRA) member Mike Clarke's articles "The threatened pubs of Heathrow"  https://londondrinker.camra.org.uk/wordpress/index.php/2026/01/26/the-threatened-pubs-of-heathrow-part-one/ and https://londondrinker.camra.org.uk/wordpress/index.php/2026/03/25/the-threatened-pubs-of-heathrow-part-two/ (include photo's); to whom we are indebted.

 

1) The Ostrich Inn, Colnbrook, Bucks/Berks border - slightly north-west of Heathrow’s current northerly runway this half-timbered coaching inn stands on the old Bath Road, one of the busiest routes west out of London until it was superseded by the M4. The old road runs right through the planned airport expansion and has much associated history. Dating from 1106, the Ostrich claims to be England’s 3rd oldest pub, originally called the Hospice but the name became corrupted over the years. The Grade II* listed building has a dark reputation with a legend that in the 17th century, landlord John Jarman murdered over 60 travellers by tipping them through a hinged trapdoor bed into boiling liquid below. Now operated by Shepherd Neame Brewery. The ground floor is a series of atmospheric connecting rooms with fireplaces and low beams. Although already close, aeroplanes will come much closer to the Ostrich under the plans but while the pub itself may be spared, the end of the runway will be just a few hundred metres away and Colnbrook will be all but consumed by the airport perimeter, with airliners passing at low altitude almost directly above the pub.

 

2) The White Horse, Longford, London Borough of Hillingdon - Longford is alongside the planned 3rd runway - 'Heathrow runway change will make our village unliveable' - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cew84pdg2dgo and this pub stands between the existing Terminal 5 and the new runway and its planned terminal buildings in a village that will be erased from the map entirely. There’s no greater contrast between the White Horse and the enormous modern aircraft that are planned to taxi across its site. Such is the scale of the plans, demolishing the village and its pub will be small beer. Just west of Longford, it is proposed that the M25 will be moved a few 100m further west. The Grade II listed White Horse dates back to 1534, although it wears its history lightly, being stuck between motorways and the airport perimeter. Built as a smokehouse for curing meat, it was converted to an inn in 1601 to serve travellers on the Bath Road old coaching route. The bricked-up windows recall the window tax that was in force from 1696 to 1851, it’s whitewashed with a half-timbered façade and low ceilings. Inside there are two snug bars, separated by an open fireplace.   

 

3) Harmondsworth Great Barn, London Borough of Hillingdon  - Slightly under a mile to the north is this other village faced with obliteration - "The village divided by Heathrow Airport expansion" - https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy8xv597kdno . The village centre, gathered around a small green including St. Mary's Church, parts of which date back to 1067 and containing Commonwealth War graves, is remarkably tranquil and unspoilt.  Behind the church is the barn (also known as Manor Farm Barn). Built in the early 15th century by Winchester College, it is the largest timber-framed building in England and is regarded as an outstanding example of medieval carpentry. It was described by the English poet John Betjeman as the "Cathedral of Middlesex" and now owned by English Heritage it may therefore be preserved and potentially relocated, hopefully at the expense of the developers if expansion happens.  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmondsworth_Great_Barn

4) The Five Bells, Harmondsworth - Grade II listed from the 17th century on the village green is very much a locals’ pub, with an extensive seating area outside.  

 

5) The Crown, Harmondsworth - Again Grade II listed from the 17th century on the village green and is unusual in having a frontage built at right angles onto a row of cottages behind.  Inside, it has timber beams and exposed wooden floorboards with a fireplace unusually situated at the corner of the island bar. 

While most of Harmondsworth will be wiped off the face of the earth, it’s unclear whether the centre will be bulldozed or left within metres of the new perimeter because publicly available maps of the proposals lack vital detail.  Adjoining land will however be required for car parks, hotels etc., meaning that Longford and Harmondsworth will be changed forever. Their pubs have a timeless appeal of English ordinariness that’s remarkable so close to London. Even if they’re dismantled brick-by-brick, to where would they be relocated? Where in the new landscape of an expanded Heathrow hinterland would a rebuilt 17th century pub be welcome? Should the bulldozers move in, then this will be a test of how much present-day economic expansion respects the traditions of the past. History is for lessons to be learned. One wonders what the point of listing buildings of architectural importance if its not to ensure their preservation?

 

6) The Plough, Sipson, London Borough of Hillingdon - North of the airport and surprisingly isolated and surrounded by fields.

 

7) King William, Sipson - further south on a mini-roundabout, surrounded by modern development, sits this 16th-century timber-framed building that’s again Grade II listed. Often a planning and recovery venue during the 2007 Camp for Climate Action on Sipson Lane https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Camp_for_Climate_Action#Heathrow_2007 . 

 

8) The Three Magpies, Heathrow, London Borough of Hillingdon -  (https://www.wendytibbitts.info/the-highwayman-s-pub-at-heathrow ) epitomises the development of the airport being the last remaining building from the hamlet of Heathrow that gave the airport its name.  Another of the last surviving pubs on the Bath Road, there’s been a hostelry in the vicinity since the 13th century with the current building being about 300 years old. An old Metropolitan drinking trough in the car park (currently used as a bench in a smoking shelter) emphasises the pub’s long history on this ancient road into London through market gardens. From the outside the pub looks like a defiant survivor against the accumulated development of the last 70 years, sitting among and above a tangle of service roads. The northern runway is only a couple of hundred yards away and it’s almost on top of the entrance to the tunnel into the Heathrow central terminal area. Run by Greene King, unfortunately the pub sits right on the margins of the 3rd runway development area and the Bath Road which would be diverted northwards at exactly this point. Therefore, like the King William, it could easily face the wrecking ball as the airport’s perimeter moves north-westwards, sitting between the northern and 3rd runways. (see also https://www.wendytibbitts.info/the-three-magpies-pub-and-the-pre-olympic-movement ).

 

9) The Pheasant Inn, Harlington, London Borough of Hillingdon, being just north of the Bath Road might just be safe. It must also be unique for having a pheasant-shaped extension with wide wing-like eaves and even a head jutting out above. Another example of the antiquity of the pubs in the area, it’s also Grade II listed with the original building (minus pheasant) dating back to the 18th century.  

10) The White Hart, Harlington - slightly removed from Heathrow’s frenetic activity. Operated by Fullers pub company. Beneath the modern branding is a deceptively historic building, dating back to the 18th century and again also Grade II listed. The pub is decorated with eclectic bric-a-brac.  A Nipper-like ceramic dog positioned next to an old gramophone might be a tribute to the record company, HMV, which had a factory in nearby Hayes.

The pubs in Harlington are likely to be almost directly under the flight path of the new runway, just like:- 

11) The Green Man,  Hatton Cross, London Borough of Hounslow - South-east of the airport this pub is extraordinarily close to the flight path of aircraft making westerly approaches to Heathrow’s southern runway (known as 27L) only a few 100 feet overhead, enough to create downward air vortices that can make lampposts wobble.  When aircraft are taking off in an easterly direction, the largest, like Airbus 380s, pass very low over the pub at full power.  Built in 1640 on the eve of the British Civil War, the Green Man is even older than the pubs to the north of the airport but curiously it is not listed.  Inside it has a genuinely antiquated feel with old wooden beams and watch-your-head doorways and is in effect divided into two separate sections either side of the bar. Run by Greene King. 

12) The Queen's Head, Cranford, London Borough of Hounslow - to the north-east and east of the northern runway and built in 1604 and re-built in the 30's, this pub has been identified by CAMRA as having a nationally important historic pub interior, retaining its wooden beams, fireplaces, solid oak doors and wood panelling and added to their Inventory. Run by Fullers pub company, many photographs of old Cranford adorn the walls.

13) The former Kings Head/Peggy Bedford's, Longford, London Borough of Hillingdon - this former highwayman's haunt is no longer a pub but still a Grade II listed Elizabethan building, on the western edge of the Airport, 450m from the northern runway and on Historic England’s At Risk register. See https://www.wendytibbitts.info/the-highwaymans-hideaway for more.

Mike Clarke's article has a spot-on conclusion that i cannot better:- "despite their age and architectural merits, these airport pubs might have been turned into quaint gastropubs monetising their genuine history were they in more rural areas. Instead, they have the feel of places that primarily serve their local communities. Equal in heritage to ‘chocolate box’ pubs in, say, the Cotswolds, it would be hard to find a tourist in any of them. This is ironic given the second biggest hub of tourist traffic in the world is on their doorstep. That’s a position that building Heathrow’s 3rd runway may overturn but we must be vigilant that this is not at the expense of these hidden treasures of London pubs.".

Further detail of potentially lost architectural and community heritage can be found on https://www.wendytibbitts.info/ , in particular her book "The Vanishing Village" https://www.wendytibbitts.info/the-legacy-lost-to-heathrows-third-runway & blogs "Wending Through History" :- https://www.wendytibbitts.info/tales-from-longford-the-kings-arms ; https://www.wendytibbitts.info/a-legacy-lost-to-heathrows-third-runway:-the-forge ; & https://www.wendytibbitts.info/heathrow-expansion-eighty-years-of-bad-decisions .

THIRD RUNWAY = CLIMATE RUNAWAY.