Crumbs, that does take me back. I think our own Uncle T used to work in the Tower - perhaps he recognised some of his pals there?

That drive up to the Terminal, through the tunnel which had orange lights in those days and then emerging to see the tower with its' green glass. Traffic was often terrible getting into the airport. There was no tube yet to the Terminals but loads of busses as BA used to bus you in from their London town terminals. The one on the Cromwell Road is/was a Sainsbury's.

The terminal was indeed much airier then; I recall a central staircase as you left check-in to go up to immigration. I seem to remember a huge old-fashioned wooden propeller being suspended from the ceiling. As unaccompanied minors (UMs) we had to gather at the top of the stairs before being picked up by what I think were called universal aunts who would accompany groups of UMs on their respective flights at the beginning of the school holidays. I believe they helped us with keeping all the paperwork and passports - some airlines would give you a pouch to hang from your neck to keep your passports/tickets etc in. BA had red and white stripes on the ticket wallets and boarding passes so that you could be spotted easily - possibly a lapel badge. Most of us coming direct from school were more or less required to wear school uniform when on the road - no 'mufti' allowed back then!

I was still a small boy in 1968 but being ex-pats we travelled a lot and I remember BOAC and VC-10s very well. When they became BA in 1974 was they year I started at boarding school. Just about everything long haul with BA was out of T3 which connected to T1 by tunnel if you were going on to domestics/Europe.

And yes, those long corridors to the gates. I noticed that they are now all boarded over but back then they were all glass so there was lots to look at. The biggest difference between now and then is that airside was not the mass duty free/retail 'experience' that it is now. Also airline lounges were pretty much non-existent; BOAC/BA might have had something called a Monarch lounge and then something for the Concorde, but turning up 5 hours before the off to have a full meal and skinfull courtesy of the airline was unheard of. Turning up just in time after a traffic jam on the Great West Road was much more like it. It also tended to be quite a bit foggier in those days so quite a lot of hanging around waiting to get going. Stayed in what was the Post House Hotel - I think it's now a Holiday Inn as you turn off the M25 - a couple of times courtesy of BA when flights were delayed.